My job was to test the electronics and separate the functional from the defect.
Being there, what hit me most was the defeatist attitude of people within this company and being sensitive, it affected me as well. I hated the taste of coffee and to my opinion people were wasting their time doing a crappy job they did not like instead of searching for a purposeful and meaningful existence.
Lying in bed one night it hit me. I saw an entire chain of senseless industries. People getting out of bed, starting their car, driving to work, producing something lacking any sort of worth at all, having minimal to no influence to their environment and then go home again.
Another day wasted doing something useless. The first association I had was "this is just all occupational therapy". Doing something, just anything, to feel useful.
Giving meaning to life
I boiled the entire train of thought down to one question: "what gives meaning to life?" It came down to two main values:
- To be valuable/meaningful/use to other people
- To be able to change / influence your environment
1: To have value/meaning/use to other people
I made the assumption that most people fear to be useless. In their jobs, in their relationships, and so on. To do useless work is de-motivating. To be neglected and rejected is painful. To be void of appreciation makes us sad. It kills us mentally and emotionally on the long run.
To have value, be appreciated, be seen, be recognized, be awarded inspires us, makes us happy, fills us with energy. To understand what value you are contributing to someone increases your efforts in general and makes you understand why you are valuable as a person.
I believe that this is due to our genetic programming. Our origin is that of a group-species. To be part of a group means safety, sex, grooming, protection and food. Not to be part means struggle and death.
It is not so strange we measure people by their jobs, social groups, references and social influence.
2: To be able to change / influence your environment
Somehow we need the sense of control upon our own life. I specifically say "sense". It is already soothing to know that you have the option to change something when required. When we have the feeling to be "stuck" we get uncomfortable. Rules and regulations can be experienced as limiting. But also peer pressure, social control and internalized rules and regulations.
The practical side to this
What you give is what you receive. What you are capable to receive is what you are capable to see and appreciate. The painful part is that if we have been experiencing a lack of appreciation, we very likely miss out on people who have loads of appreciation to share, even to us.
Survival
What we do can be seen from this model as either something we do to create a change, or to create value for others in order to be of value. We do it - I guess - as part of our survival system. If we are not able to create change, we get stuck in what is going wrong and we might die. If we are not of value to other people we might be cast out, lose a lot we hold for granted and as a result we might die. (According to our survival system.)
Creating meaning
The answer to "What is the meaning of (my) life?" is very divers. "Nothing" is one, since after your death everything will continue and: "What you make it" is another, since everything you value is valued by your own perception.
Using this model, life is about two main things:
- Being connected to others, sharing, being of value and making fun.
- Being able to change your personal situation either via your environment or by moving to other places and groups.
- Is it good for me now?
- Is it safe?
- Do I learn and grow from it?
- Can I add value here now?
- Am I appriciated (by the group) for who I am and what I have to offer now?
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