Appreciation is the Key

Happy Friday!

It took four billion years and an unbroken chain of countless lives, from simple bacteria to multicellular beings, through millions of generations, to produce your grandparents and, ultimately, your parents, who created the current embodiment of you. Each of your countless ancestors experienced their own fleeting moment of animated life, then returned to stardust for eternity.

We're living our fleeting moment.

We made no sacrifice to get here, so it's very easy, even natural, to take being alive for granted—big mistake.

The same can be said of having five senses and consciousness, whatever that is. The ability to interact with the world, experience emotions, accrue knowledge, love, care, and bond gives being alive its utterly astounding richness. But these, too, just happened. Being alive with senses and consciousness has to be the greatest gift a universe can bestow.

Nevertheless, in a hundred years, everyone we know and care about will be gone. Someone else will live in our houses and own our stuff. And in a couple of generations more, we'll be pretty much forgotten.

So, in that rather morose but empowering context, two worthy questions: 

1.     What’s important?

2.     How can I make the most of whatever time remains?

The more you think about what's important, the more you realize the importance of things you already have, like family, friends, community, meaning, emotions, creativity, accomplishment, music, nature, learning, and service.

Likewise, a career. Imagine joining a collection of like-minded people to pursue a noble mission you care about. A place where your life can be enriched by interesting and extraordinary people you probably wouldn’t otherwise meet and accomplish meaningful, impactful, and fulfilling things as a team that you could never do on your own—a place with an inherent motivation to encourage progress on your path toward self-actualization.

Many of our most enriching life experiences, meaningful relationships, most significant accomplishments, greatest challenges, and lasting memories are linked to our careers. 

When you see it in that context, you realize a career offers far more than just a means to an end. To unlock the full richness of its value only requires an appreciation for what's truly important. Appreciation is the key, and that seems like a good answer to the second question.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Dave

Feedback and blowback welcome: dave@goodnewsfriday.com

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Written by me, not ChatGPT, with speed assist by Grammarly.