From wikipedia:
"Lance Armstrong (born Lance Edward Gunderson on September 18, 1971 in Plano, Texas) is a retired American professional road racing cyclist. He attended Clark High School while he lived in Plano. He won the Tour de France, professional cycling's most prestigious race, a record seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005. In doing so, he beat the previous record of five consecutive wins, held by Miguel Indurain and five non consecutive wins shared by Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx and Jacques Anquetil.
This feat was accomplished several years after brain and testicular surgery, and extensive chemotherapy in 1996, to treat testicular cancer that had metastasized to his brain and lungs."
Daily Celebrations ~ Lance Armstrong, Cancer Survivor ~July 29 ~ Ideas to motivate, educate, and inspire
So Jayson, your stoic philosophizing is good starter point, yes it's about YOU'r personal standpoint, you are not in my pants nor am i in your pants, everyone has it's own philosophy of winning your own self (that is the basis of Yoga and Zen and many other meditative techniques but not limited to any of this in fact you can acquire the "kundalini" without even believing in higher force), the TRANS-CENDENCE,
Not to be picky, but I don't think your use of the word "stoic" is fair. A stoic person is a person who endures pain and hardship without showing their feelings. That description does not fit me at all. I am not really "philosophizing" either. I am making personal observastions based on what I have experienced, and I am asking questions. At no point did I attempt to belabour my views or force them on others. I am just presenting an alternative view. .
Wikipedia:
"In everyday language, "transcendence" means "going beyond", and "self-transcendence" means going beyond a prior form or state of oneself. Mystical experience is thought of as a particularly advanced state of self-transcendence, in which the sense of a separate self is abandoned."
You can do right things, you can do wrong things but on the final point you will do good thing, i don't know if this applies to single life span because some forms of spirit that manifest in human form are not yet ready to evolve, in fact many spiritualist argue that we are here on earth only to evolve and enrich the higher consciousness when we return to continuum, and even in the afterlife you have wild life that is not capable of evolving higher, i think that Steve and Erin can tell you more, only Steve doesn't want to talk about it in public because many would take his words as a sham... i don't also believe it until i actually see the astral world, if i ever attain that capability in current life..
The fact is you will die off if you don't grow, you will end up a miserable old man that will be bitter on the entire world, frail and very sick.
There are viewpoints out there that are different to yours. Some believe that growth is inevitable, and that you could not stop the process if you tried. However, you can make the process more "easy" or more "difficult" by your choices. As far as "right" and "wrong" is concerned ... humans are changing the definitions of those two words all of the time ...
Be sure to check tis little article:
6abc.com: 75-year-old Man Lifts Plane An interesting article, I must say. So how many planes can you lift? 
and for the poor folks out there who can barely lift their gym bags, is this because they are weak of heart and spiritually inept?
this:
Lifting up the World with a Oneness-Heart
and something i just discovered today and start exploring like Steve's pearls:
Sri Chinmoy Library
For example my material game is to achieve enough money for buying a 300ft megeayacht, a private 400 acre Caribbean island, big 500MM€ a year profit from my companies, .... ,... , ...
^This sounds ridiculous, right??!! From your stand of point it is,
Don't make assumptions, Mayo. I DO NOT think your idea is "ridiculous". How can you say something like that? I think your dream is SUPERB. GO FOR IT!! 
from mine it's just a GAME, nothing else, it is not that i strive to get through there, it is that i strive to go through the PROCESS! Will i achieve it, probably not! But will it be worth it? Certainly YES! If i got to this goal at even 1/10000000000000000 part of it i will accomplish something, the money i gain will be a LEVERAGE to not have to think about it any more and put it on AUTO-PILOT. My only point from there will be to get to the other, higher game, that of TRANS-CENDANCE. After many earthling soul searching life cycles maybe i will understand after all what life really means or maybe i wont, it all depends how i play the game.
So PLAY THE GAME!