what is most important in my life is cultivating the ability to help people be happy, and to relieve them of the suffering they experience. My No. 1 aspiration in life is to leave each person I interact with at least a little bit better off than I found them.
Sometimes this means taking a lot of time to help someone. Many times it means simply making eye contact and smiling to others as they walk by.
This effort is so important to me because I have become acutely aware of how much pain I feel when I have done things that contribute to the suffering of other people, and how much joy I feel when I help someone to be happy and/or suffer less.
The ability to help people be happy and suffer less is what I call true love, which I think has three essential components: kindness, compassion, and equanimity.