Who am I?
What is my life purpose?
Life circumstances and the natural aging process are more than often led to these self-reflection moments.
The introspection is the normal psychological episode materialized in highly developed countries where the immense high standard of living is much more than enough to pay for basic primary needs, food, shelter, safely and mating – and where any access is taking up by the life style of consumerism and the lack of personal and deep relationship.
There are nine stages in the Game of Life. The two innings that predominantly give rise these questions are –
- The Puberty
- The Midlife Crisis
The driving force for the first question is the ever changing society, marches toward progress since the dawn of civilization. The continuous changing economy drives the increasing complexity of career choices. Yet, once the commitment is made and with time and resources properly invested, the selection is risked of being obsolete in ten to twenty years time frame.
As for the latter question, it is rooted in the biology of all organic matters – the mission has been genetically coded since the first spark of life powered on billions of years ago.
The advances in technology and medicine and other areas of science have since added more choices to the ever more complex maze of decisions making process. The actual complexity is embroiled in the fact that many of us lost touch with our instinctive mission – the designated assignment has been around since the first day of life and will be valid far into the millennium.
A clear understanding of life purpose is the key to the ultimate success in the Game of Life.
When and how we, the mass, lost touch with purpose?
The story started with the first industrial revolution began in Britain in mid of the 17th century. Two and one-half centuries later, the standard living and longevity around the globe has been raised substantially for the seven billions and counting.
Life expectancy was in between 30 to 40 years on the average across Europe and United States at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Astonishingly in just two and half centuries, the majority of countries have managed to double their citizens’ lifespan at the 21th century marker – the average life expectancy across the globe is 72 years.
As a species, we are living better and longer. Yet, the quality of lives measured in passion fell short in its entirety.
When I was around eight years old, I spent countless hours in the backyard of our home. The acreage ground was mostly shaded by the colossal mango trees. In addition to enjoying the fresh ripped mangos directly from the tree, I took notice the parades of ants marching up and down the tree barks.
The ants’ long-march up always ended at the bottom end of the trees’ trunks, where moving procession disappeared into the ground – I assumed it was their home.
From time to time, I observed an oddity in the evolving march, some of the ants were in possessions of the mammoth hunks of food tightly clung in their jaws, but they are not moving. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that they were dead.
Here is The Engineer’s perspective of one of the dead ant story!
It had been many days since the ant specialized onto the work in servitude of the colony.
On that very last day, the ant woke up in the morning and went on to its assignment. Upon located the prize and ginormous morsel, it ambitiously lifted the winning at 50 times its body weight – and the ant slowly headed for home. Halfway through and in a flash, it died with such lightning speed that the enormous piece of food stayed intact within its jaw – the ant had passionately exhausted its last tick of its precious existence.
Many years have passed and with broader life experiences, only then I came to the realization that I had witnessed nature passionate execution of purpose. With the exceptions in cases of altruism in the general population and the tiny of less than one percent of the geniuses that changed the world, the majority of us do not experience life at this level of passion.
Let’s dissect the lackadaisical conundrum!
As a group we fell into this conundrum in just two and a half centuries. With the birth of the Industrialization Revolution, came the slow but steady decline of the instinctive clout which has been passing down since the millennium.
When the average life span was between 30 to 40 years, the margin of error was too small to accommodate for any non-innate behavior. Instinctively, the majority of the population went into the hyper-drive of cycle of birth, puberty, work, mating and death in the short window of opportunity. The entire short play was executed with such precision and passion – there was not any spare time for what is my life purpose type of distraction.
Noted here that mating is the only act that has the long lasting effect beyond the short life span – many of us did not live around long enough to make any other impact other than procreation.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, the average global life span has steadily risen to 72 years. Three out of life five acts birth, puberty, career, mating and death remained constant respect to time are birth, puberty and death. Although, death comes at much later years, its characteristic remained unchanged.
It is the fast and ever changing working environment and mating ritual that cause the psychological havoc for the population. We will be discussing beginning of the bewilderment of work and mating in the 21st century in the “The Puberty” article.
Regardless of the modern maze of complexity, again it is the mating or the procreation act remained the durable affect beyond the extended life span!
Now, let’s crack the enigma in the purpose inquiry at the beginning of the article. The discussion will split the global population into three demographic groups with the following characteristics –
- Alternative life style or health limitation with respect to procreation
- Empty nesters with half of an average life span remains on the table
- Prematurely deaths prior to procreation
Every single one of us arrived into this world with the built-in aspiration to inject part of our specificity into collective of humanity. The perfected mean to accomplish the endeavor had been biologically hardwired into our biology – the act of procreation is the ultimate play due to its effortlessness, durability and longevity.
In the Game of Life, there are four actors – the Game Changer, the A-Player, the Player and the Spectator.
We are all yearning to be the Game Changer and the A-Player. Time limit, genetic lottery and environment are the determining factors in final state of the individual game. Procreation equalizes the playing field by giving everyone another chance at the play – albeit in another future time interval.
When the last second ticks, everything we have tirelessly invested in the life long effort to create money, title, power begin their depreciation with just only one exception – the genes, expressed and non-expressed, we placed within our children.
Let’s exam the demographic group of people who are living the alternative life style or having health limitation with respect to procreation.
If you belong to this population then your life purpose is creativity – it is simply creation without the “pro”.
An advice from The Engineer – do not take Procreation obligation lightly. Creation is a broader definition of life purpose primarily to address the health limitation cases.
For this small and specific populace, Creation is an option, but the requirement is much more stringent than most of us will ever fathom. The baseline yardstick for validation of the worthiness of the substitute Creation is the birth of a new life. The substitution has to be on the same par in value – essentially, your life long quest has to deliver a Creation on the same level of the Game Changer or at minimum the A-Player in the Game of Life.
Just think of Procreation is required door gift to attend an ultimate party that the Universe is hosting. You can come with the gift of personal Creation – just make sure it is substantial.
Now let’s address the empty nesters that did the nine yards of Procreation with half of an average life span remains on the table.
In the first quarter of the 21st century, the average life span is hovering around the low 70’s around the globe – 100% fold of increase since the 17th century. Most of us will not drop dead after the Procreation assignment in our thirties –the next fifties years is an eternal of time without a mission.
Again, Creation is the answer – unless you are biologically built as a natural genetics spreading machine.
Aging is an inevitable fact of life. It is about making a graceful transition into the next inning of the game and stays engage within rules and the boundary of the inning?
And what is the rules and boundary of the inning.
The rules and boundary is determined by the age of the cohort. As you get older, time becomes the limiting factor. Moreover, youth and vitality is an indispensable biological and psychological everyday commodity – collectively, time, youth and vitality can be used to determine the creativity in the second half of the game.
Creation as we get older can simple mean stay engage and interested.
Dr. Shigeaki Hinohara stayed engage, gave lectures and treated his patients to his last moment in 2015 – signed off at 105 years old.
Ernestine Shepherd is a competitive bodybuilder in her 80’s.
Creation does not mean we have to be the first in the line, the one who is in charge. It is about passionately executing the individual own free will at an endeavor that is larger than self.
Lastly, let’s look at the demographic group whose came into existence and died prematurely prior to procreation.
There are lives whose existence is brief due to birth defects, accidental deaths and natural barriers such as diseases and or hurricanes, flooding and the likes.
It is innate within the mass of humanity to have the desire for comfort and longevity. In the Game of Life, the Game Changer and the A-Player transform the desire into an actionable plan for a passionate execution. They have been successful – the high living standard and longevity around the world are the tangible metrics of the accomplishment.
Early terminated lives are served the natural barrier to the “desire”, and they will manifest as the human species purpose as new challenges injecting into the Game of Life – preparing the game for the new generation of the movers and the shakers.
All lives have a purpose – each life will come, will live and will die as part of the sum of all the existences.
Procreation is the purpose for all life forms, including the human species.
Creation is the human species specific purpose to accommodate our ingenuity. It includes Procreation in the first fifties years for the majority of the population. As for the rest, it includes the new cancer drug, the next big startup, the next generation of space faring vehicles, the boundless compassion act and the best play humanity has yet bring to the table.
So here is the mission for every single one of you out there!
Unless you are a genius who knows exactly what to pursue by the time puberty comes aboard, it should be apparent that the first mission is to build a family and eventually having children in the first half of an average life span.
Here at 1DesignerLife, we are building a framework for everyone ultimate Creation –
- The Money Play
- The Relationship Play
- The Health Play
- The Humanity Play
The corner stone in any successful company around the world is its mission statement. Mediocre and eventual failure is the end result of losing touch with the founding pledge – a successful life requires the same mission statement.
If the mission is perfectly and passionately executed in the first half, the second half in the Game of Life will be filled creativity.
Creativity spawns progress. Life feeds on progress. Without progress, life will wither and drain out of existence.
Let’s play the Game of Life!
