In my opinion, there are two important aspects in having a fulfilling life besides the routines of family, friends, and job. The first of those is having a goal. It might be a career goal, or a personal goal of some type, but a goal is a very useful thing. Several of my students have had career goals. Fei Fei always wanted to be a research scientist. Preeti and Aishwarya want to be doctors. Having a goal makes a person work harder, and also gives a focus to one’s motivation and work besides the typical “always doing one’s best.”

A cautionary note though regarding goals: while one is striving to achieve one’s goal, a person should be sure to enjoy the path they are taking to get there. Otherwise, if they do not achieve the goal, what have they accomplished if they subjected themselves to years of deprivation and little pleasure without succeeding? But if one enjoys the path, then those years are not wasted under any circumstances. I guess I am an example of that. Ever since I was in high school my goal was to be a professional writer of fiction. I devoted many hours and many years toward achieving that goal, and never sold a single piece of fiction. But I enjoyed both the writing I did, and the reading and research relevant to it, so I do not feel that a single minute of all that time was wasted. A side effect of striving for my goal was achieving what, to me, was a lesser goal of publishing two books of nonfiction. That was also satisfying, even though to my mind it was not really achieving my goal.

A second aspect of life which brings fulfillment is having a passion for some non-career-related activity. I know many people like that. Passionate runners, or artists, or sports enthusiasts, or amateur musicians, or movie lovers, or book lovers (yeah, that’s me!). Any interest which gives a person the type of continued excitement which raises their life above the routine and the boring is a valuable interest to have. Take away my books and my writing and I have no idea what I would do with my life outside of school-related activities. I can only spend so much time chatting with my friends or–God help me!–watching television!

Too many people lead dull, routine lives, because they have no purpose other than chasing the almighty buck or striving for the highest level of material comfort possible. Sure we all need money and material comforts, but are those really the purpose of life? For me they are not.