This is the final part of Mr. K’s article that he so generously put together. In his first post, Mr. K covered how he did well in life from a professional and financial standpoint. In his second post, he covered how we found success in more than just money, by living an emotionally, spiritually and physically healthy life. In the third and final post, he pulls it all together!

I need to restate the LIFE part of this discussion.  I am going to be 77 years old in two weeks.  At my age, you tend to ask yourself: “What’s it all about, Alfie?” (most of you have, probably, never heard the song). YMF Note – I have not. The question I am posing is: What is the purpose of life?  The answer to that question is: there is no Divine plan for anyone’s existence.  The purpose of our individual lives is what we make of them.  All of us (Homo sapiens) have a selfish side and a selfless side.  We didn’t need the selfish side when existing in Eden; but when God cast us out of Eden, and gave us over to Satan and Satan’s world, we found a need for that selfish side in order to survive.  In our more advanced societies of today, we use our selfish side for ego fulfillment, with the same result: conflict. 

I have found that life offers only 5 rewards.  Three of those rewards are: wealth, and/or power, and/or, fame (the spoils of our selfish side and, not coincidently, capitalism).

When God cast us out of Eden, He left Himself a tendril of control over us.  That tendril of control is the selfless side of our being.  Christians (my only form of reference) believe that God on Earth (Jesus Christ) offered us eternal life.  I realized, when I was 33 years old, that the problems in my finite life didn’t “amount to a hill of beans” in light of eternity (and “problems” includes the loss of a loved one – the worst thing that could happen to me).  That revelation is called the “Peace of God that passes all understanding”.  Peace is the fourth reward.  Additionally, God tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  I love my fellow humans by giving of my gifts.  I’m giving of my wisdom right here.  If I were speaking to you one-on-one, I would also point out how lucky you are to witness my lack of humility (we all have our crosses to bear).  So “giving” leads to the final secular reward: happiness.  I KNOW when I impact someone’s life.  They show appreciation, somehow.  The giving makes me happy.  I don’t think I NEED the appreciation; my ego is big enough already, but it always feels nice.

So there you have it.  You need all 5 “rewards of life” to flourish.  You also need to keep the selfish side of your being in balance with your selfless side.  A quick check for finding out if you are living a balanced life, is to ask yourself the following question: who loves me?  In my case the answer is: My wife, my children, my grandchildren, and numerous people whose lives I have impacted.  I hope that your answer is just as positive. 

Good luck and thank you for reading this note,

K ‘61

YMF Note: A huge thank you for Mr. K for this incredible post. It’s so easy to think as a young professional that you have it all figured out, but there’s always a piece of us (me at least) that wonders if we really do. I appreciate Mr. K’s insights into leading a successful life! In the next post (final one of this series) – I’ll do a reflecting post, talking about what I learned and took away from these posts.