The Meaning of Life Essay 1

Everyone has their own meaning of life that affects and influences all of the decisions that they will make in their life. What each person believes to be the meaning of life can be anything from the pursuit of happiness, whatever they believe happiness to be, to gaining recognition in the eyes of others. The meaning of life can be broken up into 3 sets of goals. You have your major long term goal(s); these are the overall goals such as living a life of happiness or living every day to its fullest or to change the lives of others. These long term goals are made up of smaller short term goals that will help you eventually reach your long term goal(s). These short term goals could be anything, one could be to do one nice thing a day or to graduate from high school and get into a good college. The final goal is the goal for after you are dead. This goal is what you want to happen after you have died, whether it’s to get into heaven or to be remembered after you have died for the things you have accomplished. The final goal is usually entwined with your long term goal, for example if your final goal is to get into heaven, your long term goal might be to strictly follow the rules of the bible.

Like everyone, I also have a set of short term, long term, and final goals that make up my meaning of life. Because I am currently a student, most of my short term goals include graduating from high school with good grades and getting into a good college. While these goals do not represent what I believe to be the meaning of life, they are goals that will help me accomplish what I believe to be a meaningful life. My long term goal is what I would say if someone was to ask me what I believe the meaning of life to be. My long term goal is to make an impact on large groups of people in the world and to change/save their lives. This isn’t done for recognition but instead for the self satisfaction that I would gain from knowing that I have made a difference in the world. I would not consider a small family or a small group (fewer than 1000 people) to give a life meaning. I would consider my long term goal is to affect much larger groups of people (5000 plus).

The meaning of life also includes a final goal. This goal isn’t to be remembered personally by the world, but for the changes I made to be remembered by the world. An example of a change would be to help cure patients of a serious disease, or to have a revolution technology that affects the world. While those are two of the more flashy changes that would be included in a meaningful life, there are also much less glamorous actions that would also help large numbers of people. An example of someone who led an unglamorous but still meaningful life is Alan Turing. He was a mathematician and cryptographer who during WWII creating a number of techniques for breaking German codes. Because of these techniques many lives were saved due to knowledge of German plans and attacks. But in 1952 Turing was convicted of homosexual acts and to undergo hormone therapy, and two years later he committed suicide. Even though he wasn’t remembered among the masses and didn’t lead a glamorous life, he still led a meaningful one due to all of the lives he saved. That’s the kind of actions that make a life meaningful.