I was at a business seminar a few weeks back in
(I highly recommend Roger’s book “Your Life, Your Legacy”, where among other things he speaks about Purpose and the big question of Why.) Click here to see what he has to offer.
Many of us have at some time thought we were here for a purpose, but have you ever reflected on the odds of you actually being born? I certainly hadn’t. I had some vague notion that my mother and father had sacrificed a lot to put me through a good school and so on, but I had never thought “what are the chances of me being born?”
Think of it this way: just cast your mind back over the last 500 years. (As in, not the entire history of humanity, lets just take a manageable chunk size to begin with). And let’s assume that your ancestors re-produced every 25 years for ease of calculation. And lets also assume that one man mated with one woman to produce one of your ancestors (generally the way things work, my 6 years of med school tells me!)
25 years ago you had 2 ancestors alive: your
50 years ago you had 4 granparents: your
75 years ago you had 8 great-grandparents alive, and so on and so on.
If we continue, 500 years ago you had 1,048,576 ancestors alive and kicking in the world. So did I. So did your best friend.
In total over this period of time, 2,097,150 people lived in order that you be born, just as you are, where you are, in this period of time.
Moreover over the last 500 years, these 2 million people had to survive no less than 8 plagues, literally hundreds of wars, countless earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters, and generally make it to child bearing age in a world where this was not at all a given.
The point is, every individual had to beat huge odds to get to the point of reproducing your ancestor. They had to win every time and not lose once. If just one of these 2 million people had died before they had reproduced, you, just as you are now, would not have been born. You simply wouldn’t exist. 2 million people had to win every time and not lose once, despite wars, plagues, high infant mortality, generally squalid conditions… they survived and here you are. Here I am.
Pretty damn compelling argument for getting over your insecurities and taking the gifts God has given you and making a difference in the world I think!
Here’s to getting over it and on with it!
Cheers,
Jo x
Wow – what an amazing way of looking at life!
Really makes you think that if there has been that much invested in just getting us here, we really owe it to all of those people (and ourselves) to be the best we possibly can be.
This one distinction will likely have more of an impact on me than anything else I have come across in the last few years of personal development.
Thanks Joey. Please keep the post coming.
******
Hi warren… Yes it had the same impact on me. And of course it works both ways. We have an obligation to those who went before as well as those that come after. Get out there and be magical mister!!
Joey x
Dear Joey, I saw on facebook that you had created this and was happy to come check it out. This is wonderful! I feel like I just sat down with you and had a yummi soy latte and an even yummier conversation at a real cool coffee shop with the views of the green hills… Thank you for sharing your thoughts and letting me be with you/them. I really enjoy your style of writing and look forward to coming back and reading/relaxing some more. Love the title of the book!! Well done!! Flabbergasted by “The Improbability of You & Me”. WOW! This one struck me the most for sure and it helped me put a few things in perspective and you know I’ll be quoting you to my clients 🙂 I thank all your ancestors for giving us you! PS: I was just at Burke Williams this evening and thought of you and Kerry… xx
HI Pina,
I am so glad that you found it this way… thats exactly the feel i’m trying to go fo… join me for my morning coffee or a chat over a glass of wine, so glad you liked it! Tell all your friends.
Like I said that way of thinking I can not take credit for … it’ from ROger Hamilton… check out his book Your Life Your Legacy…
His perspective is an encouraging one!
Love to you… can’t wait to see your workshop in novemeber,
J xx