We often hear the phrase “live to the fullest” but either pay no attention to it or struggle to put it into action. In fact, many people don’t even know what “fullest” entails. Is it chasing wealth, and living more luxuriously? Is it about achieving fame and status? Or is there something more to it, and if so, what? To me, it is neither exclusively nor even mainly about these things, for that would be too narrow a view of life. A purposeful life, to me, is about living broadly or expansively, well beyond the confines of the self. We do this by enlarging our spirit and uplifting others, and by enlarging our mind and uplifting ourselves. In my own pursuit of the purposeful life, I’ve been helped by the counsel of many luminous souls, both past and present, people of uncommon wisdom, who took the paths less travelled and as result, as Robert Frost puts it, it made all the difference.  Here are some quotes that I particularly treasure.

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“Look around you. How many people do you think are settling? Probably a lot. They settle into okay relationships, okay jobs, okay friends, and an okay life. Why? Because okay is comfortable. Okay pays the bills and provides a warm bed at night. Some people are fine with okay. That’s okay. But okay is not thrilling, it isn’t passion, it’s not life-changing or unforgettable.”

~ Anonymous

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”

~ Rumi, Persian mystic and poet

There is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life: to improve ourselves and contribute to the happiness of others.

~ Mary Shelley, British novelist

“I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke, poet

I would love to live
Like a river flows,
Carried by the surprise
Of its own unfolding.

~ From the poem, ‘Fluent’ by John O’Donohue, Irish poet.

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.”

~ Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist, 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics

“People grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”

~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature

“When I ask myself who are the happiest people on the planet, my answer is: those who cannot wait to wake up in the morning to get back to what they were doing the day before.”

~ James Cronin, 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics

“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.”

~ Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician

Take your busy heart to the art museum
and the chamber of commerce
but take it also to the forest.
The song you heard singing
in the leaf when you were a child
is singing still.
I am of years lived, so far,
seventy-four, and the leaf
is singing still.

~ From ‘What can I say?’ by Mary Oliver (Poet, 1984 Pulitzer Prize)

So there you are: keys that open the doors to an expansive life, one filled with joy and meaning. There is the “soul key” to transcend the preoccupations of the material world, the “passion key” to do what fills our heart and soul with delight, and the “curiosity key” to nurture a lifetime of wonder “into the mystery into which we were born” as Einstein puts it so well. Any one of these keys can uplift us and others. Now imagine what all the three keys can do to transform and enrich our lives.