Mini life essay

So this is a mini essay about my thoughts in what is life. I'm reading through a self-help/career change book (What colour is your parachute) and this was one of the exercises. I thought I'd share it since I kinda liked how it turned out. Fair warning, I'm not sure if some of it will even make sense, because I was just dumping my thoughts and didn't really curate the text. I felt like just keeping it as my raw honest thoughts so it feels real, an essay that I actually liked to write, and doesn't feel like a college assignment or work report which you are forced to do.

What is life? What’s the purpose of life? That's a great question, and it has no definitive answer. The answer will depend on the person, and many different answers can all be right. I do not know the exact purpose of my life, and I'm fine with that right now. It doesn’t mean that I’m sad or anything, just trying to find myself and who I really am.

I've tried but I don't think I can find that one thing that makes me say "this is my purpose in life". Sure, there are things that definitely make me think "life is good, I'm enjoying this" for example listening to music. But not to the extent of "I live for this thing". So what do I really live for? I don't wanna die and accomplish my goals, and wanna enjoy the little things like my hobbies, I guess. But I don't consider those my purpose either. Purpose is a difficult concept. I think I don't wanna live just because of one purpose. I feel like that's a bad way of thinking. And so, I feel like having smaller "purposes" like enjoying different things or having different goals that make you want to do them, is better than having a grand purpose in life. And so, I’ll move on to the philosophy of life instead. I want to list out and talk about some of the concepts that I find most important/interesting about life.

Beauty: I’m not a massive “art guy”, however I do enjoy beauty. Physical, virtual, spiritual. Any kind. I understand the need of beauty in life. And this goes beyond just peoples’ appearances. Having beautiful scenery or environments, beautiful art pieces to look at, beautiful pieces of media (images, videos) to watch, and finally the one that I can resonate with the most: beautiful music of all kinds. Music is one of my biggest enjoyments in this life. I can’t go a single day without listening to music. It warms my soul, makes me happy, and lifts me up from any situation. I think that Beauty is necessary in life, so that we can enjoy watching, listening, feeling beautiful things.

Beliefs: This is probably unnecessary in comparison to other topics, but I feel like I need to include it. I do not believe in any one God. It is a bit ridiculous to me to think that only one among all the religions in Earth is the right one. I do believe that there could be a higher entity, but its powers probably go beyond our understanding and so any human description of a “God” doesn’t even come close to being accurate, I don’t think we have the capacity to even comprehend it/them. Maybe there really is a “God” as described in a religion in Earth, but I highly doubt it because of what I just explained. I despise religion because of how wrongly it is used in most cases (not going any further, don’t want to cause a religion debate), but part of me also thinks it’s good, because it allows some people to have peace of mind.

Choice: This is what determines our lives. I do not believe in destiny. Every choice we make paves our path. Even the most unfortunate people have choices, we always have choices. Sure, some may have less opportunities, and the world is unfair. Inevitably, the ceiling of possible life accomplishments is different for everyone given different circumstances, however the fact that choices matter and determine our lives remain. It always takes one single choice to change your entire life, but people are afraid of change. Afraid of discomfort and taking action. This is an important thing that I’ve learned and overcome lately, which completely changed my life for the better.

Confusion: Nobody can live without confusion. This is a fundamental part of our lives, especially when growing up towards more important responsibilities/tasks to be done. We are not born with inherent knowledge other than a few primal desires/instincts. And so, it is obvious and absolutely okay to be confused. You should be confused in this life, because there’s so much you don’t know. If you are never confused, that means you are arrogant and think that you know everything. You don’t. We must delve on the confusion and explore it. Why are we confused? What are we confused about? Explore that thing and learn about it. Curiosity is a virtue that not everyone has. There’s many lazy and weak people that will just give up about confusing things, not trying to understand them, and remain ignorant. Even if the information is spoon-fed to them.

Happiness: What is happiness? Something that makes you comfortable, that you like, that you want. The highest state of our satisfaction. A lot of people think happiness is the average traditional life (job, house, partner, kids). Others think about their hobbies. And others think about a successful career/a lot of money. I think they are all true. There is no right nor logical answer, truth is happiness is different for everyone. Different people are happy doing different things. As for me, I don’t have an answer. I’m happy after a work session when I accomplish something or make good progress, I’m happy when enjoying my hobbies, I’m happy when eating something delicious. I try to find joy in everything, looking at it from the bright side and a positive attitude. I’ve also been a positive person, because I think that the attitude you take when doing something changes everything about that activity. Of course, there are also times when it’s impossible to be happy doing something, especially when it’s an inherently bad thing. At those times, I do not force myself into fake happiness, I just try to not be pessimistic so as to not make that activity or situation even more miserable than it is.

Values: This is one of the most important things in our life, and I deeply regret not understanding it sooner. Of course, there are certain basic values that we must adhere to in order to function in society, such as respecting the laws. But I want to focus on our own selves. What values do you impose to yourself because you want to, not just for catering to other people or society systems? What are your values? We must think by ourselves and conclude what things we regard as important and prioritize, never let others dictate or influence your values. What are your goals and objectives? What are you willing to do and sacrifice to accomplish them? You will need values and adhere to them. I have some of my values pretty clear and working towards solidifying others as I walk in this journey. Right now, I really want to improve my life and become successful careerwise, so I put priority, enthusiasm and effort on working towards that and learning things. I prioritize myself, and cut off unnecessary distractions, overcoming the temptations. Of course I am not perfect and sometimes I might break my own values even if slightly, but I try not to go overboard and improve my control.

So, what is life? What’s the purpose? There is no inherent meaning to it. All the concepts I talked about, are concepts that humans made which make logical sense, they are imaginary concepts which we can understand, and they are correct. That’s why I was able to talk about the philosophy of life instead of purpose, using these concepts which I believe in. However, I don’t think there is any inherent meaning and purpose of life. I think that life is what you make it to be. You must put your own meaning and purpose in life. Nobody can tell you “this is the purpose of life” because that is their view and might not align with yours. As I said, there is no definitive answers, but there are multiple correct answers. Life is whatever you want it to be.

What did I conclude from this essay? The only thing I concluded is that this book will not teach me anything new. Everything I've written are thoughts I already had. However, the book is helping me to delve deep into those thoughts, explore that and make it come out. To find my true self. So for that alone, it's been worth it for me so far.