Why YOU Should HAVE a LIFE PURPOSE
Having or not a life purpose can truly make or break your life. And this is no exaggeration.
Teen anxiety, depression, and suicide rates have risen sharply in the last few years. Media and culture are constantly pushing us to buy things we don’t really need by making us not feel enough and inadequate.
We live in the best possible era ever, with endless free time and resources, but we end up choosing to bore ourselves to death with social media and unconscious scrolling until it’s to time sleep.
We have so many options, so many paths and opportunities to undertake that they end up being overwhelming, so most of us choose none.
Thousands and even millions of lives go to waste and settle for traditional and passionless jobs because nobody taught them they could actually build and create a fulfilling and meaningful career – only if they took the time to decide and take responsibility.
Schools unfortunately don’t show children this possibility. Instead, they are systems which sole purpose is to create the next generation of mindless workers specialized in following orders and maintain the status-quo.
The Courage to Make A Purpose
Few are the ones that take the time, either by chance or choice, to ask themselves what they really and deep-inside-their-hearts want to be doing with their lives? What is the legacy they want to leave behind? What do they want to change in the world? These people, at some point in their lives, stopped following the herd and doing what everyone else was doing, to take responsibility for their own destiny. In other words, they consciously created a life purpose, whether they explicitly or implicitly formulated it.
And therein lies true power.
This is how Einstein discovered the Theory of Relativity and revolutionized the field of physics and our modern understanding of time and space.
How Ghandi achieved India’s independence, thus freeing millions of people from the claws of the British Empire
This is how Henry Ford developed the first mass-produced car and changed the way our economy and lives function.
How Jesus transformed Western Culture forever with his relentless will and selfless love or how Marie Curie became the first person to win the Nobel prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields,
Having a Life Purpose is how Jorge Luis Borges wrote the most beautiful and intricate short stories, defying the limits of logic and story-telling that will continue to awe and inspire us for a very long time.
Humanity’s great accomplishments were and are not mere luck or coincidence. They only happen when certain people decide to take ownership, choose a purpose to live by and dedicate 100% of their souls and energy into it.
It Doesn’t Matter What You Choose
But be careful, this it’s not really about the specific career you choose.
But for what is worth, you can end up directing films like Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, or you could create YouTube videos like The NerdWriter or Leo Gura. You could become a great and just lawyer, a talented chef, or even the creator of a new and more inclusive economic and political system.
The career you choose is not relevant. What matters is the intent and consciousness behind it. Something changes when you consciously decide and design your life purpose. And the fruits of this type of work always have something special that be smelled and felt from miles away – there’s power behind it, there’s art behind it. And this easily can happen when a person follows their passion dedicate their lives to it.
Should You Follow Your Passion?
There’s an advice in the self-actualization and personal development community saying that people should not follow their passion, and while it has some valid points and arguments, I don’t fully agree.
I truly believe that with enough time, dedication, and ingenuity, everyone can and will make money doing what they love – whether that’s veganism, game design or music.
But please don’t confuse this with a pep-talk – this is something far from it.
The reality is that you can accomplish all of this and more. What I’m talking about is not a pipe-dream, it’s a real possibility. Everyone can create some groundbreaking work or change the world in some way or another. Each and every one of us can design a career that makes waking up early in the morning and going to work worth it. it’s just a matter of deciding it and putting the work and hours that require to get it done.
But here is the catch: it takes years of real work to make a life purpose happen – it might even take decades – and very few people are willing to commit to it. Most of us prefer a life of comfort and security rather than one full of challenges, disappointments and long hours of uncredited, tiring work. We avoid taking responsibility and having to carry the weight of failing and committing at all costs. We want answers and decisions to be fed to us and we despise not knowing what’s going to happen in the future.
There are obviously plenty of reasons to choose the safe path – the path that most human beings take. But at what cost? You’ll probably end up wasting 80.000 hours of your life doing a job that is indifferent at best, soul-draining at worst.
The Benefits of Creating a Life Purpose
Granted, If you happen to consciously create and choose a life purpose, you might encounter countless disappointments, soul-crushing failures and sleepless nights. But you’ll also find a source of great satisfaction and fulfillment, a tool to develop and become a better and whole person, and most importantly a way to actualize your potential, express yourself and give back to the world in a way you find meaningful.
And, hopefully, at the end of your life, you’ll die knowing that you gave it your all, came to the world, stood up for something you believed and did what needed to be done.
I took that decision not so long ago, and I hope you do to.
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