This post's topic is my Philosophy of Life, particulary my life. I have to answer these questions:
What is the meaning and purpose of my life?
What are my values and principles?
What are my goals in life: personal? Professional? Academic?
What are the areas of my life that are consistent and inconsistent?
What are my responsibilities (if any): to a supreme being? To humankind? To other individuals? To myself?
Life is a strange thing. It has many twists and turns; you never know where you will end up next. Now, I don't believe in fate or destiny, but I also don't believe in coincidences. I know that can sound a little contradictory but just hear me out. I believe that there is a general path for my life to follow that will lead me to be the best person I can possibly be. This path has many branching points that are based on my choices in life. Based on my decisions, things will be brought in or out of my life in the time that will help me to most grow. So what does it mean to be the best person I can be? I believe I am meant to be a helper, a friend. My purpose is to help any and all people that I come into contact with and to make them a better person. It doesn't always work, but I continue to believe this regardless. I am happy to say that most of the people I know would say they are better for meeting me, if only slightly. And it's hard being a "good" person sometimes. It can be hard because one of the hardest balances to achieve is the balance between looking out for what others want/need and looking out for what I want/need. I can't do a very good job of helping others if I can't take care of myself, now can I? So I have to make sure that ultimately my decisions are in my best interests as well. I strive very hard to be an honest man too. Honesty and integrity are two things you cannot be born with and two things that seem to be very hard to come by in today's world. I think that's a crying shame. If everyone was honest and had integrity, we wouldn't have a lot of the problems we have today. Truth promotes growth. I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt too. It can be really hard to maintain that faith in people, especially after they've caused you hurt and heartache, but it's important to believe in them and their inherent goodness. As long as someone believes in them, there is still a chance that they can become that good person they are meant to be. My biggest goal in life is to always improve and always become better, and to leave this world with a positive impact. This consequently leads to my biggest fear of not doing that. But fear can be useful if you don't let it harm or hinder you. You can use it to boost your defiance of it and achieve in spite of it. On a more personal level, I want to find somebody in my life that will return that love to me. Someone that I can turn to at the end of the day and rest my weary head on. I aspire to find that person and live a fulfilled, happy life of really experiencing love and joy.
On a more professional note, I would like to become a teacher. It's been a dream of mine since I was young. I've always been that classmate who helps everyone, who is asked questions by his peers to explain what the teacher couldn't get across. I enjoy helping people out and teaching them new things. I want to continue doing that and become a teacher, hopefully a high-school English teacher, but I'm not going to close my mind to other possibilities. Becoming a teacher will even help me with my goal of being a life-long learner. I plan to go to school until I receive the highest degree I can, but I will always be looking in new directions for something to learn. There is no way that I could learn everything in my lifetime, so I know there will always be something new and intriguing just around the bend.
One of the biggest struggles in leading such a life is recognizing what I can and cannot change, what is and is not under my control. Who I meet is outside of my control. I don't know who I will run into or why they entered my life. How I treat and interact with these people is something I have control over. I can be the best influence on them I can be and hopefully it will inspire them to lead a better life. My general direction in my life is my choice, but the exact twists and bends are outside of my control. This is why I will always try to make the best out of the situation I am given. I cannot control how other people react, only how I react and what actions I take. You can only control the R, as my mother always tells me.
Living up to these expectations of myself can be rather daunting at times, but it's all a part of being a human being. I don't really believe in a supreme power, more of just a guiding force that pushes all to be the best we can for everyone. I believe I am responsible for my impact on humanity, so I need to make it a positive one. I alone control who I will be and so I alone resolve to make my life for the good of all or for simply the good of my own selfish fulfillment of the moment. I think that if everyone lived for everyone, themselves included though, the world we be better and safer. You read in books all the time that involve the future races united as a whole, except humans. We still fight each other and try to conquer one another. But we can resolve that nature and be better if we strive to live for the betterment of all of us. We are responsible for the actions we take in this life, not some unseen power. We have the power of choice. So let's use it for good, let's use it to truly be the best we can be.
1 comment:
Thank you, Arnold. It's always nice to know my thoughts are appreciated in some form or another :)
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