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Can Paradoxes Help You Find Life’s Meaning?

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At a bare minimum – a well played paradox can really get your mind working.

Did you ever her something that just made you scratch your head?  You rolled it around inside but never really came to any definite conclusion?  It seemed like no matter how much you tried to figure it out, you came up with a new argument?  You know… a paradox – usually defined as a statement that contradicts itself.  Kind of like:

“Moderation in all things, including moderation.” -Petronius “I know that I know nothing at all.” –Socrates “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” -Everyone

They are such beautiful things!  These are simple statements that really get your mental gears churning.

What if we could use this kind of thinking to help figure out our purpose or passions in life?  To use this funky method of thinking as a way of finding solutions for a tough question in life: what the heck was I put here to do?!

I’d like to introduce you to a little friend of mine – a brainstorming method I’ve come up with and called:

Clearly Paradoxical

It’s not the easiest exercise in ideation you’ll come across.  However, it sure can bring out some gems!

6 Steps to “Clearly Paradoxical” Brainstorming:

  1. State your challenge
  2. List your assumptions / presuppositions
  3. Write down the opposite of your assumptions
  4. Combine your assumptions with their opposites to make a concise paradox
  5. Study the paradox – let it marinate
  6. Apply the paradoxes to your challenge and write your observances

So that’s probably as clear as mud, eh?  Let’s go through a couple of examples of paradoxes that could help.

Paradoxology and Finding Your Life’s Purpose

Step 1: State your challenge: (use this form: “In what ways can I…”)

  • In what ways can I figure out my purpose in life?

Step 2: List assumptions / presuppositions: (aim for about 3 to 5)

  1. It requires a lot of self-reflection
  2. You only have one main purpose in life
  3. You are not instructed on how to find it while growing up

Step 3: Write down the opposites:

  1. It requires little to no self-reflection
  2. You have many purposes in life
  3. Instructions and education on finding it are part of growing up

Step 4: Combine assumptions with their opposites to make a paradox: (this is the tough part)

  1. Finding Purpose through: External Internalization
  2. Finding Purpose through: Focusing Infinite Intentions
  3. Finding Purpose through: Uninstructed Education

Step 5: Study and marinate (just have to do this one – no physical work – all up-top, my friend)

Step 6: Application to your challenge:

  1. Finding Purpose through: External Internalization
    1. How about a pre-Christmas letter asking for feedback and genuine input as a gift this year?
    2. What about some 3rd party / person surveying your friends and family for hints on the “true you?”
    3. How about a central information sharing website?  A place where you can put your profile up and people can come and anonymously rate, grade, and provide feedback on the things you do and enjoy?
  2. Finding Purpose through: Focusing Infinite Intentions
    1. How about finding your top 5 strengths and then filtering all of your future actions through them?
    2. Consolidate your main passions and purpose into a brand-spanking NEW purpose.  A *super-purpose*.  Break the mold and redefine the labels.
    3. Why not just do your top 3 to 5 main passions?  How could you find some way to make them all happen?  Focus is very important, but maybe your passion just needs to warm up the target instead of burning a hole through it?
  3. Finding Purpose through: Uninstructed Education
    1. Why not get parents to keep a journal for their kids and ask the usual “finding purpose” type questions every year.  A pattern will eventually emerge and then the whole family can focus accordingly.
    2. How about mining all social networking data (Facebook posts, tweets, YouTube video likes, LinkedIn connections) to form a picture or idea of your main purpose and direction?
    3. How about people getting to choose 1 day adventures in exploring themselves and possibilities?  Kind of like shadowing someone at the job place, but more focused and related to your interests.

What’s in a Paradox?

Can you see how this REALLY puts a strain on the brain?  We turn around some new and foreign ideas in our heads in order to spark new connections.  You might not get this to work on the 1st time, but it sure does turn up some interesting results.

Download the PDF of the Clearly Paradoxical brainstorming method here.  It’s also available on the “Tools” page.

Clearly, paradoxes are here to make you think.  Think about something purposeful and get going on it!

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Photo by: CarbonNYC