The Easiest Way to Live a Short, Unimportant Life

Cook a meal instead of buying one. Play a game instead of watching one. Write a paragraph instead of reading one. You don't have to create big contributions, you just need to live out small ones each day.

Be an adventurer, an inventor, an entrepreneur, an artist. Suggest your own ideas instead of reacting to everyone else's. Be an active participant in life and contribute to the world around you. Make good conversation. Make good art. Make a good adventure. But above all, make something.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.—Eleanor Roosevelt

Meanwhile, the people who keep on contributing tend to be the ones who keep on living. The message was clear. People who contribute to their community live longer.

Contributing and creating doesn't just make you feel alive, it keeps you alive.

To put it bluntly: the easiest way to live a short unimportant life is to consume the world around you rather than contribute to it.