Funny, but I was having a hard time writing up the answer to the question, “What is a fulfilled life?” Too many answers racing thru my mind that I was unable to pin down what it is that I really wanted to say.
So, to put structure to my thoughts, I decided to google the subject. And this is what Google showed: About 19,400,000 results (0.21 seconds). Even Google had too many answers. Encouraged by all the jumble I saw, l think this is the best way to go about it …
A fulfilled life is literally a life that is fully filled. Questions are:
• What is it that will fully fill life?
• And knowing the “what”, how does one fully fill life with it?
• In the first place, what does “fully fill” mean?
Again, we begin at the end. To fill is to saturate, pack, make something full.
Imagine your stomach as your life. Remember how an empty stomach feels or, on the other hand, how a full stomach feels? Hunger can cause you to feel some discomfort, to lose concentration and, at times, to even get sick. A full stomach generally gives a good feeling. It gives you energy to continue on. A fulfilled life doesn’t feel like an empty stomach. A fulfilled life feels like a full stomach.
Extending this analogy further. Ever experienced overeating and all you can think about is throwing up and getting whatever you ate out of your body? Or, worse, ever experienced eating something that just didn’t go well with your body, you get this stomach ache for hours and you find yourself ending up in the hospital?
Same with life. We may be filling our lives with things that we thought we want or need, only to realize that we should be filling our lives with something else.
I won’t drag this first point any further. Without further ado, here it is. Sam’s first ingredient for a fulfilled life: Know what it is that will make you feel fulfilled.
7 comments:
Great post. A lot of us work ourselves to death thinking that having a lot of possessions or a lot of money, (me included until I watched my dad work himself to death and then he had his first ever holiday and died 6 weeks later). It took the death of my father for me to realise that love and happiness is what made me content.
They say that a person who strives to be rich and then becomes rich spend a lot of time worrying about loosing their money. We need to search in ourselves to what will make us content. If striving to be rich is what makes you happy, then don't let anyone get in your road. Search deep in yourself. It may take some time and a few tries to work out what makes happy, but if you search hard enough you will find the happiness. You may find something that you didn't even know you liked.
SAM keep blogging and telling your story. You have real talent with your blog, because you say what is in your heart. I look forward to reading your "ingredient for a fulfilled life" post.
Spending time with my wife, my son and my family completes my life. Sorry for the long comment.
BM, long comment? No worries! I love comments: long or short, positive or negative (for as long as the negative is said in a positive way) ... on the side, I heard this saying in a training: To build credibility one has to, "Say what you mean and mean what you say, just don't be mean in saying it." Nice 'no? I greatly appreciate your comments and for being very encouraging.
Yes, I believe you. Family can complete one's life -- you pre-empted a forthcoming post of mine! :-)
"Sam's Ingredient to a Fulfilled Life" is a series of posts, so please do bear with me. I put a page up for it as I intend to list down the "ingredients" as they come to mind. Then examples and explanations will be made in and linked to separate posts. I will find a way to make the page interactive so that visitors can put in and recommend their own ingredients. No pressure, but I think I'll be hearing from you about your own ingredients, or even recipe if you will ;-)
Thanks again, BM!
Kraxpelax, thank you for visiting my blog. I was hoping to send you a message privately, but I missed seeing your profile and email when I visited your blogs. I am particularly interested in your philosophy blog and I followed that. I hope this is what you meant by your last line in your comment. If I misunderstood, please feel to get back to me so I can correct the matter.
Thought provoking topic ... wouldn't it be "easier" if we could lead more than one life and try filling each one with different things (or maybe not). Btw I got the same comment word for word on my blog from Kraxpelax and deleted it as spam.
Hahaha! Catz, maybe not. Remember those movies where characters play double or triple lives? I strongly suspect that, in this instance, projecting multiple lives as complex and difficult is accurate.
Thanks for sharing your Kraxpelax experience ... and for reading and commenting in my blog.
A very good analogy about life, its so true that when we feel empty we rush to fill the gaps up but we often don't stop to think about what we are "eating" and end up regretting it later. If only we took the time to think first, then we may find ourselves properly "filled"
Champion, it would be nice if we can think before we act. Sometimes though, time is not on our side. Sometimes, we learn only on hindsight. Whichever way, the important thing is that we are able to learn our lessons, take the good from the bad, and be better after.
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