Writing A Personal Manifesto

[Jaseph]

Hi!

 

I want to talk about finding meaning in life and writing a document to . But first, here's a video I saw some days ago that got me thinking in this direction;

 

"I think there's this strange myth that atheists have nothing to live for. I think it's the opposite, atheists have nothing to die for. We have everything to live for" (Ricky Gervais)

 

As a xtian I hoped a lot for a better life after this one. I thought this world was just a test. I thought this place is broken and that God will create a new heaven and earth eventually. Now I see that this life is the only life that I can be sure of having and that this world, broken as it may be, is the only world probably is the only one that I will live in. So, if I want to live a meaningful life, I have to find that meaning in this life and I shouldn't procrastinate finding meaning to the next life. If I want to live in a better world then I have to work for it.

 

The last days I thought a lot about what gave my life meaning. In short I concluded that there's an incredible amount of sources that I can find meaning from; art, taking good care of the environment, being a good friend, becoming a better athlete, acquiring new knowledge about all kinds of subjects, serving humanity and so forth; I could mention dozens if not hundreds more. Every single one of these points can be explored much more deeply and you could build a life around only one of these values.

 

So I thought it would be interesting to find out the meaning of my life, or better, what meaning I want to give it. That's why I want to start writing a personal manifesto; a document that I want to use to find meaning and that I can read regularly to remind myself of these things. Actually, I think I want to write at least 2: one big version that contains everything and one version of at most two pages that I can easily read during breakfast.

 

I think it'll be a personal document; very few or perhaps even no one will ever read it. It's there for me. If I like it I will use it for years, and it will probably change many times over (when I am old it'll probably interesting to look back to the older versions of this document).

 

Bottom line: I think meaning is something you have to create; it takes effort to find out what's important for you and then to keep acting accordingly. One example: I like being a good host. On the other hand I can be lazy about it. So, in order to be a good host I have to remind myself that this is important to me (and not just because I want to feel good about myself, but because I want my guests to feel good, to feel at home). When I've reminded myself of this I find it much easier to work for it. "just do it" doesn't work for me, I need a strong motivation to do something.

 

Ok this post became longer then I intended. I am curious what you think of it. To finish, here's some questions:

 

1. do you have some sort of personal manifesto?

2. If so, what is it like and does it help you?

3. How would you write such a manifesto?

4. More generally, how do you find meaning in your life?

 

Kind regards,

Jaseph

[FreeThinkerNZ]

I think this is a great idea.   A few of us wrote down our ideas here:

 

http://www.ex-christian.net/topic/62075-the-meaning-of-life-after-deconversion-your-manifesto/?hl=manifesto#.VHDQeDSUdUk