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I've come to the realization that the world would function perfectly fine without me, and that I'm not important. I'm just a number. If for some reason I wasn't here tomorrow, the world would be just fine. I wouldn't be noted in any history books and in 100 years no one would know who I am, let alone 1,000 years from now.
Should I approach this by making peace with this fact, or by trying to become famous by doing good deeds? I guess I'm a bit sad that my actions won't fundamentally influence the course of human civilization or the universe's continuity.
Actually, I am kind of glad the world can function without me. That means I can spend some time on things that I really want to.
I've come to the realization that the world would function perfectly fine without me, and that I'm not important. I'm just a number. If for some reason I wasn't here tomorrow, the world would be just fine. I wouldn't be noted in any history books and in 100 years no one would know who I am, let alone 1,000 years from now.
Should I approach this by making peace with this fact, or by trying to become famous by doing good deeds? I guess I'm a bit sad that my actions won't fundamentally influence the course of human civilization or the universe's continuity.
Realize you are in the same boat as just about every other human who has been, is, or will be?
I concentrate my efforts on improving myself internally, to meet my own criteria for dignity and self-worth, instead of as a necessary and important resource for society to exploit or adore.
I concentrate my efforts on improving myself internally, to meet my own criteria for dignity and self-worth, instead of as a necessary and important resource for society to exploit or adore.
Exactly. However, jtur88, by improving yourself internally, you have become an important resource for society. I like the advice you share. When are you going to start charging?
I've come to the realization that the world would function perfectly fine without me, and that I'm not important. I'm just a number. If for some reason I wasn't here tomorrow, the world would be just fine. I wouldn't be noted in any history books and in 100 years no one would know who I am, let alone 1,000 years from now.
Should I approach this by making peace with this fact, or by trying to become famous by doing good deeds? I guess I'm a bit sad that my actions won't fundamentally influence the course of human civilization or the universe's continuity.
Make peace with that fact, and you know....just because you aren't famous, it doesn't mean that you're not important. It doesn't mean that you can't make a difference.
When you stop and consider just how many millions of people have lived, and are living on this planet, and then think about how few have ever been mentioned in history books....or will BE mentioned in history books....you'd have a better chance of getting sucked up by a tornado or struck by lightening, than you going down in history. Welcome to "normal".
I've thought about this off and on my whole adult life.
Very few of us will ever change the world in a major way or contribute to the world in a major way. We're never going to get a Nobel Prize or Pulitzer Prize (and even some of those who do -- I'm not always sure they do either!).
But over the course of my life, my life has been changed for the better because of:
Something someone said to me.
Something someone wrote (either to me personally, to someone else and/or in a good book, fiction and nonfiction).
Something someone does or has done: Just for one instance, I know someone who, in older age, held down an important FT job and yet gave all of his free time to tutoring HS kids. Because of him and his work for over 20 years, hundreds of disadvantaged and impoverished HS kids have graduated and done on to colleges -- even Harvard, Yale, Princeton. And I know for a fact that I would not have made it through my childhood without the attention, care, and love of some of my friends' parents. Or what about the non-Jews -- the vast majority of their names not readily known -- who saved hundreds, if not thousands, of Jews from certain death? Some people go to prison for life, somehow shape up, and start making the lives of other prisoners around them better.
Yes, if we think fame and fortune are the only ways to measure your contribution to the world -- the vast majority of us are pretty useless.
But if we measure our life -- and other lives -- in the ways that really count -- I think almost every single one of us are invaluable.
I've never thought of my life as useless -- and I've never thought of anyone else's life as useless either.
Anyone with a shred of empathy and compassion recognizes that the world is a deeply, fundamentally, overwhelmingly unsatisfactory place. Rather than be paralyzed by the size of the job, if we each did what we know to do and are capable of doing, every day, then that very unsatisfactoriness becomes a source of satisfaction for us personally, because it gives meaning to our lives to make the world a better place. To, as Jung said, kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.
The trick is not to care too much or try too hard or to over-think things. All of those errors are the result of either wanting, or thinking you have, some personal significance inherent within yourself. Each of us is, in fact, much less than a zit on the butt of existence ... and once you accept that, it's actually okay. It lifts a great burden off of you -- the burden to always be right, to have to counter everyone and everything that disagrees with you, etc. It frees you to have empathy, compassion, and mercy for yourself and your fellow man, and it paradoxically frees you to make small but important contributions where and when you can. It also frees you, as others have pointed out, for a bit of play and enjoyment.
Even the fact that we are all disposable, fungible commodities is liberating ... it all doesn't count on you, and if you fail, it's not the end of the world. That makes the effort toward betterment no less gratifying in its own right. Also, that truth is a paradox anyway. No one is the Indispensable Man / Woman ... and yet everyone has a unique and therefore indispensable contribution to make. Indispensable in the sense that no one can do it better ... dispensable in the sense that the world is a complex system that is self-healing.
I guess I'm a bit sad that my actions won't fundamentally influence the course of human civilization or the universe's continuity.
A couple of thoughts come to mind:
There is a big difference between "power/control" and "influence". You have no idea how you may influence someone - if you find your own path.
(Last year I received a note from someone who worked for me 15 years ago or so. She said she modeled her management style after me. It was flattering and humbling to hear that.)
You have no idea of the outcome of living your life authentically - what paths you may cross, what joy you may bring, ... At least, not unless you have a crystal ball. (And if you have one, PLEASE let me know.)
Sometimes your life will influence others in ways you cannot imagine. Sometimes people rise up and do the right thing at the right time - governed by their own beliefs, values, passions, and armed with talents and skills they chose to develop .... not what they imagined someone else may value.
How can you contribute to society - based on your internal motivation?
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