Reason to live! | INFJ Forum

Reason to live!

kyo

kyo

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Oct 7, 2009
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I have often been wondering what different kind of peoples motivations are to live life. When observing my surroundings I can often wonder why people do this and do that. And from my perspective it can often seem like they have no other purpose than to follow their everyday life cycle and that they don't ever stop and think about what life is about. Or maybe I think like this because I don't see the bigger picture around those people. But often I wonder if they just want to enjoy life as long as it last and then it's over or if they actually do have a deeper meaning in their lifes.

I come from a christian upbringing, believing what I have been taught and many of my viewpoints has deep connections to my faith. This way I think there is a purpose with life and can go on with my life trying to follow that path.

So I wonder what you think about this. Do you ever think like this and do you think life has a purpose? If it wasn't for my christian faith, I would think life was meaningless and I wouldn't know what to do. But many don't have that and they still seem to have some sort of purpose, but I dont quite understand them.

Enlighten me please :)
 
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To me, these are questions I can merely speculate on, so my guess is as good as yours, and the answers you'll get from everyone will most likely be as varied as humanity itself. But I'll give it a shot.

I'm not a very spiritual person and if I understand correctly you're asking what drives people whose belief system is not based on a religion.
I think what ultimately makes me get up in the morning and carry on with life is the desire to understand the world, as stupid as that sounds. What drives me is to find the answers to the questions you're asking, which is also why I'm at a loss of words right now for I have not found the answers yet and I don't know if I ever will.

Now I'm as interested in your side as you seem to be in mine and I'm eager to learn. If you don't mind my asking: In what ways do your Christian beliefs guide you through life and provide a purpose for you?
 
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I have to use this picture yet again.
Everyone thinks about the meaning of life, maybe they already have found theirs.
 
I have wittnessed the death of loved ones in my family and friends, some died from medical conditions, others died from commiting suicide. My reason to stay alive, is for them.

Live the life that they couldn't live and make them proud by being the best I can be, even though its a personal everyday battle. Sometimes when I feel like throwing in the towel I visit the graveyard, and walk amongst those that are forgotten. When I see a broken grave I put it back together again, I tell them even though there are people that don't give a damn, I do.
It gives me another reason to push on.

Life is though but I'm not afraid of death anymore.
I intend to give life a damn good run for its money and face every challenge that meets me head on.

Even though I am a Christian, I don't really base my desire to live on the bible.
I choose to live my life out of respect for god and use the talents that god has given me for the benefit of others.
 
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When I think of a woman who managed to live 100 years I come to think to myself that she must have seen some amazing things and some amazing changes in the world. And I want to be that woman, to be able to look behind me and say that I did something meaningful, that I've been the part of an interesting and complicated world and that no matter how small my contribution to it was, it was meaningful and in a way everlasting.

As a part of a creative writing I used to write my own obituary and obituaries of some people who I love (although they have never seen what I wrote), and there are so many things that can happen in a life time, good and bad and I want to live them fully. Writing your own obituary, although it sounds morbid, can make you think of the things you wish for yourself which weren't so obvious to you before it, and can actually make you want to live even more, harder and more profound.
 
curiosity and exploration

life has no meaning, things just happen, things just exist
there's no beginning and end to the universe
life and death are just the same physical process, nothing sacred about it
they are blurred, not separated
the way we think about lots of reality is defined by culture which is defined by randomness
people assume a lot of purpose in reality, beginnings and ends, for example, because of "days" and "nights"
if there were 4 suns to light us from everywhere, we would have created a very different culture
we wouldn't imagine "good" and "evil" everywhere, we wouldn't divide reality into purpose and no purpose, success and failure
"light" and "dark" side
nobody laughs "last" in history, nobody wins, no one has achieved anything
everybody is eventually forgotten, and only their work remains, in some form

while my brain still finds interesting things, it will process them :)
 
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The meaning is where you find it. I have found most meaning in those moments where I have felt that I made some kind of positive difference to other living creatures - people or otherwise. There is also meaning in just being - in living through the life cycle, or as much of it as circumstances permit, and there is meaning in beauty, wherever it is found.
 
I see life as a blank canvas, ready to paint on.
Everyone has there own idea on what they want to paint and how they want to paint it.
The finished painting has a different meaning to the eyes that look upon it.

Life is simply amazing and is a work of art that no human can master.
 
Atara said:
To me, these are questions I can merely speculate on, so my guess is as good as yours, and the answers you'll get from everyone will most likely be as varied as humanity itself. But I'll give it a shot.

I'm not a very spiritual person and if I understand correctly you're asking what drives people whose belief system is not based on a religion.
I think what ultimately makes me get up in the morning and carry on with life is the desire to understand the world, as stupid as that sounds. What drives me is to find the answers to the questions you're asking, which is also why I'm at a loss of words right now for I have not found the answers yet and I don't know if I ever will.

Now I'm as interested in your side as you seem to be in mine and I'm eager to learn. If you don't mind my asking: In what ways do your Christian beliefs guide you through life and provide a purpose for you?
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Yes, that is what I was asking, although I might not have expressed it that clearly :)

As for your question, I do find some purpose in my faith. But that is not making it an easy path to follow. I believe my purpose in life is to follow Jesus and reflect his love. I try to do this, knowing that the end of this life is not the end. There is something more :)
I don't have a specific purpose like working a specific job and that I should do this and that. Actually, that is something that is bothering me because I am kind of stagnating in my life currently. Probably its because I don't prioritize my work career. But in this life, I believe I should be good to other people and helping them where I can. Being good friends to everyone. Thats what I think its about.
If it wasn't for my faith in God I wouldn't see a reason to act like this. Then I could be a total jerk doing whatever pleased my. I wouldn't see any consequences and therefore no reasoning other than pleasing myself. This is also why I wonder if people ever feel empty or they refuse to think about it because its too big of a question. I have an idea that many are so busy they never get to think about this. But I don't know about that :)

Hope that explains something for you :)
 
kyo said:
So I wonder what you think about this. Do you ever think like this and do you think life has a purpose? If it wasn't for my christian faith, I would think life was meaningless and I wouldn't know what to do. But many don't have that and they still seem to have some sort of purpose, but I dont quite understand them.

Enlighten me please :)
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haha :) :) I have been constantly thinking about that too ahahahah and I'm also very spiritual I'm a Catholic Christian so.. because of my christian faith too, I find meaning to life(it guides me)

but often times, I get tired of life

but...since I'm still young, I am still very curious what would happen to me :)

oh and I am also aiming my dreams ... and if I reach it <---- although I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT TO REACH IT...... AND I DO MY BEST TO REACH IT.......... if ever I reach my dreams and I have what I want, I can do what I want to do, I wonder if I would still be this excited and would find meaning :(
 
Sometimes I think I'm alive just to be different. Not in a bad way, sort of I'm here to be the exception to the rule to get others doing something. I'm not pompous enough to think that I am personally enlightening anyone, or that I'm doing things better, just that I'm here to show being different is a working possibility for life.

I like to spend my time enriching my mind, my goal is to understand, and sometimes get others to understand something with me. Learning is very important to me, as is trying to do your best.

You can never know anything, so I hope I learn how to live forever soon.
 
It chops and changes, and I sometimes have bouts of a few days where I have no motivation or drive at all and have an empty inane feeling in my stomach.

However those are rare, and increasingly I have found that I naturally respond most effectively and positively to the feeling that my reason for living is to do whatever I am doing at the present or in the time frame of one particular day to the best of my ability and do it well. I suppose another way of wording that would be 'stopping and smelling the roses' - but REALLY smelling them - which echoes Jester's pic posted above.

Naturally the drive to maintain good relationships with friends and the happiness and well being of loved ones is a reason and a motivation for continuing too.
 
There are two types of people. Those that can motivate themselves and have a strong inner drive and those that need a little pushing. I think trying to understand life and finding the best way to live it is a personal journey everyone takes but that in itself is a hard road to follow. It requires courage, strong will, awareness and most of all seeing goodness in all things that life throws at you.

I think people can get lost in life when they disassociate themselves from their true being and follow a path that was not meant for them and eventually lose hope in regaining their proper path and reside to a life of mundane activity and routine. This breeds unhappiness as well as complacency.

its easy to say "just follow your heart and do as you wish", but its never that easy because the life we are meant to live does not come easy.
 
Norton said:
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
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I just bought that book last night, can't wait to read it.

My personal reason for living is the struggle to attain full comprehension.

One part of that is to find what drives every human, to find the common ground we all share. What is that common ground? Limited comprehension!

Seems so simple, yet for everyone it seems so hard to comprehend.
 
solongotgon said:
There are two types of people. Those that can motivate themselves and have a strong inner drive and those that need a little pushing.
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Question:

Those that can motivate themselves to do what?
 
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Right now I can't see the bigger picture, I'm just trying to swim and not sink. I have two kids to live for, beyond that for me, right now, everything and any other reason is irrelevant.
 
NeverAmI said:
My personal reason for living is the struggle to attain full comprehension.
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^^Typical of INTP's with self knowledge.

Regarding the OP, another thing comes to mind, experimentation. Try doing different things in life and find out which things give you the best sense of self, i.e., things that make you feel alive, satisfied, fulfilled, and "this is what I was meant to do!" One might argue that this is best done when young, but I think it can, and should, be done throughout one's life, even in old age. For example, I just recently discovered that donating platelets (used to treat leukemia, anemia, etc.), which I do about once a month, makes me happy. It's just one more thing I've discovered that gives my life meaning.
 
NeverAmI said:
Question:

Those that can motivate themselves to do what?
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To kick ass. :D (i expect) For the pacifists at heart - tough luck.
 
enfp can be shy said:
To kick ass. :D (i expect) For the pacifists at heart - tough luck.
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Kicking ass at a slow game of chess can be plenty tame enough for a pacifist. :p
Just have to stay awake.
 
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