Well first of all, I'm not the guy you replied to before.
I know that. My reply wasn't aimed at that conversation, just at your words.
And you are fighting because you aren't really contributing.
Wow. Really? I would argue that my input is contribution. I am not fighting, I am sharing my perspective. You, apparently, see it as wrong.
You are telling other people they are wrong
Not exactly. I started saying that the meme is wrong. When folks have entered into discussion I have disagreed with some. There is only a single instance where I said someone was wrong (and I did a quick search to verify).
…and not offering any evidence beyond your own point of view. How is that discussion?
dis·cus·sion
noun: discussion
the action or process of talking about something, typically in order to reach a decision or to exchange ideas.
Nope, pretty much I am engaged in a discussion with some very interesting points of view.
There may also be some confusion as to your definition of 'being'. Thoughts lead to feelings, and feelings lead to actions. Choosing how to be is not about your job or physical characteristics as much as it is about your attitude and state of mind, which are much more important and lead you into the physical aspects of your life.
There we go, talking about the topic and not about me – I’ll just ignore the “you” part there and interpret that as general and not me personally. Good job changing gears!
So, let’s focus on “being”…
The quick and easy definition:
Being is an extremely broad concept encompassing objective and subjective features of reality and existence. Anything that partakes in being is also called a "being", though often this use is limited to entities that have subjectivity (as in the expression "human being").
When talking about the self, about you, I should probably define my perspective. I see you as a biological entity. There is no spirit or soul – we are, truly, animals, biologic machines with a complex brain that we are self-aware and believe there is a notion of free will.
Now, I said believe because there is some debate over that. I, however, do ascribe free will and choice to humans – with a caveat. We are biological machines and we have programming like any other machine. Our genome and every experience we had in our life contribute to this programming.
This does, in fact, mean that we are the sum of our experiences – therefore in a nutshell, I am what has happened to me. I cannot dismiss that, nor downplay, nor pretend it’s not there. In fact, it’s the effort to overcome that programming through use of my free will that precisely drives the heroic efforts of self-improvement and personally driven growth.
Anybody who has a goal to 'be' a certain thing is really saying that they think that role will make them happy
Very interesting perspective. I know people that have studied IT to have a good paying job that they think will be stable. It doesn’t make them happy. It’s the thing they do in order to take care of their family.
However, there is evidence everywhere you look that actions are unrelated to happiness.
I disagree. Actions can be associated with happiness, not the sole connection mind you, but it is related.
The mind is all that matters.
If by mind you mean: “A mind /ˈmaɪnd/ is the set of cognitive faculties that enables consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory—a characteristic of humans, but which also may apply to other life forms.” then everything we do is in our mind, even all our physical activity and the effect it has on us.