Thoreau said “the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation” and what he may have meant was, humans are desperate to survive, quietly perhaps, but desperate nonetheless.
If you want to be excited about getting up in the morning, about doing your day and especially about doing the hard stuff, that you’d rather not do, you have to have a purpose or a “why”. And you have to know your “why”. Without a “why” (and a really good “why”) life is just not fun.
The price we pay is angst, stress, boredom and “what’s it all about” kind of mentality. The world can be a scary place. Circumstances don’t show up the way we expect or want. Entropy (the tendency of things to fall apart) is built-in and without creating and having a “why” Northstar, that can guide us through the ups and downs, life lived as quiet desperation to survive is inevitable.
And so the trick to having a successful, happy and meaningful life is to know your why. Make it up if you have to and then live it.
