The meaning to YOUR life - do you have one?

[Uchiha Barles]

Whoa...nice topic.

Well, My meaning of life...I guess in a discussion like this, I have to mention that I'm a spiritual person, and somewhat religious (christianity). I try my best to live within the framework set forth by the concepts found in that spirituality and religion. That framework does allow for a lot different pursuits in life though, which I don't really think any one person can cover.

The way I choose to spend my time is to wake up, train my body (flexibility, strength training, martial arts, jogging), train my mind (music, math/science), make money, and continue to grow the relationships I have. Now, I don't train my body and mind for the sake of training them. I do it because I enjoy to an extremely high degree some of the activities listed there. I love martial arts. LOVE it. For me, it's not about harming another human being. It's about play and competition. Using one's own body to outwit, outmaneuver, and ultimately outplay another person. The joy comes not in the end result for me, but the process. I love the little things, the intricacies that happen in a sparring match, and to a lesser degree, an actual fight.The other things I mentioned are all done to support my martial arts.

For the mental training, I love all the activities listed. For music, it's the end result that matters more than the process. I love having skill on the guitar, not so much practicing (though it is necessary, so I do it). I love having skill at writing and composing music, not so much the process of building it. I also love to listen to the finished products of others (if I deem it 'good'). Ultimately, I want to be able to play the things I hear in my head, and improve the things I hear in my head. For math and science, both the process and the end result are important to me. It's the process of discovery is enjoyable to me, and the end result of discovery is clearer (every so slightly) understanding of the reality I live in. Furthermore, the end results and process feed off each other. Discovery leads to understanding, and understanding to further discovery. This appeals to me.

Relationships in my life are extremely important. I have two kind I care a lot about: Family, and friends. I love both of them, and in fact, I barely differentiate between the two. The only difference, is that I understand that friends are less likely to view me as actual family than family is. These things guide how I treat the important people in my life. Spending time with these people is generally wonderful. Whether we set out to do certain activities together, like snowboarding, dining, training, or simply embark on chill/bullshit sessions, it's always wonderful. Sex is great, but I think I differ a bit from David in this respect. While I don't accept cheating, at all, I can accept not having sex. Sex should only be done with a person you're emotionally intimate with imo, but at the same time, I can take it or leave it. I think I get most of the intimacy I seek, without sex. That might explain it.

Now, making money...well that's simple. Most of everything I described above, requires money. I want to protect and provide for those I care for, myself included. I want all our necessities met, and then some, so that we can live, instead of survive. By "live", I mean pursue those things that bring us joy and fulfillment. That is the role of money for me. My bank account is not my "Scorecard of life." And I don't seek or use it to impress. I use it simply to meet, as much as possible, the needs of those I care for that we can spend our time and energy on the wonderful things in life which aren't necessary to survive.

These are the reasons I bother to wake up in the morning

[Uchiha Barles]

I apologize for the double posting, but my previous post was long, and I felt compelled to reply to Buffalobian's post.

@ Buff:

I feel for you. All my life I've felt the pressure of meeting other people's expectations, but I consider myself lucky in life for one reason: no matter how many voices spoke to me from the outside, my voice was always present, it always had something to say, and it was never drowned out. What I mean by that is that there were times when I had to meet expectations, but I never, ever once forgot what it is I wanted to do, and I never lacked the want to do something.
If you'll hear it, I'd like to give you some advice.

1) Ensure that you have everything set up for a financially secure future. Because of the things you've already done, the path of least resistance to that is to finish up your education and basically do the things you've already mentioned.

2) This one is extremely important. Create the opportunity for you to have a chance to explore things. This means first and foremost, don't take on any more obligations than is absolutely necessary. Not at this point your life. I don't mean your age either, I mean the point you're at emotionally and spiritually. Free up as much of your time as you can, so you can use it to actively pursue things you haven't pursued before.

3) If you manage to do 1 and 2, for each activity you pick, I recommend both looking into the details of the activities, and stepping back, and looking at how these activities fit into the the rest of what you do with your life. The point of this is, you may find joy in the details, or you may find joy in the puzzle, or both.
I'll use music as an example since you play piano. You can likely recognized musical compositions that require a good deal of technical ability to play. You can also probably recognize melodies and harmonies that are particularly beautiful and/or interesting. You can probably recognize compositions that are interestingly complex or cleverly simple. For each of the things I've mentioned, you may even be able to pinpoint just what makes them as I described. This would be looking at the detail.
For stepping back, you'd want to not so much focus on those details, but simply listen. You'd want to almost "let the music run through you". When I do that (and I fully understand that music may not be the way to go for you), I find that the music reminds me of things, of people, and places. The music draws out emotions, sometimes soothing, sometimes energizing, sometimes sending me into contemplation. As a result of doing these things for years with music, I now almost always have a soundtrack in my head that fits the experiences I go through. And almost all music I hear reminds me of experiences I've been through. This is wonderful to me.

Now, that is not to say that every activity can net you this particular enjoyement or fulfillment, or that any activity has certain enjoyment or fulfillment to give you. My hope is, that some activity has some kind of fulfillment and enjoyment for you. Whatever it is, as long as it's something you look forward to experiencing. You might try just hanging out with people, and there are different people to meet and get to know. Might try picking up a sport. Maybe traveling, or learning about our world be it it's people and cultures, it's foods, it's natural beauty or the underlying mechanics of why and how it even exists. Whatever you choose, apply the things I mentioned in step 3. Or at least try to.

Here's to hoping this helps you out. Even if I don't know you, I can't imagine not knowing what makes me tick, and it pains me a bit to hear that another human being doesn't.