Your
actions do indeed define your ultimate meaning of life. It is how
you engage in them that ultimately gives your life meaning. How
can "living" define the meaning of life? There is a significant
difference between living and surviving. One of the most important
aspects in availing yourself of the meaning of life is understanding
that difference.
Animals
engage in survival. They plod through life breathing, eating, sleeping,
defecating and avoiding danger. Occasionally they also engage in play.
Be sure your human life encompasses far more.
If
you are moving through life as an automaton, simply engaging in activities
you neither enjoy nor feel... If your main preoccupation in executing
your life is avoiding danger in its many forms be it physical threat,
embarrassment, humiliation, emotional or financial loss of standing....
if each day passes with monotonous similarity and represents yet another
mountain you must climb but would prefer not to..... Than you are
surviving and not living.
Stopping
to smell the roses is much more than an old adage, it is a prescription
for understanding how to live. It is about perceiving, comprehending
and feeling what you do and not simply mechanically doing it.
To
live life, you must feel passionately about the things you do. Life
is much too short not to do what you really enjoy. Nor is life a spectator
sport. It is a full contact event requiring your action and participation.
You are part of "Team Humanity" and you need to give it
your all. Do what you love to do (as long as it does not hurt others)
with passion and gusto and you will no doubt do it well.
Learn
to balance your life and share your passion and gusto with others,
in particular, those you care about most. Sharing your life interests
with others will enrich them as well if you believe and feel passionately
about what you do. The act of sharing with others will help you balance
your own existence as well. It will insure that you don't simply engage
in narrow, selfish pursuits to the exclusion of other aspects of your
life and the important people in it. The act of sharing means you
have to reach out, engage and understand the interests of others in
order to involve them in yours as well.
