Meaningful life or happy life is a decision that needs to be made with intent. After having 4 way bypass surgery at 48 years old I knew my life needed to chang

Meaningful life or happy life is a decision that needs to be made with intent. After having 4 way bypass surgery at 48 years old I knew my life needed to change. I worked for a bank and worked 60+ hrs a week. In fact many weeks were near 80 hours. Providing credit cards to the poor was not what I considered a meaningful job. But I was unhappy as well. It still took me 4+ years to figure out what I wanted to do. It was a complex road and it took a lot of visualization of my ultimate satisfaction (note not happiness) before I was able to leave this very well paying role. I now lead a small web development team at a university. I scrum coach a broader high performing team, get to write some code (which I love even when I pound my head on the wall trying to figure out that defect) and interact with people that love what they do. Even though I had not been much of a church goer, when I was on the table ahead of my bypass surgery and waiting to be knocked out I said a prayer to God asking if I was going to be alright. I got a very strong answer that was "You will be fine. It is not about you but the kids." Well I thought, at the time, that was about my kids but I later learned it was about other kids. So I came to be at a university. But the drive to help kids also has me mentoring FIRST robots teams, mentoring FIRST robotics coaches, being one of the organizers of a annual maker event (RVA MakerFest). Speaking to high school students about a variety of topics, mentoring high school students and more. I could probably be happier having a less complex life. Many days start early working on the volunteer work and end after doing the same in the evening. Getting to this place required an exercise in visualizing my demise. I was asked by someone to write down my obituary and what others would say. I was not able to come up with much that was positive. So I choose to find meaning helping K12 students and College Students. My own kids now tell me how I was a grump before and now they love doing things with me (most of the time when not parenting). As I now start to approach retirement (2 years) I will volunteer more not less. For your pleasure you may find this helpful. I did. http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psy...