You are unique. There is no other identical life force in the universe at this instant. And you give to the World what you are simply by being.

If you are starting or expanding a family then that is already the best contribution you can make. Your job is to guide your children to responsible and mature adulthood. Your job is to provide your children with mental tools to  achieve the same success that you expect.

You may be looking with envy at people who have more money and possessions than you have. That is not what we are talking about here. Fame and fortune and materials possessions do not equal happiness. But they can come if you make them part of your mission.

What you need to do is define what is your purpose in life. And that takes us to the single most important question that you can ask yourself.

To re-phrase JF Kennedy's saying. Ask not what the World can do for you. Ask what you can do for the World.

What do I want to do with my life?  Answer that question and never waver in doing everything to answer it.

You see, I feel that we focus too much attention on positive and negative ideas. We focus too much attention on what in us the we believe is broken and how we can fix it.

We will always be able to find something that does not work. As a result,  we spend too much of our life looking in the  wrong direction, when we should be focusing our our goals.

If we line up the pros and cons of our goals, we immediately know what we need to work on. The pros are the strengths of our projects, but it is the cons or weaknesses of our projects that we need to tackle. When we try something that does not seem to work, you simply try something different.

When you know what you want from life, all of your efforts can be focused. You will know success because you will immediately understand what needs to be done and what steps you must take. Those steps will be your milestones on the way. After you complete each step, you will realize how easy happiness is an how successful you are.

As frustrating as this may seem, you already know the answer to this question. You just have not said it out loud to yourself.

Personally, I was forty years old when I finally asked myself the question. What is my mission in life? What do I want from life?  After looking at everything I had accomplished up to that point, I realize that

a) I wanted to be independent.

b) every job I had up to this point was a service job.

c) I looked at all my interests and my hobbies. I had been a Scout Leader. I had organized a kite festival. 

d) I looked at the clubs I belonged to, as well as how my life was progressing.

e) This was very personal. I did not consult anyone on this. Somehow I knew I could fit my family's goals into this.

My conclusion was that I was helping others in my work and in my personal life. And, that is what became my mission -  Helping others help themselves.

This is my commitment to the World. This is easy for me do to because I was already doing it. I didn't need to make a drastic change in my life that I knew would soon fall by the wayside. I was comfortable and everything took on a calm sense that I could accomplish anything I set out to do that was consistent with my purpose.

Even this blog meets those needs. But it also meets my needs of writing and being published and having loyal readers. I satisfy my own needs while helping others satisfy their needs.

Living with a purpose I chose to call the Law of Purposeful Action.

This is my answer to the Law of Attraction. Like attracts like. Everyone in my Thursday night discussion group are interested in the same thing. We each offer something to help each other.

In the morning I ask myself what I can do today to meet this purpose. Most often it is a small step. Sometimes it is no step. Sometimes it moves in the wrong direction. Always, I know I will soon get back on track. 

In the evening I feel gratitude for that I have accomplished and for what I have accomplished, that I am alive at all to be able to do whatever I need to do. I ask myself if I am satisfied with the steps I have taken. I ask myself what I can do tomorrow. I forgive myself for anything I did that might have moved me in the wrong direction. But, I know that I have tomorrow to make it right.

The question whose answer is the answer to all questions is "What do I want from life and what can I give in return?"