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Thread: when you are old will you look back on your life and be pleased with what you've done

  1. #1
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    when you are old will you look back on your life and be pleased with what you've done

    I don't know, but recently I have just been thinking about this.. When you are an old man/woman will you look back on your life and be pleased (or disappointed) with what you have done? Will you remember times with your old friends and be sad that they are gone (mainly talking about the times being gone but possibly about your friends I guess)? I think part of the reason I was thinking this way is that I was watching a show where someone regularly looks back at things that happened in their life and talks about them.. like times during Vietnam and such. On a related note, if you are old enough to be out of high school do you look back at times when you were in school and miss the times that you had? I for one do not. I don't really remember much of any of my time in high school or elementary school and I don't feel that I have any occurrences I look back on and think "good times"

    Do you people ever think of these things?
    Last edited by billdotson; May 26th, 2007 at 03:03 AM.

  2. #2
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    Re: when you are old will you look back on your life and be pleased with what you've

    When I get to 150, I'll ponder it for a moment then keep on hacking my old linux box

  3. #3
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    Re: when you are old will you look back on your life and be pleased with what you've

    No fair! You're getting off-topic! We were ranting about how much Windows sucks!

    What? Oh, yeah, heh...sorry...wrong topic...(LOL!)

    As you get older, it's just natural to start thinking about this. It's usually towards the "mid-life" crisis phase in someone's life that it gets pretty intense. You have to decide if what you've done and what you're planning on doing with your life fits with the direction you intended on going in.

    However, I think some folks get a little too perfectionist when they do it, and it can cause depression. For instance, if you hit mid-life, and think back "wow, I'm not a billionaire like I wanted to be, I don't have Arnold Swartzennegger's physique (from the Conan days), I'm not married to a super model boyfriend/girlfriend...what the hell happened to my life?!" I think a lot of folks need to ease up on themselves.

    Each person has an over-all driving purpose in life. You can do research on personality types to figure out what yours would be. But, the ultimate goal for everyone is continual improvement towards whatever fulfilling purpose they have in life. Someone who likes to build things wants to constantly build bigger, better, more complex things. That fulfils them. When they look back on their life, they'll feel accomplished if they feel they've built something worthwhile. Someone who wants to optimize things will find ways to optimize stuff in all aspects of life, and that will provide them fulfilment. A leader-type will find fulfilment in helping guide others in projects that accomplish worthy goals, as well as guiding those they lead to better themselves under their direction. Etc.

    My personal belief (not talking religion here), is that when people are down on their luck, or in a downward spiral, it's because they are either not on the right path for their personal fulfilment, or perhaps on a path counter-intuitive to their fulfilment. These are the people that look back the most in their life... When people have a problem, they inherently want to figure out what's causing it. When people aren't where they think they need to be in life, they want to look back at the defining moments that perhaps threw them off-course. Problem is, a lot of them then just want to blame those moments, or blame themselves for the decisions they made, but then stay in the rut their in. If you're stuck in a rut, the only way to get out of it is to change. Sometimes that change seems very difficult, but the first step always seems like that. But, you have to do it. Unfortunately, folks defeat themselves before they get started by looking at all the work it would take to make the change to their eventual goal, and decide that it's just too much effort. They need to break it down into baby-steps...each thing is a minor goal, but a goal none-the-less, to a major goal. Rome wasn't built in a day...it's was built brick by brick, just like every other grand scheme in life.

    As for looking back, I personally don't keep mementos, photos, etc. I throw out as much crap as possible, because I don't want clutter sitting around reminding me of stuff that isn't important anymore. I do this because it helps free up mental space so I can learn something new...freshen my brain, if you will. So, while I do remember some defining moments, some good ones where I shined, and some not so good ones to remind me about past lessons, I usually let most of it fade and get "overwritten". If you're looking back on it all and regretting things, then you probably need to reasess your life and make some changes.

    Another hint, pay attention to your dreams. The human brain is the closest thing we have to a quantum computer. A quantum computer can take all variables of a given situation and figure out the likely outcome. When you dream, sometimes your brain is showing you future "images" of where you'll be in time...if, you do nothing to change yourself. IE: the current path you're on right now (your health habits, how you treat yourself or let others treat you, your lack of ambition or motivation, or desires and needs, etc). Your dreams sometimes show you that forecast of where you might be in the future. If you have a particularly disturbing dream, then you need to take it as a warning sign to make some changes in your life. If you have dreams that are pleasant and sound, then keep doing what you're doing. This isn't all spiritual hoaky bs I'm spouting off, either. Your body is first and fore-most a bio-mechanical organism, and your brain is a bio-mechanical planning device. Depending on psychological and physiological factors, your mind can predict events, and some dreams just so happen to be future predictions of your mind. If you keep eating bad food and not exercising, you may have bad dreams about being house-bound in the future, people shunning you, etc. This would be a sign to change your habits. If you have dreams of folks treating you poorly or abusing you, it's a sign that you need to bolster your self-esteem and confidence, and stop letting folks walk all over you, because you'll be on a downward spiral of further abuse in the future.

    With all that said...folks who have deja'vu...yeah, you'll be nodding your heads right now. Folks that have lots of deja'vu are basically hitting a lot of the "milestones" their dream mind predicted for them. Folks who have little deja'vu alternate their lives so much that they never hit the road-markers. This may also be dependant on how much of an intuitive you are.

    This probably went further off-base then you were expecting, but there you go.

    So, bottom-line, if you're looking back on your past more than usual these days, it's because you secretly regret something(s). Folks who don't regret much don't look back much. Of course, that's just my opinion.



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  4. #4
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    Re: when you are old will you look back on your life and be pleased with what you've

    I am old and I am pleased with what I have done. But I don't think about it much because I can't remember much. So I try to be pleased with what I am doing now.
    ICUR2Ys 4me

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