I am often accused of being a pessimist and always discard the idea as inexact. People say I am a realist and it is absent still of who I am. Complicated for sure.

One of the most significant ways I see the world is through the eyes of many. Somewhere in the multitudes of perspectives I find what is true. To get to there I will have adopted perspectives not my own, views created by where and with whom I have been, despite my fallible perceptions, and unwound that all to know my signal from noise.

Somewhere at twenty-five I decided the best way to reason about life is to consider I may die tomorrow. We tend not to choose when we leave and if you live with that, as the backdrop of today, the standards by which all is measured are naturally aspirational and every breath filled with gratitude. What am I doing? Why this? Why now? Why these people? What have I missed? What needs to change? So blessed.

Another thing I do is consider my worst-case scenario and fall in love with it. It makes the idea of the train going off the tracks palatable, in fact acceptable and at times desirable. That in turn gives me the confidence to not be held hostage by the current set of people, places or things. There is always an alternative and it reaffirms why I am doing something different in the first place. I could be doing something else, but right now I am doing this.

Needless to say, some find this irritating and highly exhausting.

I embody multiple points of view, but many of them are not my own.

If today is my last, there is no time to waste and nothing to take for granted.

Even if the people, places and things change, I wont lose myself.

Which brings me to the original inspiration for writing. As a people, we do too little to develop our understanding of our self. Somewhere among the many and varied life experiences we expect people to sort out why they are here and what they should be doing with their precious life time. We construct a world that makes it harder to accomplish this than ever – living vicariously through the best moments of others, the modern version of keeping up with the neighbors. If we find ourselves we then struggle to nourish it because nothing has been designed to make that easy.

People striving for clarity, stoking their fire and tapping their passion results in the fruits we perceive as indicative of success. It is in fact perfectly acceptable to have obtained all the people, places and things in the world and still not have any of it come from within. There is a great idea that changing one side of the coin will change the other, like smiling to be happier. Unfortunately, in this case, the evidence does not create the reality. This dysfunction poisons the water. People need to find the reason they are here and do that at all costs and encourage others to do that same.

What would happen if everyone sorted out their purpose and stayed true to that their entire life?

What kind of education system is needed to help this?

What kind of culture is required to support it?