When I became religious I went to a lot of classes that tried to explain what is the meaning of life. Some were good, other were great, but none of them answered me properly. Why Hashem created us? Was long after when I discovered chassidus that I got an answer that eased my questions: we are here to create a dwelling place for Him. G-d has different names that are related to his different attributes, one of his name is Elokim that has the same numerical value as HaTeva(nature), this shows us that nature is G-d, in other words what we see as trees, lakes, ocean, flowers, bugs, animals, clouds its all G-d, and our mission is to reveal this godliness.
What am I doing with me life? I'm trying(some times harder than others) to reveal godliness around me through doing good deeds and following what I believe is what Hashem wants from me. Did I accomplish my goals? Not at all, but I feel that each day I'm getting there. Do I live for the future or the present? I live for now, the Lubavitcher Rebbe teaches us to live with the time, what I'm doing now is what matters. How is mine definition if 'cool' way for ending my life? By Moshiach coming and starting our no ending lives :) I remember when I used to ask my rabbi about death, after life,... he used to answer you will not die so don't worry and I took this to heart, I will not die moshiach is almost here so lets do one more act of good and kindness to bring him NOW!
Our life goes by very fast, I see this now better than ever with my kids, I remember when my firstborn was in my belly and now hes 3yo I cant even believe. We have to take time to live our lives and not only pass by it, sometimes we are so busy looking at the end goal that we forget about the NOW, we forget that how we get to the goal is even more important than the goal per se. So what I took from Alons experience is that we have to make our life meaningful now. Also he asked everyone to take in at least one mitzvah, that we can say we are doing frequently, I choose to give charity every day, this is something the Lubavitcher Rebbe put a lot of emphasis on and unfortunately I stopped when my twins where born and now I'm taking this mitzvah back :)
www.jrlc.mycharitybox.com (JRLC of South Beach)
Edit to add that I didn't mean to write on my personal good decision to ask people for tzedakah, but yes our synagogue survive on donations, and I see no problem adding the link to it on my own blog :)