This is only my opinion, and I want to qualify it as such, but you don't find your life purpose sitting on your ass thinking all day. Those kinds of insights, in my experience, come only when you're living life and something catalyzes you to step up to the plate and become a better person. Otherwise, you'll do purpose exercises and get no where, because you really don't see the point. This is how it was for me, I was like "OMG, I'm gonna find my purpose, the magic pill for all my existence so that I can no longer do work, ever." Haha. Then I went out and started experiencing negative emotions as a reaction to external stimuli (rejection, blow outs, mostly social context). If I were living in a perfect world of enlightened people with no egos acting straight from their true intentions, I'd probably not experience the social conditioning required to feel negative emotions, but the thing is, I don't live in that world, so I do feel them. With that said, those emotions catalyzed the drive to find my purpose.
So I'll tell you: go out. To answer your question, yeah, I think socializing is very worth your time. Just like working on any other part of your life. The thing is social success is in direct relation to how much you let go, unless of course you're learning magic tricks to fool people into liking you. If you want real fulfillment, you'll let go of the outcome, and the more you let go and do not care what others think of you, ever, the more social success you'll have. Whereas with work you can do it while stressed, under pressure, etc, as with many things, socializing FORCES you to let go of the outcome. It forces you to observe subtlety in action. It is my belief that socializing and REALLY pushing your envelope, your comfort zone, your ass, whatever you call it, to become among the best, that is one of the most direct paths to the feeilng of presence, stillness, and nowness. Call me crazy but I've experienced it on occasion, on a truly on night. The energy that simple interactions can build is extremely intense, and I'd not want anyone to NOT feel the powerful intensity it can bring you when you do it right.
So get out there and have fun! I'm young and have a similar schedule to you (not so many commitments). It's EASY to manage it, you just have to want it. I don't know your situation, but I know you can find a way.
Hope this helped. Have fun with it!
