So why name the article “how to find your life’s purpose”? There is no such thing as a universal life purpose but you can give meaning to your life to make you more motivated and focused on your goals.
But first, let’s answer the question of why people are in search of a life purpose in the first place. It’s not like some dude stumbled upon the purpose of all human life (or at least his life) and then told everyone about it. Why would anybody attribute a purpose to his/her life?
The answer to that lies in causality, the law of cause and effect. This law is embedded into our subconscious from witnessing millions and billions of examples of it throughout or lives. We wake up because or bodies are no longer tired, a jar cracks because you dropped it on the floor, a plane flies because it’s propellers rotate, a kid cries because he’s upset, and so on. You can even see things the other way around: you’re no longer tired so you wake up, you drop a jar on the floor = it will crack (or break).
There is a reason for everything and everything has an effect over something else. We’ve been aware of this fact from the very beginnings. So the obvious question is what is the reason for us and on what are we having an effect on?
Well…the answer that man came up with a long, long time ago was god. The reason for our existence was that god made us; and since we were made by a god, our effect couldn’t be anything less than spectacular. Surely there are many effects that we can have on the world. We can preserve it, we can destroy it, we can try to improve it, but what does god want from us? Every god wants two things from you:
Click for more info on the Inspired Living App
1 Praise his name. Praise him and praise him some more for he is “the shit”. He made you, he can destroy you, you’re alive because he allows it, do his will and you’ll be rewarded, go against him and you’re fucked.
2 Do his will. That involves being a good person, spreading his word, waging war, killing the infidels, stuff like that.
And the reward for all this was everlasting happiness in the afterlife.
So the first life purpose people agreed on was getting into heaven. This worked as a purpose because it gave the masses a reason to keep on working and kept them at bay while the rich could do whatever they pleased. The poor, when struck by misfortune did nothing and consoled in the fact that they’ll be rewarded in the afterlife; and the bad people who mistreated them would go to hell and be punished accordingly (poetic justice). In reality those who mistreated them lived out their lives in luxury and depravity while they suffered and prayed for a miracle that never came.
So that was the first life purpose (for people with very little freedom); but now we have freedom which, one could argue, is equal to a kings. We are no longer limited therefore we can choose from a much larger set of purposes: from becoming a millionaire, to climbing Mount Everest, to being the best dad this world has ever known. We have so many options it’s no wonder we can’t pick.
Well here’s a little insight on the matter:
First of all you can’t have just one life purpose. You can’t climb Mount Everest if you’re broke, homeless and starving to death.
The first life purpose everybody must pursue is securing their basic needs. These may vary according to your upbringing: one person may consider a basic need to own his own private plane, while another may only need a hot bowl of food. Either way, if you’ve gone through life unable to provide yourself with your basic needs you’re going to live a miserable and often short life.
The second life purpose we must all aim for is success. Being successful at whatever we’re doing gives us a sense of accomplishment (a sense of purpose). It does not matter what you are doing as long as you are successful at it.
Most people have a problem choosing a path because they’re afraid that it will be the wrong one or are afraid that they’ll miss out on all the other opportunities out there. Well, first of all: yes, you will miss out on all the other stuff out there, but who cares; you can’t experience everything in one lifetime. Life is short, choose something and stick with it. How do you know if it is the right choice? Well, do you like the path that you feel like taking? Do you think that you’ll enjoy pursuing this dream? Do you think you are capable of becoming one of the best ever (if not the best) at that particular thing. Have you been pursuing this goal one way or another for a relatively long time? If the answer to these questions is yes, then go for it! Any further contemplation is a complete waste of time.
And don’t be sad, it’s not like you have to choose just one thing to be successful at. I aim to be successful at Kyokushin Karate, multi level marketing, investing, making a kick-ass blog, pick up, teaching the next generation of Karate-ka, partying like a rock star, mastering health and nutrition, visiting every country there is to visit and, later on, becoming the best dad that’s ever walked this earth.
And I can do this because I simply have the time for them. If I were to dedicate all my time to this blog, or to karate training, or any one thing, I would go insane. As a human being I need diversity so I stuck in as many goals as I can handle in the limited time I have. This means that I can be successful at all of them, and if I feel like it, shove a few more in.
Your main goal is to constantly and consistently be successful throughout your life; you can accomplish one goal and move on to the next or just handle a bunch of them at the same time, it does not matter. And if you lack enough goals to fill your time then try out new things till you find something you like.
Handle your basic needs and be successful at whatever you’re doing and you’ll have accomplished your life purpose.
A lot.
Inspired Living Mobile App 