Mortality vs Spirituality - Priorities for Success

Yesterday, in Institute, we watched a short TED talk which contrasted two types of desires. The first wants to build, to create, to innovate; and to change the world. The second wants to reflect, to learn, to understand; and to become a better person. "Adam One asks how things work. Adam Two asks why we're here. Adam One's motto is 'Success.' Adam Two's motto is 'Love, Redemption, and Return.'"

I mostly identify with Adam Two. While I enjoy learning how things work, and love having success in my endeavors, most of my endeavors are spiritual and internal. I spend more time trying to become a better person than trying to become more employable. I'm more concerned with my afterlife than with my mortal life. Granted, both are important, but there's a certain question of priorities, and I favor attempts to advance my eternal progress over attempts to advance my mortal progress. This more long-term approach may pay off better in the long run, but in the meantime, my short-term condition is fairly miserable.

So, I have a problem with my priorities. I understand that many people have the opposite problem as I have - That they're so focused on worldly concerns that they neglect their spiritual needs, whereas I put so much focus on my spiritual concerns that I neglect my physical needs. Since both needs are, well, needs, they both deserve and require attention, and entirely focussing on either of them at the expense of the other is self-defeating and will lead to a great deal of hardship and pain. At least, that's what I think will happen. I don't actually know from experience yet.

It could be that I'm wrong about my priority problem actually being a problem. It could be that mortal life only matters in how it affects our spiritual lives, and that getting a well-rounded education and a well-paying job are relatively pointless in comparison to developing a strong testimony and increasing in wisdom. On the other hand, my priorities problem may be more critical than I thought. Perhaps how we spend our mortal lives, and how well we thrive in mortality will have a bigger impact on our spiritual lives than I currently think. Can you imagine God saying, when we reach our final judgement, "I wish you had completed your education and pursued a career in sociology"? I can. But then again, I have a pretty good imagination.

The reason I think God might care about how well we do in terms of the world's idea of success is because it directly relates to how much good we can do. The more money we earn, the more money we can invest in solving the world's problems. The more education we gain, the more we can use our knowledge to improve the lives of others. The more we create in terms of art or inventions, the more others can enjoy what we create. And thus, with a sufficient amount of what the world calls success, we can vastly improve the quality of life for millions of people all around the world, and that's a very good and worthwhile thing.

On the other hand, the reason I think God may not care at all about worldly success or the lack thereof is because of how temporary it is. I've heard of Earth life being described, from an eternal perspective, as barely a blink of an eye. If there was an infinitely long rope stretching forever in both directions, and you tied a thread around some point in the middle of the rope, that would be where mortality fits in in our eternal timeline. Anything we obtain from the Earth will be left behind when we die. Anything we build on the Earth will likely be destroyed at the Second Coming, if not sooner. And even if we spend our lives saving other people's lives, everyone is just going to die eventually anyway, so I really don't see the point in any of it.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be this depressing.

So, how much does worldly success matter, in the eternal scheme of things? Since life is so short, does how we spend our time here even matter at all? Then again, if this life didn't matter, why would God have put us here in the first place, and why does He care so much about people ending their own and/or other's lives early? Earth life must be important for something. I doubt that the purpose of life is acquisition, but could acquisition help us fulfill our purpose in life? Might it even be vital to fulfilling our purpose, whatever that purpose may be? To reiterate and expand upon Adam Two's question, Why are we here, and where does worldly gain fit in to why we're here?

Sadly, I don't have the answer to those questions, and I don't have time to explore them any further. I have to go get physically ready to do something that I consider spiritually important. As if I have any idea what's really important anymore.