I’m not going to keep soldiering through life.

I used to be a soldier for 25 years and the credo of the army was (and still is): first the mission, then the team, and the individual as last.

And then retirement came and I decided I had done enough “missions”. In fact I became a little wary of “people with a mission” in daily life. They tend to be monomaniacs called Missionaries (religious fanatics bringing Jesus, Allah, or Buddha to the heathens for the glory of their Sects), Gurus (give me your money and I will enlighten you), political activists (frustrated attention seeking rascals), or Corporate Sleuths (make the company bigger and we will give you a bonus or promote you to a higher salary scale) who follow the same adagio as the military. I’m done with fighting other people’s war for the Greater Good.

Missions tend to keep people from living their own life. I have a couple of interests that give direction to my life but work hard to avoid they turn into an obsession (which is my current way to define “mission”). I don’t try anymore to change to world. When the need for change arises, I’ll try to be the change (paraphrasing Gandhi here).