What Is My Purpose?

The first financial book I read was probably Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. The father of the owner of the golf course I work recommended I read it to get the fundamental mindsets that distinguish the wealthy from the poor.

One piece of advice grasped me.

"If you don't feel like you have a spiritual purpose of making money, as if God put you on this earth for it, then entrepreneurialism isn't right for you."

After reading the book, I started thinking I was put on this earth for one job: returning the favour to my parents and creating freedom through wealth.

I am lucky to find an idea of a purpose. Intrinsically, I don’t believe there is any real purpose when you're born. Life doesn't give you a grand goal to pursue or a mission that justifies your existence. The growing distaste for religion has made people nihilistic about the meaning of life. With that, there is more of a burden to find meaning in the human experience if it isn't handed down to us without struggle.

Base Level Meaning of Life

I do not think life has any inherent meaning. It is a blank canvas for humans to carve a painting on. Until we can move the brush strokes, we need to know some idea of life. Right? An artist has an intended meaning to convey for others to look upon. In life, we are both the painter and the observer. We are the ones living our own life, not for others. So, it becomes an obligation for us to create a purpose to keep painting away at our masterpiece.

It seems we are more lost with the absence and decline of religion in society, particularly in the West. Our Judeo-Christian roots have been replaced with Atheism or the new religion of Wokeism. Before, you could say your purpose was to serve God. Now it's 'insensitive' to say so because it offends those who don't believe in God. I'd argue the absence of faith in God will be replaced with another false idol. These fake idols and prophets can be people, ideas, and values of any kind.

What the religions before tried to teach were good morals. Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't lie, don't steal, and honour your mother and father. Generally, morally sound principles to keep order and peace in society. So, if one rejects the given purpose religions have provided, something has to fill that void of purpose.

It begs the question: is purpose found, or is it created? One can still be aimless with their ambitions, only to feel lost without realising their own meaning. The idea of finding a purpose leaves it up to chance. Perhaps it was fate that let you stumble across your life goal? The family we were born into, the environment we grew up in, and other external factors could have played a role in our conception of purpose. But I'd like to think the purpose is found within the depths of the soul, something that transcends reality and taps into a higher Being. Your purpose has to make peace with you as you aim for it.

A constant of life can be characterised by pain and struggle. We were born on this earth through the pain of our mothers. Learning to walk took an endeavour. Learning to read, write and speak our mother tongue took a struggle. There are moments of joy in this life, but like light, it cannot exist without darkness. Creating a purpose can be a hardship in itself as we navigate reality. In saying that, nothing worthwhile and meaningful is easy to attain.

This leads to the relationship between sacrifice and meaning. Compromise of potential is what creates significance. To have a specific purpose is to deny the rest.

Someone who is everything is thus nothing.

No sacrifice creates a man who has not had the hard decision to decide what path to take. You can only take one. It is not to say you must stick to one way forever, but you cannot aim for all of them. Aim for a target. The transition from childhood to adulthood can be characterised by the transformation of potential to actuality. It's meaningful to dedicate all of one's life work to one profession or purpose as the rest had to be thrown away. Sacrifice nearly everything dedicated to one ideal. As a result, inherent meaning towards a goal is manifested because of sacrifice and compromise.

How To Create Purpose

The first purpose of a human is to create one. The amount of distractions around us sucks away the focused attention we need to be conscious of our why. If you look at your regular day, how often do you think about life?

If you feel you have no purpose, answer this question. Have you sat down to think about it? It may sound stupid to ask, but the mind is a valuable tool in that endeavour. This might come in the form of meditation or journaling. And I talk not of surface-level thought either. Sure, have a rough idea. It does not need to be concrete. The whole point of having a purpose is to have some target to aim at. This target may shift with time and exploring ideas, but you need to aim somewhere.

Without a purpose, you drift. You try to impersonate others to cover up for your lack of identity connected to a goal. Or even worse, you distract yourself with hedonistic pleasure: alcohol, drugs, porn, social media and video games. They are all distractions. Unless they aid in your conquest to fulfil your purpose, they will stop you from achieving the most of the one life you have on this earth.

But it wouldn't matter if you had nothing to aim towards in the first place. If there was no purpose, who's to say these short-term pleasures stopped anything?

That isn't to say you won't change with time. What you wanted when you were young will change when you are older. And it seems to relate back to the family. Always the cliché of sitting on your death bed regretting what little time you dedicated to those around you than materialistic objects you can't bring to the afterlife.

I know the freedom I crave so much. Some of it will be sacrificed to raise a family. To lead another generation of my bloodline. Perhaps the attainment of wealth opens up the possibility of choosing when to work and having the freedom to spend time with those I care about most.

For now, I will work on the purpose that makes sense, whilst still thinking of the future ahead.

You Still Don't Have A Purpose?

So, if you still haven’t got a purpose. Get one. I cannot tell you the specific steps, but I can trust you, and your mind can create one. Because with purpose, a goal, and ambition, come meaning and fulfilment.

Start with something. Anything. You can aim low, then high. Aiming at something is better than nothing. A clear goal will allow you a clear vision of what necessary actions must be taken to further the ambitious conquest of that goal. That objective might shift with time; let it be.

Make sure it sits right with your Being, whatever purpose you create.

If you like the article, you can check out the video version on my YouTube channel Denzil Duke. (Albeit less dense than the article.)