Chad Silverstein reflects on Rabbi Twersky's goldfish story: people swim through routines without purpose and later regret it. He argues you need to define what you're working toward, remember your actions are recorded, and change course if you're not serving something bigger or doing what you love.
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Have you ever had someone tell you something or you heard them say something that just made you stop in your tracks and think about it and have it blow your mind? So I recently had one of those when I was listening to Rabbi Twersky online. I love this guy. He just brings incredible insights and nuances. And he was talking about times where he'd walk into an office and he would see a fish tank and he would see these goldfish and he would stare at the goldfish and he would watch them swimming back and forth all day long. And when he left the office, the fish were still swimming back and forth all day long. And as he was watching it, he said that he couldn't help but think that who's standing above us, watching us go back and forth all day long, running from place to place like we do, and thinking that what we're doing is the most important thing in the world. You know, if you can get into a goldfish's mind and you could hear a goldfish say that they think that they're doing the most important thing in the world by swimming back and forth in a fish tank, and you laugh at that, yet we do it almost every single day. And so being able to figure out what your purpose is in this world, to make sure that what you are doing has an impact on whatever it is or whoever it is that you're working with, it's pretty important so that you don't end up just swimming back and forth day by day. And the next thing you know, you look back at your life and wonder, where did the time go and what was I doing? And have a life full of regret because you didn't do the hard work to not only work on yourself, but to figure out what it is that you're aiming at and having a defining statement for your life, whether that be for your work life or your personal life, and really it should be for both, is pretty important because as one of my close friends told me a long time ago, the recorder is never not running. Everything you say and everything you do is being captured somehow, some way. Today, with technology, it might be a camera on the corner. And if you believe in a higher power, well, then you can be sure everything's being recorded anyways. And if one day you're shown what that looks like, are you going to feel good that you are swimming back and forth with purpose, or are you going to regret and wish you could do it all over again, realizing that you've wasted time and it's a good wake up call. It's a good reminder. And you should always ask yourself if you are serving a greater purpose. And if you're doing what you love, and if not, then you have to do something about it.
