
One day recently while taking a hot shower, I got to thinking:
What is the central point to my life? What do I really want to do with my life? What do I want to be known for? Then I got to thinking that if I didn’t exist, would anyone be worse off? It was a long shower.
Prior to mobile phones and social media bleeding its’ evil way into our daily lives, most of us would have said we have to exist to make enough money to support our families, retire at a decent age and try to enjoy the 10-20 years of retirement most people end up having.
However, many people have forgotten what is really important in life and why they want to exist, which is something I think we ALL need to get back to and remember. We need to forget likes, retweets, selfies, the size of our biceps ( mine are huge for the record), whether the vaccine is killing us or not, the mundane insanity of politics and all the other bullshit that exists in our everyday lives.
So the question is: Can you get back to remembering why you want to exist?
Why do you have to exist?
We all believe we have to exist. If we didn’t exist, the world and society would absolutely crumble and fall apart. While I am clearly being facetious, we all likely believe that someone somewhere needs us. Whether it is a parent or grandparent, a friend, a wife or husband, a child, a coworker, a pet, even a car, someone or something needs us to exist in order to make their lives better.
It is a nice feeling to be wanted and needed but sometimes that means less times for ourselves, which we ALL crave so desperately.
Many years ago, before modern day communication, most humans had to exist to support the growth of the species, as well as to help spread the word of scientific knowledge and the message of religion of the time. Of course in that day and age, most humans weren’t living much past 40 years of age so they did not have a lot of time to figure out much about their existence or why they really wanted to exist. They were just focusing on staying healthy and surviving.
Why do you have to exist? Is it to:
- Support your family financially?
- Support a loved one or friend who is going through a health crisis?
- Have a successful career?
- Advance knowledge of something you have been learning and studying since college?
- Provide strength, laughter, or a sense of adventure to others around you?
That is something only you can answer and I hope whatever it is, it gives you some sort of meaning in life.
For me, I have to exist to support my family and tens of followers on social media who I am sure rely on my wit and dry sense of humor to get through the day. But I do have a full-time career as an accountant that pays the bills to allow me to do what I really want in life – the things that truly give me meaning and make “soul” tick, which I will go into below.
There is nothing wrong with doing what you have to do. Anyone that supports their family or studies hard to learn more about a particular subject should be commended and appreciated for working your ass off to get to that point. I have done it and I know others have to.
However, there is more to life and I will go into that below.
Why do you WANT to exist?
When most people think about why they truly WANT to exist, my guess is most answers involve:
- Being happy
- Seeing your kids and grandkids grow up to be happy and successful people
- Travel to exotic places
- Write a book
- Find a hobby you enjoy doing
- Starting your own business
- Donating time and money to help a charity
- Become a professional hockey player.
Some of the above items require money, as well as more money. But some, like finding a hobby or helping out with charities, do not. They require time, which most people do not have the luxury of until they retire. However, by that time, they may only have ~10 years of time they may be able to physically do some of the things that they want to do.
The point of the question is to think about what REALLY gets you excited? What makes you want to continue being alive? I have to imagine that most people want to do something they will be remembered for (other than procreating), however the problem is most of us do not have the time to focus on that. We are too consumed with daily tasks, work, family, social media, etc. to spend the time thinking about what we can do to support why we WANT to exist.
Yes, I enjoy seeing my kids happy and prosper, but I think that is something we can all agree on gives us purpose and meaning in life. For me, writing a book about my experiences with weed and the related benefits, podcasting about the same topics and blogging are what add on to seeing my kids happy. The message of trying to connect to others in a deeper (ooh baby) and more meaningful way is important to me and I have spent a lot of my own money to try to spread that message.
For you, the reader, I would recommend taking an hour (if you haven’t already) and creating a list of things you would like to do that would truly make you happy.
Take that list and figure out what is achievable and what is not at this point in your life. Can you realistically spend the money to fund your own business or travel to a country you have never been (If there are financial considerations that are preventing you from doing this, talk to a financial advisor or your bank about options to that may be available to you)
Do you really have the time and energy to start writing a blog or even a book? Start in baby steps and see where that takes you. The hardest part is figuring out what you want – the easy part is figuring out what you can realistically do.
I generally hope each of you can find those reasons that make you WANT to exist.
I would love to hear from you so please reach out to me at higherconnectionsnow@gmail.com with any thoughts.