I have no idea what the meaning of life is.  Even if I did, I’m not sure I’d tell you–or that you’d believe me if I did.  But I do know the secret to a well-lived life.  Yup.

Knowing what you really, really want.

I’m tempted to add a few more reallys, because I’m not talking about surface wants.  I mean major life goals or attainments.

As I said elsewhere on this web page, I’m a slow learner who took a long time to realize what I finally wanted out of life.

Oh, some goals I fell in love with in my middle teens.  My high school sweetheart (now my wife).  Playing orchestral music (on the oboe).

In so many ways, though, it took me forever to learn what now seems obvious. For example, writing.  Creating fiction is, IMHO, the most fun I can have with my clothes on, but I didn’t figure that out for a LONG time.  As I said, slow learner.

Once you know what you really want, you can work toward it.  Accomplish it.  Live it.

Anything else is just drifting.  Nothing wrong with drifting, of course, as long as you can tolerate where the wayward currents take you.

One problem with this as the ‘secret of life’: for most of us, it’s darned hard to know what we really want.  But if it takes you your whole life to figure it out, well, maybe that’s what life is all about. 

Hmm.  Come to think of it, maybe that is the secret of life, and everything I’ve said is cow fart.  Entirely possible!

Or maybe the secret of life is to never believe anyone who says they know what the secret to life is.  Even more possible!