My Life’s Task
I believe that every person has a life’s task, a soul mission in their life. I believe it is individualized and that each person is different. One person’s life task may be raising a family, another person’s task could be saving lives as a doctor, or creating their art for the world to experience and enjoy. Regardless of what a person’s life task is, it is vital for themselves and for the world that they accomplish it.
I don’t know what happens after death. The cosmos are far too magnificent and grand for a tiny human brain like mine to even begin to comprehend. But I know in my gut that there’s something I’m supposed to do here. I can feel it. I’ve always felt it. And I know that the periods of peace and satisfaction that I’ve had during my life have happened when I have been moving towards completing my life’s task.
I’ve heard stories of people dying well, completely at peace and content with their life. I believe those people accomplished their life’s task and were able to leave this world with a clear conscience, feeling good about the time they spent here. My great grandmother on my dad’s side passed from this world very peacefully. She was a true cowgirl. She rode horses as soon as she could walk until well into her 80’s. She ran a ranch the size of some state counties and she lived long enough to see her family grow 4 generations. She had many difficult seasons in her life, losing two husbands and one child, but she always retained her optimism and zeal for life. I saw her right before she died and I could tell, she was content with her life, and ready to go.
I’ve also heard stories of people dying full of regret and misery. My mom’s dad was a violent and abusive alcoholic, whose alcoholism killed him at the age of 50. My mom told me about seeing his face right before he died, and she told me it was the saddest and most painful thing she has ever seen in her life. He did not pass from this world peacefully, and his death was not pleasant.
My primary life goal, and how I gauge “success” is whether I will feel at peace with my life when I die. The opinions of others are irrelevant, material gains are fleeting, but being at peace with yourself is eternal. I know there’s something (or many things) I’m supposed to do here and I plan to get them done so that when I die, I can be at peace with how I lived my life.
I want to die well. I think we should all die well. I don’t know what happens next, but I’d rather be at peace when I find out, then consumed by shame and regret.
The Stoics say “Memento Mori,” or remember that you will die. Recognizing that death is inescapable for us all, and using it to live a life in accordance with your values ensures that you will have a good death.
But how can you live your life’s great adventure and complete your life’s task? As boring as it sounds, all you can do is THE NEXT RIGHT THING. My dad has been telling me this as long as I can remember. Growing up I hated hearing it. “Just do the next right thing,” he would say. That’s all you can do.
We may not know the entire route to completing our life’s task, but we know what the next right thing is. It could be as simple as doing the dishes or calling that family member and having the difficult conversation we’ve been avoiding. The next right thing usually isn’t an enormous difficulty, it’s usually just a mild inconvenience, but we have to get it done so we can move on to the next right thing after that. Far enough down the list lies something truly essential that will bring you real peace and satisfaction when you complete it.
Happiness isn’t something you can just go buy. You can buy pleasure, but you can’t buy happiness. Real happiness is a sense of joy and peace and contentment that descends upon you when you feel proud of your actions and proud of your life. Real happiness is something you get from doing the next right thing. My greatest goal is to feel real happiness when I die.
