I wrote a while ago about two paths you could take in your life: To live
for fun, and enjoy yourself as much as you can before you die, or to live for
others, and live to help people.
  What's sad is that after writing that, I realized just how many people
chose to actually live for themselves.
  It's almost shocking, yet in a way, it's not really surprising. "He who has
the most fun wins" is a common saying. All around us, the world is full of
people who live solely for the sake of getting their kicks. Many of them
freely admit it, almost with a sense of pride. "I live for fun. My goal is to
party as hard as I can" is, in effect, the attitude of many. To me, it's like
proudly declaring "I'm a pedophile" or "I like to drink urine."
  People who live only to receive have an inherently imbalancing effect on
the world. Imagine a world in which everybody lived solely for themselves
(we're not far from that, but not quite there yet either). People only wish
to take, and never give anything to each other. In such a world, nobody can
get anything, because everything is taken. Only when people are willing to
give to others can everyone receive freely; The more people who contribute,
the more there is. It may seem like a paradox, but the more you give in life,
the more you get from life. There is no satisfaction in self-gratification.
Self-gratification only makes you hungry for more. The only true satisfaction
in the world is the gratification of others.
  Your life is not your own. If you live to please yourself, if you are
constantly a happy person, and if you are always doing something that you
enjoy, then you will die a wasted person. All the things you could have done,
all the opportunities you missed, all the changes you could have made, all
because you wished only to make yourself happy. And when you die, nothing you
will have done will have made any difference to the world.
  Life is too short to waste by enjoying it.