DISCUSSION AND KEY POINTS
THE PURPOSE, THE END GOAL
Attaining the purpose of your life (deep, enduring happiness) is the end all and be all. Everything else must lead to that. (To understand this better read the sequence on "value" in life, starting at
WHO'S IN CHARGE?
Our top role in life is to be the CEO of our lives, responsible for producing deep, enduring happiness. See the definition in the sidebar.
Those people who do not choose to manage their lives will have the choice made for them, by other people and circumstances - and they will not do well (or at least not 1/100th as well as one would do if one took full responsibility for causing one's life!
RELATIVE VALUES
It is up fo you to determine the relative value to you of each of your roles, but this is the way I see it.
Your end goal is not "to contribute to the world" (that may be a "means goal" but not an end goal, as it can lead to your ultimate end goal or, if not in balance, it can get in the way of meeting the ultimate end goal).
It is not "to look good" or "to be approved of". While those are "means goals", they are often self destructive and are misleading.
To get approval from anybody beyond who can affect your life significantly is worth a fraction of a value point, which is, relative to the above value, virtually the equivalent of zero. Yet, many people often run their lives based on this zero value endeavor, which often will cause them damage and will definitely displace what else we could do that will produce a high value. (See, and set it up to do this in your life plan, The Highest Value Activities In Life - Havesting The Golden Eggs And Enabling The Golden Goose.)
Achievement (or its symbolic seeking of lots of money), beyond what will produce what one really needs for happiness, is a tunnel one runs down looking for cheese but instead missing out on what is more valuable in life. People will often engage in "mindless" achievement in order to get approval or praise, including dramatically overdone contributions to society and others such that they harm their most important valued areas (emotional well-being, key relationship well-being). These people are trading off what is of the highest value for a few pennies of value plus they are also harming themselves such that the tradeoffs are outright foolish!
THE ONLY PATH THAT WORKS
Although blatantly obvious, if one thinks about it, the only path that works to get a great life must lead through the path of learning and gaining wisdom and effectiveness in life. How else, except by false hope and dependency, can one expect to obtain the end objective of life.
With no "means" to get to the "end goals", how can one possibly get there!
Yet people expect this to take care of itself, passively, just in living life.
The latter of course is preposterous, but so common. See the sidebar for pieces you should read to establish the falseness of the fairy tales people tell themselves,
WHAT TO DO NEXT
Obviously, to get to your goals in life, one must do planning. So one should set up a time to begin one's life plan.
