What is life for?
“What is my life for? / What is my purpose of life? / What is the meaning of my life?” is a question many of us ask ourselves or being asked by our kids at some point during our lives.
The meaning of human lives have been profoundly studied and discussed throughout history. We can find many different versions of proposed answers from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. Here I am really not trying to look at it from philosophical, scientific, theological, and metaphysical speculation.
I am trying to answer it as if my kids would ask me one day. We all would like to feel that our lives matter at some levels - like we count and have made some different that we had lived. So some people would chase their dreams in the material world, like be rich and be famous. Some devote their lives in research and study to seek wisdom and knowledge. Some want to make a difference in the world and make it a better place. And as long as we do no harm to others/society, it is really our own choice to fulfill our lives and define our purpose. I hope no matter what my kids choose, they are happy with their choices.
As a mother, I hope they will feel life is
To live life to their full potential and be the best they can be each day. In Ancient Greek, this is called Arete.
To have kindness - be generous. Ciran’s Chinese name 仁 literally means benevolence. To help other to help each other. I personally is aiming to create more opportunities/equality for others.
To seek happiness and flourish and contribute to the well-being and spirit of others on the way of your own journey.
To be righteous and noble. We should be responsible for our actions and words.
To be respectful - The world doesn’t owe you anything nor is anyone else. Respect others and earn respects from others.
To have knowledge and wisdom so you can understand and have the capability to make judgements to avoid harm.
To experience without judgement.
And the purpose could evolved as I found out in my life.
If they ask me what is my life for.
I really would like to bring more equality and opportunities to the world. I want to constantly improve my own life and others by growing to my maximum potential and giving/sharing my experiences with others. And after having them, I feel I am a mother and one important purpose of my life has evolved to be a great mom to my kids, to be the foundation of safe place for them to trust, to provide the guidance as best as I could, and to see them grow .
We will fail many times in life as even though we know our purpose, there are many different missions we can achieve it. And most of the time it is not obvious what missions we should choose. But that is one of the meaning of life. We will fail, but we will learn from our failures - that is how we grow and expand our potentials by accepting, discovering and doing better every time.
