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Life is nothing if not the facing of a series of problems which must be solved. All problem solving involves tradeoffs. One's success in life depends upon their ability to discern the best tradeoffs.

1. 'What' is the problem?
2. 'Why is this a problem?
3. 'How' can I solve the problem?
4. 'Who' can help me?
5. 'When' should I begin?
6. 'Where' can I find what I need to solve the problem?

Does it really make sense to perfect the doing of something not worth doing?

It has been said that a mid-life crisis is when a person reaches the top rung of a ladder only to discover that they had leaned it up against the wrong building.

Determine first exactly what needs doing and then perfect the means.

Monomania is an intense, obsessive focus on a single idea, subject, or impulse, historically viewed as a form of partial insanity in 19th-century psychiatry, now often seen as extreme obsession or craze where other aspects of life are neglected. Symptoms include consuming preoccupation, irrational behavior related to the obsession, and neglect of self/others, stemming from excessive interest or even uncontrollable urges.

Have you ever wondered why you are interested in the things which you are, and uninterested in many things that interest others?

Try this. Consider the people who have a common interest in something very important to you. What do you have in common with one another?

What does that tell you?

While some may feel the need to justify truth telling by referring to a supernatural explanation, a much simpler and more logically and factually defensible position is at hand.

Truth telling is a good because it lubricates communication and avoids causing chaos and confusion. It is that which makes significant communication possible.

Socrates is purported to have said that 'The unexamined life is not worth living.'

One might add that unexamined beliefs do not merit holding.

Another way to frame Frankl's 'Man's Search for Meaning' is 'Man's Search for Mattering'.

In other words, man is always striving to demonstrate that he matters. That his existence is not meaningless but rather has a significance to it.

Many people gravitate towards causes and religious beliefs in an effort to avoid confronting the possibility that their lives lacked any significant meaning.

All forms of posturing are engaged in as an effort to avoid feeling that our lives are essentially meaningless.

Most people understand what it means to be interested or uninterested. Not nearly as many however, understand what it means to be disinterested. It certainly is not synonymous with uninterested.

Essentially it means not having an interest in a matter which biases or prejudices a person's views or assessment of a situation.

We naturally picture banker types when we think of investments and investing. It might be to our advantage to consider those investments which are personal and are lying closer at hand. Those which are crucial to our success in life.

I am speaking of course about how we invest our time (the most limited and therefore valuable commodity) and our disposable income (also limited and valuable).

One piece of evidence supporting the claim that a person is mature is when they can observe chaos or drama without being themselves drawn in.

"The chess board is the world. The pieces are the phenomena of the universe. The rules of the game are what we call the 'Laws of Nature'. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance."

T. H. Huxley

Looked at from one perspective, the purpose of action is to test our theories of how the world works.

When a decision needs to be made, perhaps to address a looming problem, people, either individually or as a group represented, often select courses of action which overlook unexpected consequences and especially those affecting groups other than the one's suffering from the initial problem and the long tern effects for all groups alike.

It has been observed that nature abhors a vacuum. Human nature does as well. When science knocked the gods off their pedestals, something was needed to replace them. Some people were able to make the transition to less supernatural explanations of everything which satisfied their need for purpose, understanding and belonging. Others were left floating aimlessly and unhappily along.

"There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat from within, no insurmountable barriers, save our own inherent weakness of purpose."

Elbert Hubbard

It seems to me that men do not so much fear death as the daunting responsibility of freedom.

Have you ever stopped to consider just how much freedom we are giving up in order to maintain our level of comfort?

We are trading obedience for comfort.

The Age of Disbelief did not so much remove as fracture (or multiply) religion. Where once only a handful of belief systems vied for our devotion, now there are innumerable pseudo religions soliciting our devotion.