Be A Hero: Create Your Life Project
How do you feel when you get up in the morning? Would you like to wake up knowing what your goal is, perhaps something more than merely a goal for the day? Would you like to have a life-long goal to inspire you meet the daily challenges you face, a dream to inspire you to be the hero of a fantastic adventure that claims you as its protagonist? Can you imagine the sort of purpose that makes your eyes shine?
Life Awaits. Will You Choose Action?
Your life stretches ahead of you. It is waiting and only you can create it in the unique and unrepeatable way that will be distinctly yours. This presents a challenge. Will you be passive? Will you simply slide downhill towards the grave in whichever direction presents the least difficulty? Or will you choose to participate, to commit yourself to shaping your life deliberately?
All too often, we start our days with a defensive attitude, trying to avoid problems, reaching for a little instant and temporary gratification, just trying to survive and salve our wounds, calling a little true with the struggle of life. How many times do we say to life “Please leave me alone today!” instead of meeting life’s challenges with courage and enthusiasm? We live for days, months, even years in passive, defensive, empty way. We can escape this limbo by defining a Life Project.
Defining A Life Project
A Life Project, in capital letters, a clear over-arching set of goals that can guide you to truly participate in life and not just suffer as if you were trapped in some sort of pointless fugue. What will you need to create this great Life Project? You need to understand what your deepest needs are. These needs might be hidden. Most people have a way of denying and hiding from things that can be difficult, and recognizing your real needs and realizing that you are not meeting them can be difficult. This realization can further compel you to set out the door and leave your comfort zone to undertake difficult struggles.
If we look across cultures to find the universal wisdom of the ages, we see four important themes arise in our great stories, in our universal myths, in our religions and philosophies from many countries and different eras. Our heroes create. They change the world. Heroes become truly complete adults in the process of their journey. And heroes undertake a quest that helps them define their personal philosophy of life.
First Deep Need: Creativity
The first deep need tells you that you are called to create a life of your own, to satisfy your need for creativity. Even if our personal history repeats the same passages as the millions of people who preceded us — that is to be born, grow, meet, create a couple, a family, work, grow old, die — our personal journey can and must take the best from the past and add something new and better, something that is uniquely ours.
Second Deep Need: Changing The World
Changing the world, improving the society in which you live, this is your second deep need. What are you doing to improve the world? What contribution, small or large, what new and improved brick are you placing in that great construction that is human society? Ask yourself: what can I contribute? What do I want to create to make the world a better place?
Third Deep Need: Becoming Adult
Becoming adults is the third deep human need. We must become mature people. A child merely needs. An adult recognizes the needs of others. We can grow so far from our childhood, focused entirely on our own needs, that we focus above all on giving, not receiving. It is not enough to get a license, to have a job, to be big and strong. As long as you are thinking of receiving more than giving, you remain in a childish state.
Fourth Deep Need: Synthesize A Philosophy
The fourth great human need is to be able to synthesize your notions into a coherent personal philosophy — to create a profound message that you can internalize — a message that can guide your choices in life, a message that you can transmit to others. It sounds difficult, and it is. But everyone has life experience that they can examine, and when they do, principles will arise. Even an old person who has lived a life as a peasant, never read a novel or listened to a poem or a symphony, can create great wisdom by simply examining and deeply living life.
So…what can you do to create your Life Project and realize your greatest and deepest needs? Follow a guide! Search for inspiration in humankind. Choose someone who you believe has successfully created a life project that you feel some kinship with. Do not merely imitate them. Use them for inspiration, an example, a demonstration that we can all rise to this level of energy and commitment, that we can all actively and bravely shape our lives and make them truly our own.
Explore The Art of the Good Life With Rascal
Please join us as we continue on our conceptual journey to the heart of the art of the good life. You can follow our articles here on Medium if you have an account, or simply bookmark our Medium page or follow us on Facebook.
For insight into the struggle between happiness and perfection, check out our article on satisficers vs maximizers and Bruce Lee’s theory of the top dog and the underdog. We’ve also got practical articles covering how you can use Bitcoin for luxury travel and private islands you can explore in Asia. We will tell you how you can add years to your life in our article on the benefits of yoga. We also consider some more abstract topics, like John Maynard Keynes thoughts on the art of life, or non-being and its place at the root of luxury, or the conceptual art color the blackest black, Vantablack. We elaborated on the fascinating “invisible” MCT watch made with Vantablack and the extremely rare Rolex Deep Sea Challenge watch. If you are a gourmet, you might want to check out these fine dining restaurants in Bali that could be contenders for a Michelin star. Enjoy!
