This is the question that most of us will ask ourselves at some point.
We suddenly realise that a big chunk of our life has just been spent working working working - but for what?
Perhaps you started a great venture that will live on - perhaps not. But all of us realise at some point that our great strivings - whatever they were for - are now being undertaken by others.
Perhaps you continue in your line of work as a volunteer - be that Chairperson or helper. Perhaps not.
But things have changed and for most of us we need to feel that it was "all worthwhile". That the sacrifices we made and the burdens our work placed on us and others were worth all that effort.
ACTION:
Tell your story - write it down.
Make a list of your successes and failures - what did you learn?
Get it out of your system and perhaps leave it as a legacy for someone.
BUT YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST PERSON TO FEEL THIS WAY!...
King Solomon - of Biblical fame - a man who achieved vast accomplishments and who was known for his great wisdom - wrote a book at the end of his life called "Ecclesiates". The opening words of which are below.
It's a great read. He did just about everything possible on this earth around 300 BC. And be encouraged - his story has a very good conclusion despite how he started to tell it!
“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.