What is the meaning of life? What is your purpose? Why are you here? Are you here for a reason? Is there a divine entity looking down on you? What happens after you die?
The way you answer these questions determines the overall context for everything you do in life. It is not often that people sit down and seriously consider these questions but I’m here to tell you that it’s worth putting in the time and effort to figure it out, and I will tell you how I have gone about it.
This is part one of a seven-part series on how to find purpose and direction in your life:
Part 1: Why It’s Worth Knowing
Part 2: Overview
Part 3: Know Yourself
Part 4: Build Strong Foundations
Part 5: How Should We Live?
Part 6: Why Purpose Doesn’t Interest You yet (and When It Will)
Part 7: Discovery
Why It’s Worth Figuring out Your Purpose
Put simply, you are more likely to achieve fulfilment and personal success in life if you know what you want to get out of it. Additionally, you don’t want to spend the next 20 years of your life going down a particular path before having a mid-life crisis and realising you have wasted most of it. Better to have that crisis now and reap the benefits.
Perhaps it’s just me but I need a reason for doing something. I’m not going to do something just because I’m told to — I’m going to ask why I should. If the answer I get isn’t good enough I won’t do it. I’ll consider what I want to do with my life instead, then I’ll do that.
What Is Your Why?
Why do you do the things you do?
Chances are you spend the majority of your time in school or at work. Why do you do it? The general consensus is that you’re supposed to go to school to get good grades, which will get you into a good university, that will get you into a well-paid and secure job.
But why is that important?
Let’s assume that it’s important because it provides money to fund your lifestyle. But then that would mean the 40+ hours a week you spend on study and work are all to enable you to live a particular lifestyle.
There is more to life than just study and work, so what is it that you want to live for? What does your ideal lifestyle consist of?
Simon Sinek: Start With Why
A very popular TED Talk by Simon Sinek looks at the question of purpose from a business perspective. It’s worth watching, just make sure you listen to it from a life perspective. What do you do? How do you do it? But, more importantly, why do you do it?
For most people, their goals consist of mainly financial and materialistic things: school, uni, work, promotions, owning a home, upgrading that home, raising a family, and saving for retirement. But then what?
Having a purpose/reason/direction in life frees you up from the burden of society’s expectations. I know someone who didn’t know what they wanted to do with their life so they just took the advice of those around them. You might be doing the same thing, if not so consciously. Perhaps you’re only doing that university degree because your friends and family expect it of you, or you are only studying medicine because your family expects you to be a doctor, or you’re planning on becoming an accountant because it’s a stable career path that you’re afraid of leaving.
The Power of Clarity
Living a life based on the expectations and pressures of other people, or the fear of failing or trying something less popular, is not a life of fulfilment, happiness and personal success.
In contrast, knowing who you are, what you want, and how you want to live — having purpose and direction in life — provides you with a massive boost in motivation, energy, determination and courage.
Think about it: if you know exactly how you want to live and what you want to get out of life, then your goals fall into place, your eyes are set on the targets and you take action to achieve your goals and make progress. You can do anything you set your mind to. But only if you act, instead of react; only if you have an active approach towards life, instead of passive; only if you take responsibility and assume the power to create the life you want to live, instead of drifting through life never quite knowing if it can be better.
For example, compare two assignments. One is from a subject at school that was compulsory and you never wanted to do it. The deadline has been set for a week away and you’re dreading having to spend the hours required to complete it. You procrastinate. You see the friends you haven’t seen in a while, relax more than usual, and end up waiting until the day before it’s due before beginning. This sucks, you delay setting up your workspace, eat more than usual, and begin working later than you told yourself you would. Then you force yourself to complete it in time to get a minimum amount of sleep before class the next day.
Contrast this with the second assignment, the one from your favourite subject. You’re passionate and interested in this topic and even with the same seven-day deadline, you begin the next day. You don’t procrastinate. This assignment is barely work for you — you’d do it even if you didn’t have it as an assignment (just without the formalities usually attached to an assignment). You’re motivated and it’s easy. Imagine having this amount of energy and motivation every day!
The same thing applies to work: repetitive work that doesn’t directly help anyone with their lives drains your enthusiasm and you end up unmotivated and hating the hours you spend at work. Contrast this with a job where you get to learn more about a topic you’re passionate about, your work-life balance isn’t skewed towards ‘work’, you’re directly helping people with their lives and making a difference, things are not repetitive, and/or your effort is appreciated and your hard work acknowledged.
Take the contrasting examples and apply it to your life. Are you living a repetitive, stressful, boring, unmotivated, and/or meaningless life? Do you often feel down about things? Do you feel a bit lost about what to do or who you are? Or are you excited most days of the week, feeling happy more than not, recognising the progress you have made in the past week/month/year? Are you driven, excited about life and what the future holds, and happy with who you are and where you are going?
Figuring out your purpose can help you get less of the former and more of the latter. It’s not an easy process (at least, it wasn’t for me) and it might take a while but, trust me, it’s worth it.
Increase Fulfilment
In the post on maximising the value you get out of life, the biggest group of positive factors was ‘fulfilment’, so this is an important area of life to focus on. Fulfilment is the feeling that you are making progress, you are making a difference, you are growing as a human being, or you are living a meaningful and purposeful life. Understanding your purpose and direction allows you to focus your efforts towards actions that will maximise that feeling.
Experiencing fulfilment at certain times does not require knowing your purpose, just as getting correct answers on a test doesn’t require studying. However, just as a student might focus their efforts into studying in order to maximise the number of correct answers on a test, knowing your purpose allows you to focus your efforts into actions that will maximise your fulfilment.
This is part one of a seven-part series on how to find purpose and direction in your life:
Part 1: Why It’s Worth Knowing
Part 2: Overview
Part 3: Know Yourself
Part 4: Build Strong Foundations
Part 5: How Should We Live?
Part 6: Why Purpose Doesn’t Interest You yet (and When It Will)
Part 7: Discovery
