Since history clearly demonstrates that very little changes with regard to human nature and the interaction among human beings, it makes one wonder about man’s mission — or if he even has one.

The more I reflect on this question, the more convinced I am that man’s fundamental secular purpose is to strive for achievement. As Viktor Frankl put it, “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”

If striving is, in fact, the essence of life, those who wish their lives away in anticipation of arriving at some undefinable promised land in the future make a grave mistake. Given that promised lands are hard to come by, it makes much more sense to concentrate on enjoying the present.