Why do people go to school and work if this life is all we get?

Question

If after this life we die and get no second chances, then why do people work so hard. I mean, its pointless to work hard if this is it.

Answer 1

Simply put the more you put into this life the more you will get out of it.
We are going to live about 70 to 80 years with the only other option being suicide.
Since I don't believe suicide to be a viable option I choose to make the best out of what I have been given and enjoy life.

Answer 2

It seems to me, that many people who have responded to this question negativly (of couse we should work!), but I understand where the question comes from. I'm a bit of a workaholic. Junior in high school and I can already feel it creeping, but all the work, is it worth it? That's what this question seems to ask. Shouldn't life be based on fun? This is all we get, shouldn't we enjoy it?

Why should we look at tradition; why should we try to make other people happy? Why not just do what we want? Why not face fears, and laugh and scream, and party? School is really not very fun most of the time, why go?

The answer has to be, at least for me, that 1. I believe you can do both (work hard and have fun). and 2. I want my life to mean something for the world as well as for me. Since life is so short, and since there only is one chance, I want to become immortal through the connections I make to other people, through the things I create and do, and through the things I work at.

If you write a book and the book continues to live on after you're gone, you're not all dead. If you help design a building or create a invention or a mathmatical formula, if you do reasearch that later helps save the world, you're not all dead. And if you work really hard and do all of these... So that's why I work hard.

It gives at least me purpose, and that's what it seems you need in this world. Individual purpose. Having fun, that's a purpose. Changing the world, that's another.

Answer 3

Because the alternative is unacceptable.

Anyway there is no "second chance". Everyone knows that but pretends like the opposite is true just to make life more complicated and interesting.

No. It is not pointless to work hard. Although, perhaps for you, any work is hard.

I hope you didn't tire yourself out posting your question.

Answer 4

Work provides you with money, which is one of the things you need to enjoy 'materialistic' life - like buying stuff and travelling. But you have a point.....most people work too hard trying to earn money thinking they'll enjoy it 'later' in life....too often, time runs out. So I guess you have to just take a break every now and then, and enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

Answer 5

Alot of people find it satisfying to work. Others would rather be out having their own kind of fun. We all have different outlooks on life. Some people would rather work to support their families then live off the state. To each his own i always say.. i see nothing wrong with a good days work..makes us humble :)

Answer 6

Some people actually do get second chances. If you don't work you don't have money to support yourself and you will live your life terribly you want to live life well.

Answer 7

people go to work and school to make something of themselves and accomplish dreams and ideas they have always had. unfortunately today people take the one life they have for granted and become workaholics and forget to live life and see whats its all about. some people do take life and embrace it everyday. you only live once.

Answer 8

i quit school and will NEVER work...

i just read these answers and it makes sense...they think you either work 40 hour weeks or life off welfare....which is retarded...making more money doesnt require doing the same thing harder...its just doing something different...personally i find it easier to make billions than make 150k or w/e slave wage these people are making

Answer 9

The essence of your being is unconditional love,you are the life of the body,you are one with God in unconditional love,you lived before you had this body and you will live after it is gone. Your purpose in life is to awaken to your unity with God in unconditional love within your heart & your supreme duty is to express that.

Answer 10

life is good, but it is what you put into it. I'd rather live one life, with a good education and makinf money, so i can enjoy myself, have good, articulte conversations with friends, have agood career, cause if this is all there is, im gonna make the most of it.