Simple Survival Isn't What Mankind Is Meant For

There is a quote that comes from ancient Greece that I've always really liked. "The unexamined life isn't worth living." Essentially, the one thing that really separates mankind from the remainder of the animals is his ability to think about his life and to make his circumstances and his situation better. The animal kingdom never considers life in those sorts of terms.

But a human merely living for simple pleasures and for plain survival isn't very much different from an animal. That is the reason why the quote is so powerful to me. If you aren't thinking about your life, why you're alive, how to better your present circumstance, and your place in the grand scheme, then you're really missing out. Let's accept it, life is short. Living solely to survive isn't a good long term answer.

If this is where you're at, in a situation where you're just surviving, you really ought to try to find methods of doing more meaningful things with your time. It can be extremely difficult to do, especially in this economy, but it's really essential. Everybody has something they care about or could care about, they just need to discover what that is.

I have personally had to watch two business projects go under, projects I had poured years of my life into, not to mention a lot of investment money. Even now, after multiple disasters, I continue to realize the value of pursuing things you care about. The mess ups were not total losses anyway, they taught me perseverance and persistence.

Doing something you care about is what takes somebody from simple survival to living their life to the limits. If you're too busy or too scared to go after what you care about, you may find that you wake up one morning with the dark feelings of regret regret. Life is short after all and you only get one shot at it. Nobody wants to look back on their days and come to the realization that they should have done more.