“Who are you? And, what are you doing here?”

I recently heard a story that resonated with me. It was one of those moments when I heard exactly what I needed to hear, at precisely the right moment.

The story goes like this … thousands of years ago there was a man named Akiva. He was a master teacher, a scholar and the kind of person you would go to when you were struggling with the deep mysteries and challenges of life.

One day Akiva was walking to his home. While he was walking he was in deep thought, which you might expect from a master teacher. Since he was in deep thought he failed to take the exit off the path toward his village. Instead, he kept walking in the wrong direction. It wasn’t until he found himself at the gates of a Roman Military fortress that he realized what he had done. He then heard a soldier yelling at him from the top of the gates. The soldier asked, “Who are you? And, what are you doing here?” Akiva needed to buy himself some time so he replied, “what?” The soldier repeated himself asking, “Who are you? And, what are you doing here?”

Akiva replied by asking, “How much do they pay you?” The soldier replied, “Five drachmas a week.” At that point, Akiva said, “I will pay you double that to stand outside the door of my house and ask me those two questions every single day. ‘Who are you? And, what are you doing here?”

The story was a great reminder to me that we need to live our lives from a place of purpose.

Ask yourself those questions again, and again, and again. Who am I? And, what am I doing here?

Create and live your own answers.