Winning at life?
Life isn't a game with some win or lose outcome. You aren't any better than someone else just because you've climbed Kilimanjaro or whatever. Sure, you may have got an extra experience which brings something to you personally, but you don't stand out from the other 6 billion; you don't get a medal. And just for the record, of course I agree that if you have identified something you want to do before you die, that means to get out and do it now, before it's too late!

For some people having a family and kids and a BMW on the drive is a real achievement. A lady at my work is a former alcoholic in an abusive relationship. She told me once that she used to dream of having a boring life. If winning in life means anything it's about achieving something other than simply existing: about taking yourself and your family to a place other than where you would have ended up anyway. But whether that place is any better than anyone else's situation is a personal judgement: there is no objective 'better' or 'worse'.
(Smale is stuffed, Mon 18 Oct 2010, 12:59, Reply)