What's Your Purpose? (Part 1 of the Insightful Series)

There's a constant battle between believing in the larger connectivity between humans and also believing in the individualization that makes us distinct. Oftentimes, I have the battle of deciding whether we're completely insignificant as individuals and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, or if there's a larger purpose to our individual existence. It's a conflicting thought that I think most people are in a "grey area" about because believing in a larger purpose can sometimes seem like a delusional endeavor. Recently, I started to ponder, "What if I die without making an impact?" or "What if I die without changing anything?". It's a popular question to ask, "When you die, what do you want to be known for?". I'm not afraid of death, but I think many are afraid of the answer to that particular question if the truthful response is that you'll be known for nothing. Rather than believing that we don't have a purpose, it's better to have some faith in the belief that our actions matter. At the very least, that fear of insignificance is more likely to diminish once we realize that actions have a domino effect. Someone choosing to be a doctor does make an impact. Being a football player makes an impact. It doesn't matter how big of an impact someone makes; you can make one no matter what. It can be argued that, yes, the entire notion that actions have consequences is an old one. And yes, it is. But the idea that having the choice to make decisions is what automatically gives us at least some purpose has a large impact.

So, I can argue that simply because you have the choice to make decisions, you're handed a meager purpose in life. In other words, humans are not entirely insignificant. However, what likely differentiates people from being in the "grey area" and from being "significant" is entirely constituted by the actions we choose to take. If you're someone that believes in predestined fate, like a specific career choice, it would be understood that to be "significant" your larger purpose is having the "aha moment" of "this is what I'm meant to do in my life". But for those that don't, "significance" is usually just a synonym for "successful". The idea is that your purpose is to change an industry, win a Nobel Peace Prize, find the solution to cancer, etc. Ultimately, for people that don't believe in pre-destined fate, the "purpose" of living or their life in a larger retrospect is what they make it up to be. After accomplishing that goal, they've fulfilled that "purpose". The realistic and somewhat optimistic definition is that your "purpose" in life is simply achieving a goal to the best of your abilities and your fullest extent.

There's another take, however, that our impact or "larger purpose" is the relationships we foster and the people that will remember us. This is a more "humanistic" or psychological-oriented concept, but it is true that even subconsciously, humans are drawn to one another. This idea that meaningful relationships are the purpose of humans, is a bit of an outlier because it's a difficult measure to quantify or compare. Nonetheless, it is an option as a purpose.

Regardless of which approach to humans' larger purpose is correct, it's not entirely unrealistic to say that we all have one. Especially when "purpose" itself can be of many forms in each person's life.

#purpose,#life,#lifegoals,#blogging,#beyondmymind