|
So I've been searching for my "purpose" for about 10 years, and unlike some other commenters here my personal experience makes me believe it's possible to consciously discover/create your purpose. But I don't see purpose as anything particularly religious or dramatic–simply that you can reflect on the life you have in front of you and feel content/at peace with where you are. Nowadays, I consider myself fairly happy. Here is an incomplete list of things I did to get closer to answering the ever elusive question: - I retraced my childhood memories to resurface long forgotten hobbies and activities that brought me joy, focus, and interest. For instance, as a kid I used to spend hours and hours drawing my favourite FFVII characters, puzzling over difficult math problems, playing piano, and more. Not all of these turned out to still be interesting to the adult me, but if you're looking for ideas on what kind of activites might bring you fulfilment, your childhood interests (or their underlying motivations) are often a good place to start. - I attempted a bunch of new things over the course of multiple years. A non-exhaustive list of things I tried: learning German, living in 3 different countries, running a marathon, doing a triathlon, going to law school, taking watercolor painting lessons, doing a sculpting course, learning jazz piano, spending time in a Buddhist temple, creating a mobile app, etc. etc. Most of these I invested 3+ months of regular commitment to give them a proper shot, but some only ~20 hours. And if you want to know how many actually stuck with me, optimistically I'd say about 20%–but going through the 80% to find this 20% was more than worth it for me. Point being, I spent a lot of time (and energy) trying out things I didn't really end up liking in order to find the few that I did. - Lots and lots of introspection and self-inquiry regarding my emotions, motivations, and values. What do I stand for? What can I not live without? Why do I do the things I do? Why did I choose the paths I chose? What do I wish I could have chosen? What did I stop doing? Where are these emotions coming from? Nobody could answer these questions for me, and oftentimes neither could I. But I didn't stop turning them over and over in my head throughout all the years, and slowly over time I started to form half-answers and then eventually full answers to some of these questions. - Sometimes I landed at major crossroads in my life, and I just couldn't decide. For a long time I remained in this limbo state, agonizing over which path to take, until I learned that just picking something and moving on is a much better approach. Biasing towards action helped me gain key information faster than just sitting around thinking, and I learned either that I do in fact enjoy the path I chose or that I would I rather be doing <x> activity instead–in which case I promptly changed to doing <x> instead. (Note that this kind of goes against the point above on introspecting a lot. I guess the key takeaway is to make sure you're doing both, but people tend to overthink and underact.) - Whenever I wasn't sure about how much I valued something, I just cut it out of my life. The things that are truly important to me have a way of coming back to haunt me until the point I can't stand not pursuing them any longer. Example 1: I didn't play piano for a few years, and deeply missed it by the second year. Example 2: I didn't do any rigorous academic study for 5+ years, and one day realized how important intellectual rigor was to my own sense of identity. I don't know if I actually recommend this method though, as it's an expensive way to learn a lesson and some consequences are difficult to reverse (if at all). I often wonder if there are better ways of determining what's valuable to myself without going through this separation process. I'm going to stop here before I end up rambling; I hope the above will help you in one way or another. All in all, I believe it's worth searching for a life of purpose, whatever that might mean to you. To strive for anything less feels like doing yourself a disservice, because what's the point of living if you're not enjoying life in all its glorious suffering and beauty? So good luck, I'll be racing you to the peak! |