what's your mission in life?

[harmonica]

....do you have a goal, other than making $$$/retiring early/etc? ...
...do you think you will have accomplished something to help humanity?
...if you have kids, is your main goal to get them ready for life and mold them into useful, good citizens?

 

[Asclepias]

Your goal in life should be to leave the world a better place than you found it. To be specific...

Plant an oak tree.
Mentor a young adult other than your own.
Destroy racism at every opportunity
Teach Black children their true history.

 

[Natural Citizen]

To pass on my genes.

 

[Asclepias]

To pass on my genes.

Thats an instinct not a goal

 

[Natural Citizen]

Thats an instinct not a goal

Depends on who you're asking, really. It's pretty much a goal for me, an accomplished goal, I'd add, since so many others are screwing up the gene pool.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Ha.

 

[Cecilie1200]

....do you have a goal, other than making $$$/retiring early/etc? ...
...do you think you will have accomplished something to help humanity?
...if you have kids, is your main goal to get them ready for life and mold them into useful, good citizens?

I've talked about this on this message board before. My dad died from a long, slow degenerative condition. The last few years of his life, he was in a nursing home and not able to speak, feed himself, or really move anything but one of his arms effectively.

At his funeral, when the pastor opened the floor for anyone to say something about Dad, a bunch of the nursing home employees who had attended - and nursing home employees don't go to funerals as a rule, because they'd never do anything else - stood one by one and told us essentially what one of them summed up the best: I would come in to work, and be having a really bad day because I fought with my wife, or someone cut me off in traffic, or I was worried about bills. And I would go to Harold's room, and as soon as he saw me, his face would just light up in this big smile. He was always so happy. He never got angry or mean, even when I was giving him treatments that must have hurt him. He took such joy in every little thing in his life. And I would tell myself, "If Harold can be happy in his condition, what right do I have to be unhappy in mine? He changed my life."

At that moment, I decided that if just one person came to my funeral and honestly said, "My life was better because she was in it," I would have had a good and successful life.

 

[harmonica]

how about just enjoying your life? maybe some sex and booze?? or whatever pleases you??...nothing wrong with that, is there?

 

[Cecilie1200]

how about just enjoying your life? maybe some sex and booze?? or whatever pleases you??...nothing wrong with that, is there?

There's nothing wrong with enjoying life per se. As an overarching mission, it leaves a lot to be desired, and usually ends up leaving you with very little happiness at all. While I've known many people whose mission in life was to enjoy themselves and do whatever pleased them, I can honestly say I've never known any of them to be happy people, or people who made anyone else happy by existing. In fact, they've by and large been train wrecks.

It is my experience, and this is borne out by many of the great thinkers of human history, that it is better to have a mission outside of yourself. Enjoyment and happiness are side effects of working toward a mission, not the mission itself.

 

[JOSweetHeart]

God bless you and the guys of Alabama always!!!

Holly

 

[Likkmee]

To watch an asteroid strike directly on capital hill when in full session. THAT would make my life complete

 

[Shawnee_b]

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Meh...live your life the best you can and dont embarrass your family.

 

[MarathonMike]

how about just enjoying your life? maybe some sex and booze?? or whatever pleases you??...nothing wrong with that, is there?

No we all have a life, and it's ours to live how we want. I suppose you could even have a really terrible mission that causes pain and destruction to others, but that also is your choice.

 

[fncceo]

To crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.

 

[Ridgerunner]

 

[harmonica]

how about just enjoying your life? maybe some sex and booze?? or whatever pleases you??...nothing wrong with that, is there?

No we all have a life, and it's ours to live how we want. I suppose you could even have a really terrible mission that causes pain and destruction to others, but that also is your choice.

..yes, some people are not happy and their mission is not to be happy, but to harm others.....why the difference?

 

[my2¢]

My aim in life is to make others happy.

 

[blastoff]

My mission is to eschew the missionary position.