My Philosophy of Life

I consider myself an avid consumer of philosophy. I’m especially drawn to works of all mediums about how people of different backgrounds choose to live their life. I also tended to ask many people how they live their life. Was I fun to talk to at parties? Probably not, but that’s an essay for a different time. This essay is about how I discovered my personal philosophy that helps me give meaning to each day.

It all started when I was watching Westworld. Yes, the show about robots. During an epic monologue, the creator of the robots, Robert Ford, said “suffering is what gives life worth meaning.” He explained that if there was no suffering, we would all run amok and harm whomever we choose. Because nobody could feel the pain, those actions would be meaningless. And I thought to myself, “of course! We should live our lives to prevent suffering for our lives and for others. This is a great direction to go.”

It wasn’t until a couple months later, when I was reading Viktor Frankl’s A Man's Search for Meaning, that I was proven wrong. As I was reading about the horrible atrocities that Frankl faced during the Holocaust, I noticed that he endured great amounts of suffering with an unwavering conviction and strength. He quoted Niche saying that “those who know the ‘why’ of life, will always get through the ‘how’”. 

So I thought to myself, “maybe suffering isn't that bad if we know our ‘why’. It's not about preventing suffering, but figuring out our meaning that will help us get through any suffering that is bound to happen. After all, the Buddha did say “suffering is an inevitable truth of life”...and that man had a lot of time to think.

As I sat there reading on a gloomy Sunday in Brooklyn, I suddenly became saddened as I asked the question “Well Mr. Frankl, what if you don’t know your ‘why’?” Of course I felt blessed to have a supportive family, great friends, and an enjoyable job, but I didn’t know what gets me up in the morning and gives me convictions to take on any challenges of life head-on.

And that’s when it all clicked. I thought of a quote that I always keep in my back pocket and generously dole out when my friends are having an existential crisis: “follow your curiosity.” I use this as a slight modification to “follow your passion,” because the original puts so much pressure on knowing what your passion is, if a singular passion can even exist! I instead advise my friends to follow what they’re curious about, and see where that takes them.

I pulled the quote out of my back pocket, and decided that instead of wallowing in self-pity for not having a “why”, maybe instead I should just spend each day doing something that I’m curious about: read a new book, explore a neighborhood, test the levels of my physical fitness. 

Perhaps, over time, this will add up to figuring out my meaning. And in the meantime, doing a little thing each day to move in the right direction, that inherently makes each day meaningful. So that’s what I do! I try each day to do just one thing each day that I’m curious about, or follow a whiff of a passion that I might have. And today, that is writing this essay. I'm going to be totally honest with you, I still don't know what my passion is, but I'm working on it.