Hey, y’all!! It’s been a while! These past few weekends have been incredibly busy with weddings, birthdays, and traveling, so I really haven’t had much time to write. It feels pretty good to be back in the saddle. Today’s topic is something that every person has wondered about or will wonder about. So pull up a chair and let’s talk purpose.
What is purpose?
Purpose has a few definitions. One is synonymous with intention, which is interesting, but not the focus of today’s post. Rather, we’re going to be talking about it with respect to the reason why something is done or, in our case, why something exists. Because that’s really one of the big questions right? I don’t know about y’all, but I have definitely had times where I wondered about the purpose of my life. And it’s mad fascinating because it’s like our main attempt at deriving meaning from our existence.
Many believe that there’s a reason why we were put on Earth. For some, that comes from their religion or spirituality (which are not always one and the same). Others believe that we evolved over eons. A few would say that we were created by a flying spaghetti monster. Regardless, we spend much of our days searching for purpose.
Purpose is one of those things that many seek, but not everyone finds
I say many because there are tons of people who don’t have their physical needs met. As listed above in the Hierarchy of Needs, we have to have our physiological and safety needs taken care of before anything else.
If we’re lucky enough to make it to the top of the pyramid, then we can start searching for our purpose. The main issue with this, that I’ve found, is that most of the time it requires stepping outside of our comfort zones. Some people are lucky enough to find their niche early, but for many, that’s not the case.
Discovering purpose is simple, not easy
It’s really about finding a thing or many things that light your insides up. The kind of stuff that makes us fly out of bed in the morning cause we can’t wait to do it. And uncovering that is simple: just go out and try shit. Obviously we’ve got to use judgment because there are some things that are harmful to our wellbeing, like certain kinds of drugs. But as for as experiences and hobbies and things that fulfill us, we just have to go and, like Gary Vee says, “taste things”.
And then once we’ve found stuff that we enjoy, double down on them. If we can’t work on them full time, make it a side thing. But always be working towards something that gives you fulfillment. It won’t always be easy. Hell, it might not even be fun at times. Motivation might dwindle or we might feel tired, lazy, or otherwise. But if we really want to do that thing, then we’ll find the discipline to do what we need to to make it happen.
As with most things, purpose is subject to change
We become different people over the course of our lives and as such, the things that bring fire to our lives might change. So it’s important to meditate on, journal, and use some problem solving to determine if what we’re doing still fits with who we are. I personally believe that all of what we do should be grounded in love, empathy, and truth, but how we manifest that is always up in the air. And that’s okay, as long as we’re constantly working to find those things.
I say a lot that life is too short to be unhappy. If we quantified how much time we had left like Kevin Kelly, we would realize that our time on this planet is mad short. And we should be using it to fulfill ourselves, love ourselves and others, and help others whenever we can. So go out and be great.
I want to thank you for talking humans with me today. What do you feel your purpose is? Let me know in the comments below. A couple housekeeping things. First, I removed ads from the blog. I feel like it was detracting from why I started doing this in the first place: to spark interesting conversations. Second, I’m going to start converting my email series stuff into posts, since I feel like there are a bunch of interesting pieces in there. Lastly, thank you again for reading. Don’t forget to subscribe and share. Catch y’all next week! Ciao!!