life like sex

For some reason, when I was 10 years old, I felt wise. I thought myself capable of rebutting any argument which challenged my religious convictions. Divine wisdom and Spoc-like reasoning where sources of false pride for a socially inept 10 year-old Josh. Still, it took me 14 years to understand the irony of claiming to be logical and Mormon at the same time. When that finally happened, my pride, my self confidence, was virtually destroyed. Ever since, its been hard to trust any fleeting conviction I might have about anything. I've not only lost faith in my own ability to KNOW with certainty, but I've become extremely antagonistic towards outside claims regarding "truth" or even reality. Despite being fiercely agnostic, there are still bits of "wisdom" that I can't help but feel are important enough to discuss...for example...
If you could go back and ask a10 year-old Josh for some words of advice, he'd probally recite the golden rule. If you asked me now for some advice, or wisdom, I'd say something like, "life is like sex" and continue:
The key to living is knowing yourself. More specifically, what turns you on? See, the goal for life, like sex, is to FEEL as alive as possible. This means knowing yourself so well that you know exactly what it is which makes you feel the most joy or pleasure. Its not as easy as it sounds. I often don't know what it is I really want at any particular moment. Sometimes its hard not zoning out in front of the TV or computer. Those activities only offer shallow comfort with little mental/physical stimulation. And, while reading can be a desireable, stimulating activity, spending all of my time immersed in fantasy is not what I'd call experiencing life as intensely, as passionately, as I want to experience it. Also, consider, we all have to survive...we must allocate a large amount of time to activities which may feel less like living than is ideal. So, no, its not easy to overcome laziness, survival, routine, fate, etc in order to discover what it is that will make us feel the most alive at any given moment. There are a lot of factors to consider...sometimes I feel like a mathematical equation is in order...what ever...
I'm aware that "carpe diem" is an age-old, overused tenet. I know how cliche it is to say that we've got to live life to the fullest. Recognizing the urgency to LIVE is nothing new. So why is it that so few people seem to have mastered the art of living? Look at how many Americans are obese and innactive. Look at how many slave away at jobs that cause them nothing but stress. I wonder, how many create art? How many write? How many enjoy sex/love-making on a regular basis? How many have quality relationships? How many have rewarding social experiences? How many are locked into lives that they never intended on living? How many Americans wake up happy to face a new day and go to bed content? Do I not have reason to think that life can be lived so much more and so much better? I often feel as if the quality of our lives, on average, is much less than an ideal, yet easily attainable, higher quality of life. Personally, my own life has seen dramatic quality increases lately. But, even taking into account my great health, job, place of residence, hobbies, money, and romantic life, I know that things can and will become much better. Because, I intend to treat life like sex in general. I will, over time, find what is more and more pleasurable and rewarding for me, enhance and increase those things, and abandon details about my life that do not lend themselves to any sort of joy, pleasure, or contentment. In a sense, I'll whittle away all the things about my life that I don't care about, or don't find pleasure in, in order to increase the time I have for other, more quality experiences. Hopefully, this will allow me to feel with greater sensitivity the pleasure/joy I experience, coming to know myself better in the process, and fine tune/ehance the overall joy I take in. so there. the end.