What is the purpose of life?

What is the purpose of my life?

Do you sometimes get an uneasy feeling that you are supposed to be pursuing a higher purpose in this life but somehow it remains a mystery? Some people seem to be born knowing what their purpose in this life is. Somehow the planets conspired to arrange things in their lives to bring about a brilliant “AHA, I have found it!” moment and that was it – a brilliant violinist, a humanitarian, a philosopher. 

I never really considered the question of purpose until recently. I was too much in the moment to think those thoughts as a child, my early adult years found me preoccupied with fundamental questions like how will I pay the rent? It’s only lately I have had the space and time to contemplate purpose in life and I have no answers other than the insight that it is a question mostly asked by those either higher up on the food chain or those who have chosen a non-materialistic, more spiritual way of being.

I find it fascinating that there is no generic answer to the question of purpose it’s very much something we each have to come to individually. As this is a fundamental question for many, perhaps there is an easier approach to finding its answer. What if we asked instead; “what gives my life meaning?” 

  I found this statement by Mark Manson:

Here’s the truth. We exist on this earth for some undetermined period of time. During that time, we do things. Some of these things are important. Some of them  are unimportant . And those important things  give our lives meaning  and  happiness . The unimportant ones basically just kill time.

Through pursuing the things that give me a sense of meaning to my life, my purpose becomes clear. . So simple!