There's a lot to think about in death. How do you die? Who will be at your funeral? What do you leave behind?
You can control how you die, by committing suicide. But that's wasteful. Your life is valuable. But like any valuable, you shouldn't just keep it locked up. Valuable things should be used or traded - risk your life something that can kill you but is worth it. Start a business, climb Everest, volunteer to help in a dangerous country, be an activist for something worth dying for.
You'll want to think about what happens after you die. You'll have stuff. What happens to it? Does it go to your family? A cause? Does it disappear in a disorganized jumble?
Also the afterlife. People have literally sat down for thousands of years pondering this. Don't reinvent the wheel; dig up what others have researched. As time goes on, a lot of religions are hijacked by people who want power. It's best to read the studies of early scholars than latter ones.
At least two thirds of people were born with the wrong idea of the afterlife. Statistically, you're one of them. Don't idly follow whatever you were born into. Pick something consciously (your default is fine). Run experiments. If it doesn't click, try something else.
Your life is exceptionally valuable. It belongs to only you. There's nothing wrong with being a cog in the corporate machine. There's nothing wrong with being an acstetic monk. You don't need to contribute anything into the world. You don't need to have a family or even a cause.
But whatever you do with your life, it should be a conscious, deliberate decision.
A funny thing happened last Christmas which highlights my being too introspective. I wrote a poem for the first time in my life and gave it to my wife, son and daughter. They absolutely misunderstood the poem and thought it was about our strong family bond. The poem was actually about stars, space and time. I honestly believe my family’s interpretation of my poem was better than my own. This was just a quirky reminder for me of how I was missing the bigger picture by being so internally focussed. I also think it may be my last poem ;-)
As an atheist who tries to believe in free will, but who frankly has a hard time seeing how the universe is anything other than strictly deterministic (ergo, free will is actually an illusion), I don't see much room for any idea of an objective "meaning of life" that comes from any external source, or even any intrinsic notion of that sort that is universal to everyone. So you get to choose... or if free will really is an illusion, you get to walk around thinking you chose. :-)
https://meaningness.com/misunderstanding-meaningness-makes-m...
“What’s something useful and enjoyable I can do now?” prompts the answer “Who cares—so what?” Mere usefulness and enjoyability doesn’t sound good enough. This “complete stance”—of enjoyable usefulness—is emotionally unattractive at first. Once accepted, though, it does eliminate the anguish of an existential dilemma. If you can let go of the grandiosity that leads you to imagine that some special task awaits you, and the false hope that getting enough of what you want would make life satisfactory, you can be useful and enjoy yourself.
I live through everyday to the best of my abilities doing the things I love to do, have to do, and only I can do. I have no regrets.
