Everyone wants (or better yet, needs) a purposeful life. Without ‘purpose‘, our lives are rendered meaningless. What gives ‘purpose’ to our life? Is it something which makes us happy? Or is it something which makes us great. The problem with streamlining and defining a singular ‘purpose’ for life is that it just won’t work. Why should it work? Humans are dynamic creatures, we love to explore.
I bet that the dream which you had in your childhood is completely different from the one which you have right now. That is because life keeps on evolving for us. So to stick to one purpose is quite tricky. In a sense, if you can widen the scope of your ‘purpose’, it will work. But that is not how you achieve it. To reach somewhere in regards with achieving your purpose for life, you not only have to narrow it down, but you will also have to break it down into smaller parts so that it becomes feasible for you to achieve it.
Ok, let me put it into simpler words for you. You can see purpose as a lot more like the ultimate goal of your life. Now we know that to be successful and achieve any goal, we need to break it down into simpler milestones. So, for example, if your ultimate goal or purpose of life is to make people happy, you can break it down into different ways in which you achieve it in the best possible manner. But it is not that simple, is it?
To stick to our purpose, we need one essential element. That is called principle. Every one of us should have a principled life. You can have a purpose, but without principles, you can never achieve them. Its very simple to understand. Think of ‘principles’ as the discipline here and ‘purpose’ as the skill that you want to learn. If you’re going to learn that skill, you have to have the discipline, right?
Why Should Anyone Live a Purposeful Life Anyway?
To answer it simply, if you don’t live a purposeful life, you just exist without any motivation to lead your life. You know what happens to people who don’t have a purpose in their lives, they become nihilistic, and with that, they start spreading negativity. No one likes such people. We love to be around cheerful people; people who can make us smile and give us something to live for. Think about this: why would anyone want to live without a purpose? You get up from your bed, and you have nothing to live for. There is no purpose. Well, sometimes this happens, and I am not saying that it is a life wasted. All I am saying is, it is a life unexplored. Everyone should lose purpose and gain new ones; there’s nothing wrong with that.
Leaders have a purpose. The interesting thing here to note is that leaders never start with the intention of necessarily leading others. They simply carve their way and offer something to the world which others haven’t. The leaders are innovators who are out there with a purpose to create something new and of value. People naturally follow them; leaders never have to ask someone to do so. So if you want to be a leader, you need to start with having a purpose, build on the discipline with the help of principles, and you just might become one or won’t. Who knows! It is worth trying.
The simple way to look at life is not to look at it as how many times you lost or even how many times you stood up. Just look at life as something which is going on, right, and you are a part of it. You fall, you get up, and you fall, and you get up again, but its the process which matters.
So how does it apply to ‘have a purpose’? It is simple. When you have a purpose, and you don’t achieve it, that doesn’t mean you have lost. In case you achieve it, that doesn’t mean you have won. Its the process which needs to keep going on, the process of life, so that your purpose actually means something. Let’s say you made someone happy; with that, your ‘purpose’ isn’t fulfilled. It has just started. There are more people in the world you need to look after. This is just an example, you don’t have to look after anyone necessarily, but it wouldn’t hurt if you do.
Process Matters More For a Purposeful Life
This is an overlay to help you make understand what a meaningful life is and why it is essential. But what about the process and what about, first of all, finding a purpose? Since ‘purpose’ is a big deal and we are essentially committing our significant part of life to it, we have to choose the best purpose for us. How do we go about selecting it?
If you want an answer to this, it is in your past, your present, and your future. Confused? Let me make it simple for you.
So, when you wake up and don’t have anything to live for, you need a purpose. You are sitting on the edge of the bed, thinking, how do I get one? Just look inside your mind. Think about your past, what made you feel good? What got you excited for the long term. Can’t find an answer there, look at what you are doing now, does that fulfil you? Does that make you happy? Can’t find an answer here? Just look at the future and think about what might make you happy!
Sometimes, even these questions don’t have an answer. What do you do then?
You wait it out. You keep your head up, step out of your house and actively look for one. Try out different things, check what makes you happy. It may be for short-term, and really, you don’t have to stick to something if you don’t feel like it. Maybe it made you happy initially, and it is not making you happy now, just move on. Life isn’t supposed to be one linear activity or a plan, it can be a variety of things and experiences, and at the end, you can choose, what you would instead of trying out a thousand more other things. But again, you can try out a thousand other things.
Is Attaining Happiness The Ultimate Goal?
Many of us think that our purpose is to be happy in the end. No, on the contrary, it is not to have regrets or lead a life without any clear direction at the end. Happiness is a temporary state, and it comes and goes, what remains in between is the life and the process.
Leading a purposeful life doesn’t mean that you have to live a life of happiness. It means that regardless of how you feel, you have to do things which don’t make you happy till the time it serves your purpose. You have to step out of your comfort zone and live life without expecting happiness. That’s the key to live a life with content.
Questions to Ask For Leading a Purposeful Life
Now, I read this brilliant piece on Forbes and the article laid out three simple questions one can ask themselves to really see if they are leading a purposeful life or not.
Question 1 – Did I learn something new today?
Let’s take a look at this question to understand its context better. Every one of us wants to learn something. You don’t want to just get out of bed, go to school, then office and retire and go to bed again. That’s boring! We want to learn new things. To lead a purposeful life full of knowledge, you have to learn something new every day. Learn it from the books you read, the people you interact with, or looking at someone else go about their job/daily life. Everything is to look upon and learn from; you can never have too much knowledge.
Be curious, ask hard questions, or you know what, even silly ones do the magic. I read this question in the article, and it opened my eyes, ‘When was the last time you did something for the first time?’ If the answer is too long, you should get to learn new things right away.
Question 2 – Do you help others?
Now, this might look like a very cliched thing for finding purpose. ‘Just help others, and you will feel that your life is changing’, everyone says that right and it doesn’t make any sense. But you know what, it does make sense. It will start making sense when you start helping others. We are not on this planet just for ourselves and by ourselves. It is our need to interact socially and have status. The thing is, it is not just for status; it is for fulfilment. Helping others will make you feel nice, and that’s a promise. Don’t live only for yourself, that’s a life wasted.
Question 3 – Do you love what you do?
Everyone knows this question and have asked it ourselves time and again. Most of the times the answer has been no and yet we have been doing something we don’t love. Sure there are different reasons as to why someone is doing what they are. But, always remember that you are not trapped in anything, you can get out of any place any time if you want. Also, its never too late to learn new things. You can learn and use the knowledge in your unique way. Don’t let others define the perfect age for learning or doing something.
Purposeful Life Quotes
To understand this better, let’s take a look at some quotes which revolve around making life purposeful.
Quote 1 – ‘It is a mental slavery to cling to things that have stopped serving its purpose in your life.’ – Chinonye J. Chidolue
– When we decode this, we can understand that people are not ready to leave things behind. Sometimes, we think that the only way we make a purpose whole is by achieving it. But that’s not true. Sometimes things don’t work out the way they are supposed to, and that doesn’t mean that we can’t leave it behind. If the thing that you cling to isn’t fulfilling your purpose, don’t try to save it anymore. It is already gone. So move ahead and do something new, you will find your way.
Quote 2 – “Occupy your thoughts with purpose, and you will be so busy pursuing a meaningful future there will be no time for doubt, chaos and disappointment.” – Carlos Wallace
– Like I said above, when we look at life without any purpose, you don’t have that excitement to live. This leads to disappointments and depression. Nothing matters to you anymore, and nothing will ever make you happy. So it is essential to have a purpose which you are going towards. It is, however, not necessary to achieve it, because there will be another after one is completed. The importance lies in the process of learning new things and contributing to the world in a however small manner possible.
Quote 3 – “Without purpose, we are just good looking animals.” – Abhijit Naskar
– When you hear this, you should get the point. What is the difference between the animals and us if we don’t use our brain for leading a life with purpose and just eat and sleep. That doesn’t create a difference in anyone’s life. The enormous power of being a human being lies in the ability to create a difference in someone else’s life. How you do that, that’s upon you. But you have to do that to make your life more meaningful and one with purpose.
There is No End Goal
There is no end goal, to be honest. You can have thousands of purpose and achieve them all, and your life would make no meaning when you are done. Don’t see your ‘purpose’ as the end goal of your life. Till the time you are alive, you have to keep building purposes with principles and keep on living in the process. You have to keep adding value to the world. There are millions of ways you can do that. Don’t stick to a standard one which others are going with.
You are a human being, and that makes you the most dangerous and one with the maximum potential on this planet. Make use of that advantage and don’t waste your life; it is not cute. The more you learn new things, the better you become. So chase that purpose and build some principles.
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