Don’t be shy, spell it out.
I could give you a whole list of things, and people will probably give you all different kinds of answers, but it all come down to living for the things you want. Sounds obvious, right.
What you want is the result of your genitic programming and your social upbringing. That’s it. Don’t live for things other people want you to live for…
I live for the quest of gathering information and using this to help deal with the complexities of life. However what I may live for now. Will no doubt change for what I may live for in the future.
grin
First and foremost, I live for my ancestors and my kin.
I want to prosper so I’m able to care for those who share my blood.
I suppose that’s a form of living for myself, considering the origins of self.
There is much more that I enjoy through living, but don’t necessarily live for.
Wouldn’t a more important purpose, or rather goal be to help the human race or something along those lines. By donating to charities and taking part in community service as often as practical?
I exist for no reason, I live for nothing, and I will die through accident.
Because I was born, basically. There seems to be no purpose to life other than to procreate. We are but animals, although we like to pretend otherwise.
One day I realised that I was alive.
I realised that I was a living miracle!
So now I live to help other people realise the miracle which they are, and try to make the experience of “life” as pleasant as possible for all those who my own being touches…
…including whoever may read this!
DALE
I live because i feel i can find pleasure much more satisfying/easier to obtain then while being all corpse like.
well, I still do not know…
As I walk down the road and acquire more knowledge….things just keep getting odd…
Good question! It’s a picture puzzle I keep on procrastinating. I guess eventually - if I ever fill it all in, I’ll be eligible for a dramatic after-death experience. That “should” explain everything! Problem is “You can’t go Home again”.
Should humanity be a means to something greater or an end in itself?
(I think you were directing that question to me) could you please elaborate a little further… I’m not quite sure I understand what you are asking. Why does it have to be one or the other?
DALE
I generally see those who think of their lives as ends in themselves as passive nihilists. Those who see it as a bridge tend to look for something more substantial than natural inexorability.
I see meaning, purpose and value in everything… so I guess that rules out the passive nihilist bit.
The thing is, my phrase “I realised that I was alive” wasn’t necessarily from the perspective of the human I … but may have been from the perspective of I as in all life / God / Great spirit etc.
DALE
for some reason I have the image of a snake eating its tail now…
“end in itself”?
why? because I do.
-Imp
[quote=“askewd”]
I think you are a passive nihilist. Otherwise you would impose a system of values upon the world, rather than accepting the purpose and value of everything and anything.
For others.
That’s ok, you can label me up and put me into a box if it helps you.
We do have to accept, to a degree and we also have to impose a system of values to a degree.
The question was what am I living for, and (as gavtmcc said in more effective terms): “OTHERSâ€.
I am living for others.
Why? because it seems obvious to me that it is the more beneficial “way†to live. It makes sense.
NOBODY knows why we are living. (although a lot of people like to guess) All we can do is make the best of it.
When everybody CHOOSES to live for others, Earth would become a pretty damn lovely place to experience ‘being alive’ on!.. 
DALE
If you just lived solely for others, you would get frustrated and depressed. It is impossible for a human to live this way. A slave or servent is not a natural way to be and thus if you attempt it, nature fights back whether you want it to or not.
You are however able to live for others and yourself though.
In fact this is easier and of better quality than just living for yourself. There are things you can get from other people that u just can’t get by urself. And I don’t just mean in a " " sense.
But then what is it that drives you to live partially for other people? Your inherent unselfishness? I don’t think so. Its a learned set of moral principles that also just happen to make sense. If you treat others well, they will treat you well in return. If you contribute to the greater scheme of things eg society, you will improve it marginally and therefore get more back from it. So really, although you may not notice or like to admit it, the reason you live partially for others is for your own benefit.
Consider the question…: What are YOU living for. That imples that it is the self that is doing the living for itself. You’re not living other people’s lives for them, they do that themselves. So you can’t live for other people. Things concerning the self are selfish. Even if they have unselfish consequences.
People find a balance between selfishness and unselfishness that provides the optimum benefit for the self. Therefore, even if the intention is to live for others, it turns out the only reason anybody lives is for themselves.
There was a thread similar to this a while back on ‘What is the most important thing in life’. It was protested against when people said things like ‘survival’ and ‘yourself’ or ‘personal happiness’. Issues like suicide and dying for noble causes came up which may appear to falsify what I have just said. Things that appeared to have more importance than just the basic animal stuff.
Suicide is commited when you find personal happiness and living for yourself impossible and unattainable anyway and you are constantly ‘underneath’ this neutral residual state which is equivalent to death, and so dying can bring you back up and relieve you from your unnatural predicament.
Dying for noble causes is a voluntary, yet unnatural enforcing of principles that can be temporarily made to surpass the natural desire to live. If you were constantly like that, you would get frustrated and depressed by nature. The idea of being part of a group can increase boldness - the idea of your name living on and others prospering from your loss comes from a detached perspective that fools you into thinking of your life being everyone’s life - a rationalisation of something unnatural that some very rare people have actually managed to bring above their desire to live (more difficult than people like to think). Very impressive, but fundamentally unnatural. And then, for all you know, all existence could cease to exist once you cease to exist 
The most important thing in life or what you live for can’t be making yourself dead because they are mutually exclusive polar opposites by definition.