Reddit, help me. What do you think one's aim in life should be, in the context of our current society. i.e. Max achievement vs. Max free-time vs. Max friendship/love/passion, etc.
Reddit, I am 24 years old and at a crossroads in life and really need some opinions. This is something that I have personally been grappling with for a while and I can't seem to find an answer to it. I have heard numerous theories out there regarding how people feel their very limited time on earth should be spent, in the context of our current corporate-organization dominated way of life. I'll throw a few out there that I've heard and considered.
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Labor is selling your finite time to someone else, who makes more money from it than what they pay you. It is giving up your free time to someone else for pennies on the dollar. So one's goal in life should be to attempt to maximize free time, and spend as little time performing labor as one can. Achievement does not matter because all achievements are rendered null and void with death. All that is important is that you kept your time to yourself and did the things that you wanted to do. This is perhaps, the "stoner", "drifter" or "bum." Perhaps the person who owns a little mom and pop shop and scrapes by on $25k a year.
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Achievement oriented. In this case, what defines your life is what you did with it. Someone such as an astronaut for NASA could be considered as having lived a very fulfilling life, because they achieved. Hence, perhaps one's purpose is to aim for doing great things, even if it involves laboring so much that one enjoys fewer relaxing, fulfilling "free" moments in life than person #1 did.
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To surround yourself with those that care about you. Place friendship and love above all other notions of work and achievement. Structure your life around those that you care for, and worry very little about work and achievement.
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Just to live insanely passionately. This one speaks for itself. This one is very much the artist, the author, perhaps even the activist. Find what drives you to live passionately, and care about those things a whole lot. Worry very little about work and achievement. Place friends and loved ones below your passions.
What do you think of these profiles? Where do you fit in amongst them? Are you achievement oriented, free-time oriented, friendship oriented, or passion oriented? Please note that I did not really get this idea from any source, but rather have been struggling with finding my own meaning in life, and how I should live it. (What I mean is I made up those lifestyle types).
Any perspective would be greatly appreciated.
Posted Mar 24, 2012, 9:45 PM UTC