In my opinion,there are two sides to life.
The one that people seem to take more notice of, is life as an unimaginably huge cluster of social conventions, rules, religion, habbits, emotions, experiences, expectations, people, etc. This side of life is the every-day life, that most people live and enjoy, hate, fear, like, or whatever. It centers around social conventions and expectations of others. It's about people wearing scarfs because they think others will appreciate their appearance more, if they do, and people enrolling at college because they think they have to, if they want to have a 'good life'.
The other side of the 'term' life, that I see, is less about living in a society, but about being the, yeah, 'being' (not the person, because imo 'person' directly referrs to character treats, that one develops in order to find his place in society) you want to be. It's about you wearing a scarf, because you feel damn cold if you don't, even if it might not be appreciated by others, and enrolling at college, because you decide that you want to spend the next few years of your life seeking knowledge. For me this other side basically comes up, whenever we look at things without seeing their context, without thinking too much. It's about instincts and feelings, rather than ethics and conventions.
I'm not saying that either of these sides is the better one, both of them are important. Still I think that most people bind themselves far too much to the first side I mentioned and search their character and their dreams IN society, which is a paradox in itself. I think that most people overthink far too often; of course thinking is important, as it makes us human, but then again we have to wonder what we want from life. For me it is happiness and I know that I can't reach happiness by simply thinking about it, I can only become happy by the things I do, and for me most of the time that has nothing to do with fulfilling social conventions or exactly performing the things expected of me. Most of the time it has something to with me realizing that I'm doing things because I like doing them, because they address a part of me, that I have no controll over. I'm not talking about smashing windows out of anger, or such primal activities, but - referring to the scarf-ecample in the beginning - wearing cloth that others may hate, because I associate something with them.
In the end I think, it's about how easy it is for you to fall asleep at night. If you're happy, it is, if you're not happy, it's not, and then you think about the things that might be crooked in your life.
