Wasting Your Life

[Zane]

One of the most common themes on Actualized.org is to avoid wasting your life! I've been questioning "how can you waste your life?" Let's start a discussion on how your life could be wasted and let's provide concrete examples! Maybe Leo can make a video on wasting your life and how to avoid it! 

[ALGUIMAR]

Nice topic  Well I think that wasting your life is basically not reaching your full potential or the life that you want because you were lazy. When you stop... growing so to speak I think that is wasting your life... just like a plant that can become a tree would waste its life if it stayed as a tiny sapling haha I hope it makes sense.

[Zane]

@ALGUIMAR I strongly agree that not reaching your potential is a waste of life! 

[Iulia]

I strongly agree on that too! Since i got into personal development, i'm like that kid whom Leo talked to about how many awesome stuff he can do with his life, and he was like "Ooh really?! I never even thaught about it! Cool!!"

I hear people now and then saying that their biggest realisation in life are their kids, and they think I'm weird when I say I don't want that necessarily in order to give my life purpose.

Not living to my full potential would be one of my biggest regrets on the death bed.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Iulia

[Zane]

The worst way to waste your life would be to spend your adulthood creating misery for yourself and feeling deeply miserable and never breaking out of your misery. For example, you're trapped in a dysfunctional relationship or a highly stressful job, but you can't break free even though you want to! 

[IndependantKouhai]

For me, there is no wasted life.  Each person lives life as he wants, to one working is wasting your life, to the other watching movies is a waste of your life. And another one sees traveling as a completely unnecessary thing. 

I see this world as an opportunity to experience things. Experience the world and it's wonders as much as you can. That means, the feeling of adrenaline coursing through your body, the feeling of love, enlightenment, the beautiful landscape, art,  the cold, the heat... Everything !  So to me, the only thing wasting your life is not experiencing anything at all (which is impossible)

If someone would say to me "I'm going to watch movies for the rest of my life" I would probably tell them "Go for it, if you feel that the world has nothing more to offer you."

 My motto is, the more you experience new things and feelings, the fewer regrets you're going to have later on. 

I think even if you regret that you didn't reach your full potential in your death bed, that doesn't mean you wasted your life. You lived! 

 

[Zane]

15 minutes ago, IndependantKouhai said:

For me, there is no wasted life.  Each person lives life as he wants, to one working is wasting your life, to the other watching movies is a waste of your life. And another one sees traveling as a completely unnecessary thing. 

I see this world as an opportunity to experience things. Experience the world and it's wonders as much as you can. That means, the feeling of adrenaline coursing through your body, the feeling of love, enlightenment, the beautiful landscape, art,  the cold, the heat... Everything !  So to me, the only thing wasting your life is not experiencing anything at all (which is impossible)

If someone would say to me "I'm going to watch movies for the rest of my life" I would probably tell them "Go for it, if you feel that the world has nothing more to offer you."

 My motto is, the more you experience new things and feelings, the fewer regrets you're going to have later on. 

I think even if you regret that you didn't reach your full potential in your death bed, that doesn't mean you wasted your life. You lived! 

 

This is a very unique perspective that I strongly agree with! I think that a "wasted life" is just a subjective concept that is perceived from multiple perspectives. I strongly agree with your motto that "the more you experience, the fewer your regrets are." I'm in early twenties and I've experienced beauty, tragedy, adventure, new opportunities, and I'm extremely willing to experience more. Rather than focus on unfulfilling success, materialism, and status, I want to focus on adventure and living life at it's fullest. I want a life that is focused around my purpose and my values!

[Vaishnavi]

For me, a wasted life would be a life not lived for others. It's worse than merely existing.

[Zane]

4 minutes ago, Vaishnavi said:

For me, a wasted life would be a life not lived for others. It's worse than merely existing.

Can you please clarify on what you mean by a "life not lived for others?" 

[Vaishnavi]

@Zane I deeply believe that we all have a responsibility to give our contribution in making the world a better place and as far as my thinking goes, the best way to do that is to help the needy, the underprivileged. I consider a life of service as the most beautiful and satisfying kind of life ever possible because I myself have experienced it. And I just don't mean the poor or the weak, but helping every specie that exists. Humans are the only animals with the gift of thinking and imagining, of making unbelievable changes and the only species with the responsibility of taking care of nature and it's creations. So a selfish life, a life lived without taking this responsibility is a wasted life for me. I hope you get my point.  

[Zane]

6 hours ago, Vaishnavi said:

@Zane I deeply believe that we all have a responsibility to give our contribution in making the world a better place and as far as my thinking goes, the best way to do that is to help the needy, the underprivileged. I consider a life of service as the most beautiful and satisfying kind of life ever possible because I myself have experienced it. And I just don't mean the poor or the weak, but helping every specie that exists. Humans are the only animals with the gift of thinking and imagining, of making unbelievable changes and the only species with the responsibility of taking care of nature and it's creations. So a selfish life, a life lived without taking this responsibility is a wasted life for me. I hope you get my point.  

I understand exactly what you mean! However, I agree and disagree with you! I feel like you need to balance taking care of yourself and taking care of others. I feel like both selfishness and selflessness are double-edged swords that have their advantages and their disadvantages. For example, healthy selfishness is focused on fulfilling your basic needs and highest level needs. I strongly agree with your point that humans are capable of thinking and imagining and making amazing changes. The truth is I don't want to commit myself to such an overwhelming responsibility like getting married or raising a family. I want to focus on achieving my own self-actualization journey and experience as much of life as I possibly can. Does my point make sense? It's perfectly fine if you disagree with me1 

Edited March 29, 2016 by Zane

[charlie2dogs]

I would rather be a self realized being doing nothing if that is what i enjoyed and was happy with, than trying to follow the rule book of other people as to what i should be doing or how i should be living life.  Where did these rules come from about how life should be lived?  I have come to realize that those that carry a rule book on how to live life or why life should be lived a certain way have a problem.  When i awoke i threw the rule book away and the beliefs about the rules along with it.  When i functioned as the identity and ego i had all kinds of rules for living life and reasons, and even tried to apply them to others.  Now, there is no rule book, no past, no future, no beliefs and no reason for being here on this planet.  I am here simply because the consciousness that i am created this body to be here, and to take that any further is to make an assumption about it.  In the past it was always about satisfying the identity, ego, and desires of the flesh body.  Now it is about experiencing life from consciousness, in the moment of life, enjoying what life brings to me and working with it in a way that provides liberation from the identity, ego, and the insanity of this world.  I cant be a liberated being with a rule book or a belief system at the same time.  Everyone should look at their rules, why do you have those rules, why do you have a belief that you should have that rule that controls your life.  Is your rules controlling your life in a way that may prevent you achieving a state of liberation.  All beliefs come from programing, programing is external control over your life,  Most take the programing and make a false belief system out of the programing and then their life is completely controlled and they dont even have the ability to see the reality of a thing, or to make a free choice, because the choices are determined by the programing and belief that one holds, and the sad part is most never even realize or understand this.  Examine your beliefs about why you live and do what you do, its not what you think it is.

[Zane]

1 minute ago, charlie2dogs said:

I would rather be a self realized being doing nothing if that is what i enjoyed and was happy with, than trying to follow the rule book of other people as to what i should be doing or how i should be living life.  Where did these rules come from about how life should be lived?  I have come to realize that those that carry a rule book on how to live life or why life should be lived a certain way have a problem.  When i awoke i threw the rule book away and the beliefs about the rules along with it.  When i functioned as the identity and ego i had all kinds of rules for living life and reasons, and even tried to apply them to others.  Now, there is no rule book, no past, no future, no beliefs and no reason for being here on this planet.  I am here simply because the consciousness that i am created this body to be here, and to take that any further is to make an assumption about it.  In the past it was always about satisfying the identity, ego, and desires of the flesh body.  Now it is about experiencing life from consciousness, in the moment of life, enjoying what life brings to me and working with it in a way that provides liberation from the identity, ego, and the insanity of this world.  I cant be a liberated being with a rule book or a belief system at the same time.  Everyone should look at their rules, why do you have those rules, why do you have a belief that you should have that rule that controls your life.  Is your rules controlling your life in a way that may prevent you achieving a state of liberation.  All beliefs come from programing, programing is external control over your life,  Most take the programing and make a false belief system out of the programing and then their life is completely controlled and they dont even have the ability to see the reality of a thing, or to make a free choice, because the choices are determined by the programing and belief that one holds, and the sad part is most never even realize or understand this.  Examine your beliefs about why you live and do what you do, its not what you think it is.

So to simplify what you're saying, you just want to live a self-realized life with no identity ego or beliefs and focusing entirely on your own joy? If that makes you happy, than that's a valid way to live your life! 

[JevinR]

In the video titled "How to be a strategic Motherfucker" There is an entire compilation of huge strategic blunders, I'll add some more too. 

• Getting Married in your 20's
• Pissing away the prime years of your life - teen and adolescence playing videogames
• Smoking weed, doing drugs and drinking (I've done these things, parasitic)
• Drinking and Partying in college
• Not developing Mastery 
• Eating Junk Food
• Not going to doctors
• Chasing money rather than passion
• Chasing achievement and status rather than inner-growth
• having kids too soon in life
• sticking it out with a bad gf/bf
• Not continuing education after college
• Not even going to college 
• Not getting an education
• Staying loyal to a dysfunctional family member
• Jerking off and playing video games,smoking weed and drinking
• Thinking you can get something for nothing 
• Going into debt 
• Using credit cards
• Working for a boss in a giant company
• Climbing the corporate ladder
• Being to stingy to hire a therapist/life coach
• Being too cheap to buy books 
• Being too cheap to buy online info courses/products that could help you
• Being too cheap to go to a seminar/retreat
• Living in the wrong place
• Hanging out with the wrong people
• Chasing sex/love and putting a lot of time into that
• Neglecting meditation/enlightenment work
• Taking your religion too seriously

 

[charlie2dogs]

9 hours ago, Zane said:

So to simplify what you're saying, you just want to live a self-realized life with no identity ego or beliefs and focusing entirely on your own joy? If that makes you happy, than that's a valid way to live your life! 

the only thing i can add here is, it is the state of being of a self realized being that gives the joy and happiness, there is no need to exert any effort or to give a lot of attention to it, but i think you get the idea.

[charlie2dogs]

9 hours ago, JevinR said:

In the video titled "How to be a strategic Motherfucker" There is an entire compilation of huge strategic blunders, I'll add some more too. 

• Getting Married in your 20's
• Pissing away the prime years of your life - teen and adolescence playing videogames
• Smoking weed, doing drugs and drinking (I've done these things, parasitic)
• Drinking and Partying in college
• Not developing Mastery 
• Eating Junk Food
• Not going to doctors
• Chasing money rather than passion
• Chasing achievement and status rather than inner-growth
• having kids too soon in life
• sticking it out with a bad gf/bf
• Not continuing education after college
• Not even going to college 
• Not getting an education
• Staying loyal to a dysfunctional family member
• Jerking off and playing video games,smoking weed and drinking
• Thinking you can get something for nothing 
• Going into debt 
• Using credit cards
• Working for a boss in a giant company
• Climbing the corporate ladder
• Being to stingy to hire a therapist/life coach
• Being too cheap to buy books 
• Being too cheap to buy online info courses/products that could help you
• Being too cheap to go to a seminar/retreat
• Living in the wrong place
• Hanging out with the wrong people
• Chasing sex/love and putting a lot of time into that
• Neglecting meditation/enlightenment work
• Taking your religion too seriously

 

it seems you have a long list of rules to be applied by those who dont even know who are what they are.  All of these things that you have labeled one must be in a position to see, understand and have the ability to live by those rules if they are going to mean anything other than just a rule.