What is the Purpose of Our Life?

Life without meaning is a disaster. Life with meaning is an epic journey. Let’s take a look at the purpose of our life.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that the headline of this article is pretentious, arrogant, and naive.

The greatest minds in our short history have tackled this question over the centuries. The answers can of course never be agreed upon.

It’s a commonly held idea that the purpose of life is happiness. This is often expressed by those of eastern philosophy. Let’s call them the spiritual gurus.

Honestly, I think saying the meaning of life is one single feeling is a pathetic answer.

It’s often delivered by people who do nothing but meditate and preach their own beliefs.

It’s a drastic oversimplification that is steeped in arrogance.

I like happiness, who doesn’t?!? But to say every single thing we do in life is about achieving this singular emotional state of feeling is ludicrous.

This idea puts a feeling (happiness) above the state of consciousness. Without consciousness, happiness can’t even exist.

I’ve always had an internal quarrel with the idea that somebody living on the other side of the world meditating all day and not facing any of the challenges I face is somehow in a better position to tell me how to live my life.

Everything has its extreme and even spiritual gurus can go too far and become a victim of themselves and their own ideals.

When it comes down to the purpose of your life, it is you that needs to be your own guru.

Listen to others, not to believe them but to entertain their notions. Hold them in your mind and see how they work for you.

The truth may be something we can agree upon from time to time, but it’s not something we can ever know beyond all doubt. Anyone who claims to know beyond all doubt an absolute truth in my opinion is the epitome of a fool.

When I teach something my philosophy is that I don’t want you to believe me. Hold it, test it and decide for yourself if it works for you.

You need to be brave enough to be your own expert and your own guru. At the end of the day, you must decide what works for you and not leave it in the hands of someone else, wherever possible.

If happiness is the purpose of life, then I guess in this world with much obvious unhappiness, we are either constant failures or only happy in our ignorance and disconnect from those who are extremely not happy.

We live in a world with endless cruelty among other things more joyous. But knowing this the only way to be happy is to be completely detached from the endless cruelty. This means those who are eternally happy are being happy due to their eternal ignorance.

Now if by chance somebody was going to suggest that happiness is the true meaning of life but it can only be achieved when 100% of us are happy, well then, this concept becomes a living joke.

Another might say, “no Scott you have got it completely wrong, this notion suggests the purpose of life is not happiness but the pursuit of happiness” – Pursuit of Happiness – Great movie. Any Will Smith fans out there?

Again complete silliness, what makes one person happy might in fact make another completely unhappy. This inevitable conflict means even though the pursuit of happiness, we are preventing global happiness.

This article’s only getting started and I just dismantled 1000’s of years of eastern philosophy with my words.

Now that I’ve destroyed that, allow me to replace it with something much more achievable and empowering.

The Purpose of Life

The purpose of life is simple and actionable. It is accessible to all. The extent to which you pursue the purpose of life will be the extent to which you live a fulfilling life.

It’s not enough to know it, you must be it.

The purpose of life is split into three components. I will deliver each one now:

1. To Reconnect

Why do I say reconnect and not just connect?

We are all part of the whole. You, me, things, places, and ideas, are all eternally connected through energy.

We are one. Society pulls us away from this reality. Society conditions us to believe there is you and there is the rest. We therefore try and be the best and we try to get more. We believe winning and losing are important.

The media is in a constant pursuit to reinforce the idea of separation. It does a terrific job of doing so. It divides us, allowing us to be controlled and relent our freedoms.

The more we reconnect with the reality that we are one, the more peace, love, and harmony we will experience.

The fact is we are one. We always have been and always will. Through life, through death, there is no separation. There is just the oneness.

The more you understand this and live it, the more consciously aware of it, you will become.

Reconnecting is perhaps even the wrong word.

Really what is happening is that you are becoming aware of what is and dissolving the idea that there is a separation between the illusion of you and everyone and everything else.

This takes what we call faith.

It’s something to believe in. The illusion is something we must live with, but it is still an illusion. A matter of perception.

The things we experience in the physical world are in fact not experienced outside of us but are experienced deep within our mind.

When we see something, touch something, taste something, smell something, it all happens inside our heads. The illusion is that it is happening outside of you.

Therefore everything is within you.

To pursue the notion of oneness is to pursue a spiritual journey. One that will involve you confronting your fears, reaching down deep within yourself, and being courageous.

We perhaps cannot ever undo the illusion but we can become aware that it is one.

Some people achieve this through meditation, but honestly, the best way to become conscious of this reality is to filter your thoughts and your actions through it.

It will result in you making better decisions and living a more peaceful life, driven by deep-held values that have only come as a result of moments of empowering character building.

2. To Learn

Don’t just learn anything. Don’t pursue trivial things. But instead, pursue more worldly constructs.

Read about psychology, the sciences, learn about your body, human behavior, nature, the cosmos.

Learn about skills, alternative ways of thinking, financial management, self-management, home improvement, industries, professions, economics. The list is really endless, but keep on learning.

Carry on the flame of knowledge so that you may pass it on to others.

The joy of knowledge is a wonderful experience that leads us to a deeper understanding of the self. It brings with it new energy and rejuvenation of our vigor for life.

Learning raises our vibration and compels more information to be drawn to us. This in turn can be used for the betterment of your life experience.

It increases your value and so you have more to give others that will improve their lives. Which in itself is a very fulfilling practice.

Giving to others in a meaningful way is the best way to reinforce the idea to yourself that you matter and that what you do is important.

3. To do Better

Number three was a tricky one for me. Amazingly we’ll never know what our best is. Which puts a nail in the coffin of the old cliche “do your best” or “all you can do is your best”.

We will never know our true potential in terms of our abilities to do things.

But there is a voice or a sense of awareness that tells us in any given moment if we can do something better.

In those moments it is up to you to follow through and do that little bit better.

Within the realm of being reasonable of course. Don’t confuse this sentiment with the idea of achieving perfection, which is another ludicrous notion.

But the continuous pursuit of improvement in any given task or action is a worthy cause that involves self-analysis and increased self-awareness.

I hope this article has helped you connect the dots and perhaps live a more purposeful life, no matter what you choose to pursue.