There are two qualities that I find essential in any human being: Self-discipline and openness. I believe that these can be the keys to lead a happy life.
Self-discipline and freedom may seem like opposites, but I have concluded that they are synonymous in feeling the most free. My theory is that because there are always things we as people do not want to do throughout life, for example, work, cleaning, wash the car, study, etc, these endless tasks must be done before one can genuinely enjoy the rest of the day. There will always be things that need to be done. Priorities are not always the same for each individual, but every person has this or her own priorities. Allow me to paint a picture of my average day as a young adult 3 months ago. I was a senior in high school with several duties. Involved in many school clubs, captain of a swim team, and having a rigorous schedule, I had many priorities. A perfect day would not precisely mean a day where practice was cancelled or I did not have homework. A perfect day was having a regular schedule and accomplishing everything. That last one hour of freedom after I finished all the tasks that need to be done is the most satisfying time of my whole life from that moment. Freedom is the time when everything else is done. Freedom is not an excuse of being lazy. Freedom is relative. One feels free when one has felt liabilities. Laziness is simply ignoring responsibility and the attempt to indulge in one's own ways without burden. Laziness does not exactly feel the best and is usually a term used in a negative context. With self-discipline, one can get things done and truly feel the bliss of freedom.
Openness is the second characteristic that I feel is necessary for everyone. Openness not only means open to new things, but to keep an open mind on everything. Allow the mind to flow without boundaries and become vulnerable to new thoughts. Openness brings understanding. To have an open mind can portray the beauties in life. It brings the love of humans and the opportunity of free will. After exploring briefly on the concepts of Existentialism, I found an interesting explanation on free will. Existentialist believe that free will is the most valuable thing that humans have. Value is a sort of mental point system we assign to everything in life. We have the freedom to choose what we value. For example, I probably value my parents more than my friend because he probably values his parents more than I do. Therefor the free will to choose what is value is on a different level of value. This power is great. It allows us as human to value life in anyway we choose. The freedom to believe anything we want. In this way, we as humans are gods ourselves. There are many religions with a primary god, but we as humans have the choice to believe in this god. Is it possible that a person does not conform to Christian religion and instead chooses to become buddhist? Yes. A person can choose to believe in anything. This is the amazing and endless power of free-will that everyone obtains. I have gotten a little off topic, but this is sort of relevant to openness. An open mind can truly bring out beauty. We have the power to live a happy life.
I firmly believe that self-discipline and openness is essential in living. With these two qualities, there is an infinite amount of opportunity. There are no boundaries. In conclusion, these are my thoughts and whatever I say, does not have to influence you. I simply just want to speak out this idea and see if it can clarify thoughts of others or maybe even embed new ones. Try to keep an open mind.
META
