Perhaps the most important issues that can fill your life with true meaning!
Once, when my brother was 18, he entered the room of our house, and proudly told us his mother that one day he decided to become a senator. I do not remember what I said to him, my mother, but most likely it was something like "Good for you, dear," and I did almost not noticed this time because he was too keen a bag of chips or something even.
But that's only for my brother it was not a fleeting desire, for all that he has done the last fifteen years, one way or another had to do with his chosen targets: what to learn, a place to live, with whom to communicate, and even where to spend holidays and weekends.
And now, after a decade and a half of hard work, he became chairman of the city branch of a major political party, and the youngest judge in the state. Well, after a couple of years, he expects the first to be elected senator.
Do not misunderstand me. My brother - a very unusual man. What happened to him, rarely happens to the average person.
And you know why? Because often we simply have no idea what to do with our lives. Even after we graduated from high school or college. Even after we got the job done. Even after the start to earn decent money. Between 18 and 25 years, I changed career aspirations, perhaps, even more frequently than underwear. And even when I finally started his own business, I did not know what I want really. A couple of years to 28.
And the likelihood that you are now - just like I used to, and have no idea what you want from your life great. But it normal. Through such are all adults. "What I want from my life?" "What I really like?" "What I'm good"? I get a bunch of people who are over 40 or even 50, but that did not find an answer to these questions.
Part of the problem - the very concept of the "meaning of life". The idea that each of us has been revealed to the world for the sake of something great, and we will be happy only when it will gain a brilliant destiny. This is the same nedologika enjoyed by people trying to prove to you that your bed is not "Feng Shui", or your lucky number - 34 (but only on Thursdays, or during a full moon).
That's bullshit. And what is the truth? Yes, in that we all exist in this world is certain (but unknown to us) time. And during our lives we do different things. Some of them are important, while others - not very. Important actions fill our life with meaning, and grant us happiness, well away ... we commit them mainly in order to kill time.
And when people ask me, "What do I do with my life?" or "What is the meaning of my life" ?, in fact, they ask, "How do I fill my time to truly important actions»?
And, believe it - far more correct question. Firstly, it is much easier to answer, and secondly, it is not dragging so much emotional and semantic garbage, much as it does the question "about the meaning of life." Because really, whether to reflect on the cosmic significance of your life sitting on the couch all day eating and beer under the chips? It is better to break away from the couch and try to understand what is really important to you.
One of the questions I often come across in e-mail - this is the question which I have just described. People ask me what they should do with their lives, and what is its meaning. And the answer to this question is simply impossible. After all, how do I know that this or that person like? Maybe he will be most happy for knitting sviterochke for seals? Honestly, I have no idea. And in general - who am I to tell them what is important to them and what does not, and how they should act?
But after spending some research, I was able to make a few questions that definitely can help you determine what's really important to you, and how you can fill your life with true meaning.
These issues are in any case not the darkly serious, and they certainly are not the questions on the answer to that depends on your whole life. They may even seem a little crazy. But I made them so because they find the meaning of life should be something easy and fun, not hard work. So.
1. How do you spike your sandwiches with your shit, and whether you add them olives?
Perhaps the most important question. What do you spike your sandwiches with your shit? Do you know why it is so important? Because for all your life you have not reported a small but useful truth:
Every human life - sucks. From time to time.
Perhaps this phrase seemed to you too pessimistic. Perhaps you are now thinking, "From such thoughts only make things worse." But as for me, it is not only not going to harm us. On the contrary, it frees.
To achieve something, you have to sacrifice something. Always. In this world nothing is free, and if there is, then you just have not realized what it paid for. Nothing, including your life, may not be pleasant or encouraging all the time. The question is only one: what efforts and sacrifices are you willing to go? Ultimately, our ability to pursue a dream determines exactly how much we are able to tolerate black bars at the living and the inevitable setbacks.
If you go to become the industry magnate, but any failure takes you out of yourself, it is unlikely you will be able to succeed. If you want to become a professional artist, but are not ready to see how your work is rejected hundreds if not thousands of times, it means that you have failed, not even starting. If you want to become a successful lawyer, but not ready to plow for this 12 hours a day ... Well, I have bad news for you.
meaning zhizniKakie unpleasant circumstances you are willing to endure it? Are you ready to write programs from morning till night? Are you ready to put off thinking about his own family for the next 10 years? Are you willing to endure that will laugh at you again and again, as long as you do not start to get?
So what you're seasoning your sandwich shit? Because eat it will still have - one way or another.
It is better to choose and eat it on their own. With mustard and olives.
2. Take a look at yourself. What in your life today would have to drive at the age of 8 years old in tears?
When he was a child, I wrote stories. I sat for hours in his room and wrote about aliens, superheroes, a great warrior, my friends and family. Not because I wanted to be someone read. And not because I wanted to impress that my parents or teachers. But because I liked it.
But then for some reason I stopped doing it, and I do not even remember why.
Many of us are easy to lose touch with the fact that we enjoyed as a child. The social pressures of adolescence, and even more so - the adult society is extruded from us the passion that we once experienced. Friends, parents and totally strangers vying teach us that something is engaged only if we do something to get this.
That is why only when I was already 20, I remembered how I liked to write. And then, as I liked to build websites (which I did for fun as a teenager), I remembered when already started their own business.
And you know that the most interesting? If I had an 8-year-old asked twenty myself, "Why you do not write?" And I would answer something like, "Because I did not get," or "Because nobody wants it to read" or "Because it can not earn money," then my answer would be not only completely false, but, most likely, would have caused me to tears, child.
3. What attracts you so so much that you forget to eat and go to the toilet?
It happened to all of us so that we fall in love with something so much, but minutes turn into hours and hours in the "Damn, I forgot to have dinner!»
About Isaac Newton, among other things, tell the fact that when he was leaving with his head in his work, his mother had to regularly go to his room and remind him about the food, otherwise it will easily forget about it.
I was about the same with video games. It was hardly my good feature. And, frankly, for many years it did not create for me nothing but problems. Rather than sit and do something useful, such as exam preparation, regular visits to the soul, or communicating with friends, and I spent hours playing.
It was only when I started to play video games occasionally, I realized that this all-consuming passion was not for the games themselves (although I also like). I liked to evolve to become a master at something, and then to become even better. The games themselves - and the graphics and storylines - were, in general, anything, but I could well do without them. Rivalry with others, and even to himself - that's what I needed really.
When I applied this his obsession with self-improvement and competition with them to the online business and become a ... I think it is no exaggeration to say that this was a huge help to me.
For you such obsession can be something else. The desire for effective organization, the ability to go headlong into fantasy worlds, the talent to learn anything or solve technical problems. Whatever it was, you should look for things that are capable of for a long time to hold your attention, and try to determine which stand behind them thought processes. Because you can apply them to something else.
4. How do you get the easiest way to embarrass?
Before you get the opportunity to become a master of something, and start doing something important, you first must necessarily be in this "something" sad sack full, I can not imagine what he was doing. It's pretty obvious. And to understand that you are incompetent in some way, you need some way to get into an awkward situation, and perhaps more than once. And most people tend to avoid it, mostly because it - sucks.
But if you do, instinctively trying to seem wonderful and successful man, will constantly to avoid situations that could potentially put you in an awkward position, your path will never lead you to what is really important.
Yes, everything eventually comes down to the old as the world, the issue of vulnerability.
Right here, right now, there is something, what would you like to do what you dreamed that you came in my dreams, but what you had still not engaged. And, of course, is you have to find a good reason. And you can convince yourself that they do you have to infinity.
But what is that reason? Because if they are based on something like "What will others think?", Then you are cheating yourself. And on the big.
No, of course, there are also quite normal reasons. For example, reasons such as "I can not start a business because for me it is more important to spend time with their children," or "If I play all day in Starcraft, I do not have time to engage in music, and the music and important and useful "- really good.
But if your reasons are similar to: "My parents do not like it," "My friends will laugh at me," or "If I fail, I'll look like an idiot," the likelihood that you're trying to avoid something or what you really like, is very high. It really scares you half to death is what you do "something" like, not what it can supposedly do not like your mom or neighbor.
So remember once and for all to live their lives, trying to avoid embarrassing situations - is like to live it, with his head in the sand.
the meaning of life
Great things in nature are unique and unusual. And in order to achieve them, we often have to go against public opinion. And that's pretty scary.
Take embarrassment and failure. If you feel uncomfortable - then you are on track to achieve something important, something meaningful. And the more some important life decisions scares you, so it is more important to you.
5. How are you going to save the world?
If you recently did not pay much attention to the news, the world around us has got a few problems. And by "a few problems", I mean "around zvizdets, we all end».
You will, of course, may seem strange, but in order to live a happy and peaceful life, we need values beyond our own pleasure or well-being.
So choose for yourself the right problem and forth to save the world! In today's world, the choice is rich as ever. Our crazy educational system, economic problems, domestic violence, mental health problems of the nation, corruption in government ... And this article is completely spoiled my breakfast.
Find a problem that you have something hurts, and start to solve it. Of course, none of us can solve all the world's problems alone. But every contribution, no matter how small, a little bit, but it brings the decision. And you experienced the feeling, the feeling that you're doing the world a better place, it is essential to your happiness and satisfaction.
Yes, I know what you're thinking. "Well, Mark, I also read the nightmarish story and also very angry, but I was not even turned to some decisive action, and even more so in the choice of a new career path».
It is good that you mention it ...
6. If you had to leave every day at my house all day, where would you go and what would be involved?
For many of us the worst enemy - the usual routine. We get used to it. We are distracted from what's really important. Sofa comfortable. Chips delicious. The film is interesting. And the fact that nothing has changed around ...
This is problem. Only is it can not even suspect.
Most people do not even know what a passion - it is the result of your actions, not their cause.
The search of the direction in which the focus is your passion, and that's really important for you - a kind of contact sport, the process of trial and error. After all, how do we know how we feel about this or that occupation until we actually will not take them?
So ask yourself - if someone is under the threat of physical violence made to you every day to leave your house, letting back only for sleep, what would you do then? And no, the option "Surf in the cafe with a laptop, flip through the Internet" is not appropriate. The same thing you could do at home. Imagine that the world does not remain useless websites, no video games, no TV. You must be outside of your house all day from morning to evening, coming back in it only to sleep. Where would you go, and what to do?
Would write for dance lessons? Would join a book club? We went to get another degree? We have invented an entirely new type of irrigation system that can save thousands of lives in the underdeveloped countries? Learn how to embroider a cross?
How would you do with all this time?
If you are interested in such an imaginary situation, take a sheet of paper and a pen, and then select one of the options, and make it a reality. And if it will allow you to get into an awkward situation - the better.
7. If you knew for certain that he would die in a year, how would you do with this knowledge, and how would you like to be remembered?
As a rule, we do not like to talk or think about death. It scares us. But the thought of his own death - is a surprisingly practical activity. And one of the benefits that they give us - the ability to understand that our life is really important and without which it is possible to do.
When I was in college, I often in my free time walking around asking all counter this issue. You can imagine how my so "loved". Most people gave vague answers and boring. A couple of times, when I asked about people drinking, I was drenched with a fountain splashes. But with all of this - people really start to think about their lives and begin to re-evaluate their priorities.
the meaning of life
After all, no one wants to have written on his tombstone, "Here lies Greg. He looked all episodes of Star Trek. Double ».
What will be your legacy? What about you will tell when you're gone? What will be written in your obituary? There will generally be what to write? And if not, what would you want people to read it? And if you know what - start to work on it today.
Again, if you have a bunch of impressionable nafantazirovali crap that can amaze anyone, you are doing something wrong.
When people feel that they have nowhere to go, that their life has no meaning, it is all because they do not know what is important to them, and do not know where to direct their lives.