10 Insights in Purpose
I.
Have you noticed how your life becomes fixated on what you believe will give it meaning? It might be the right career, a relationship, success, achievement, recognition, or finally discovering your “calling.”
II.
We’ve been taught that purpose is “out there”—something to be found, discovered, or achieved in the external world. We dedicate our lives to searching, striving, achieving, becoming.
III.
We finally attain our dreams and after the initial euphoria dissipates, we’re empty again. We want again, and like a madman, we try to fill in the void.
IV.
Mid-life crisis, post-success emptiness, and existential drift all point to the same reality: external achievements can’t fill internal voids.
The emptiness is still there louder then ever…
V.
Why does this happen?
The entire time, we have been operating from a worldview of lack, believing, “when I have X, then I’ll be whole.”
This belief is invisible to us, yet it drives everything.
VI.
When we desire, we are affirming our emptiness and lack.
In other words, desire itself is emptiness.
VII.
Thus, Striving from Emptiness Creates More Emptiness (hedonic treadmill). More, better, and different will never solve this problem but only feed the fire of desire.
VIII.
What appears as a “purpose crisis” is actually a meaning-making crisis rooted in false beliefs about what will fulfill you. We’re not lacking purpose—we’re operating from beliefs that make purpose impossible to recognize.
IX.
Most people think they need to find new purpose “out there.” What they actually need is to question the beliefs that created the false sense of lack “in here.”
X.
Thus, to discover your purpose, you have to look within.
The search itself eventually reveals that what you sought was never absent.
5 Quotes
I.
“If you do not go within, you go without.”
Neale Donald Walsch
II.
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Blaise Pascal
III.
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
Carl Jung
IV.
“This is the real secret of life -- to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”
Alan Watts
V.
“What you seek is seeking you.”
Rumi
1 Question
What are you actually seeking when you search for purpose? Is it purpose itself, or the feeling you believe purpose will give you?