I found myself wondering and planning my life daily. What did I want to be when I grew up. Little did I realize, by most people’s standards I had already grown up. I let a large portion of my life pass me by wondering about life. I wasn’t living, simply wondering, questioning.

I began my financial turnaround before I began my “meaning of life” transformation, but it was because of my finances that I was able to understand that there was a lot of opportunity in the world. I began reading financial blogs and came across an article about goals on http://getrichslowly.org and my motivation was sparked. I created a list of 100 goals and began to notice trends in my desires.

Finding these patterns helped me to realize where my interests were, what I was passionate about. I now had a clear direction of how I could see my life playing out, all the rest was just Stuff to distract me from my destination.

The short answer to your question is this; introspection is an important aspect of self-discovery but if done for too long you will wake up one day realizing the life you have been contemplating has already passed.

I suggest taking a moment, or even a couple of days, and right a list of your goals. I suggest 100 because you have to search deep and think hard, and then find your patterns and begin to pursue your goals. As you do, you will find your fire and the rest will follow.

I am confident that most people never dream of becoming a drug addict or obese. I am also confident that if you were to delve into their motivation for such actions that you would find a hollow and empty person.

The struggles they face are no different than a person who is an impulsive shopper, they know deep inside of them that it is ruining their financial stability but they continue to buy. They are seeking outside rewards in an attempt to gratify something that is missing inside of them. What is missing is happiness and satisfaction and no matter how many cheeseburgers they eat or crackpipes they smoke, they will never fulfill that void inside of them through those actions.

Yes, they ARE seeking happiness and fulfillment through these methods, though they will never truely reach acheive satisfaction, at least in the long term.

It is an interesting conversation, and yes, I do believe this was the beginning of our friendship.

….A fat man with a cheeseburger has achieved just as much as CEO with a million dollar bonus. A crackhead is just as fullfilled getting high in a bathroom stall as a man summiting a mountain. Our own dreams and goals define our lives. When our own personal happiness is life’s true ambition, may we all be crackheads. Then we will all be only a puff away from life’s worth.

I think this is the argument that started our friendship……