What is the life purpose?

[DavidLawson]

Hey there. I'm new to this thread.

I have a thought experiment:

If you could choose any life purpose what would it be?

I often read things saying that all we need to do is discover our true self, to plumb the depths of our being and discover what it is that we really want to do.

I have a little quibble with this. I think humans are reasonably malleable so I can cultivate certain beliefs and certain life purposes. And some are better than others.

For example, some passions are easier to make money out of than others. Say I have a choice between juggling (which I love now) and playing football which I don't love as much but I could earn more by doing so (I wish), and crucially I can come to love it more.

It seems to me not just a case of finding what you are most passionate about, but finding a group of things that you are passionate about and then assessing them against a criteria to decide which passions to focus on (and they may not necessarily be what you are initially most passionate about).

The criteria could include:

Ability to make money from it
Sustainability
How many needs it simultaneously ticks off (playing a team sport aids your social needs, while reading does not)

What are your thoughts?

(The thread title should be: What is the best life purpose - but I can't edit it now)

[ThisMoment]

This is THE question of LIFE...

What is my purpose? And after years of searching, I've found the answer.

There is no PURPOSE.

Now some people consider purpose as making a difference. Which is health, but who's to say what making a difference really is. A world changing event/act can be a threat to someone else.

Don't fall into he trap of overanalyzing life.

LIVE...


Cheers,
ThisMoment

[Ecce Homo]

Originally Posted by ThisMoment

There is no PURPOSE.

Ah, but isn’t that as much of a belief as the belief that there is a purpose? Beliefs seem to be all we have to work with, including the belief that beliefs are all we have to work with.

Believing in purpose has been more empowering for me than believing in purposelessness and believe me, I’ve tried both ways. That’s just me though.

Don't fall into he trap of overanalyzing life.

Agreed! Cheers indeed!

[Eric L]

To be alive means to be alive.
To be dead means to be dead.

Trying to form a belief in order to rid yourself of the fears regarding these two is wrong.

Life is life.
Death is death.

Why try to find hidden meanings? Where did you learn to do this? Why do we try to form beliefs out of things that aren't true?

The purpose of life is to live and survive until death takes us - why we try to find other meanings other than this is beyond me.

Billions have searched for answers and died without answers. They worked their entire lives, for what? An answer that isn't there?

They did not find answers because they we're looking for something they already had. A life. But they wasted it. It's like trying to look for your own head all your life while it is, obviously, attached to your own body.

The purpose of life is, 42.

[Eric L]

I keep reading titles and not the threads within them. The title implies "what is the determined life purpose of everyone". hehe

There is no purpose but what purpose you make for yourself.

To me it is passion for technology. Mostly, computers and the internet.

My understanding of happiness is that to be happy you must connect deeply with others in your life.

Now, combine this understanding with technology and I would argue that my purpose is to learn as much as I can about happiness and spread my findings over the internet and mass market it.

That is my purpose.

Ability to make money from it Given the fact that i could generate huge amounts of traffic- I am thinking the AdSense payments would rock my socks off. The trick here is becoming reputable and make very good and strong connections with people within this field.

Sustainability Everyone wants to know how to be happy. We will always need this knowledge. Everyone I know wants to be happy.

How many needs it simultaneously ticks off (playing a team sport aids your social needs, while reading does not) All of them.

[Mogget]

Originally Posted by DavidLawson

Hey there. I'm new to this thread.

I have a thought experiment:

If you could choose any life purpose what would it be?

I often read things saying that all we need to do is discover our true self, to plumb the depths of our being and discover what it is that we really want to do.

I have a little quibble with this. I think humans are reasonably malleable so I can cultivate certain beliefs and certain life purposes. And some are better than others.

For example, some passions are easier to make money out of than others. Say I have a choice between juggling (which I love now) and playing football which I don't love as much but I could earn more by doing so (I wish), and crucially I can come to love it more.

It seems to me not just a case of finding what you are most passionate about, but finding a group of things that you are passionate about and then assessing them against a criteria to decide which passions to focus on (and they may not necessarily be what you are initially most passionate about).

The criteria could include:

Ability to make money from it
Sustainability
How many needs it simultaneously ticks off (playing a team sport aids your social needs, while reading does not)

What are your thoughts?

(The thread title should be: What is the best life purpose - but I can't edit it now)

I have done something very similar to this to directionais my life/career - I sat down and evaluated what my most important values were (both moev towards and move away from) and then matched them up with a number of blanket careers that covered all of them, or most of them.

After that it was just a matter of choosing the one that ticked the most boxes with the least 'cost' to me, which tuned out to be very different to what i thought I wanted, but meets my values so thoroughly that I am extremely contented. Seems to be working nicely so far.

[ThisMoment]

[QUOTE=Ecce Homo;538042]Ah, but isn’t that as much of a belief as the belief that there is a purpose? Beliefs seem to be all we have to work with, including the belief that beliefs are all we have to work with. /QUOTE]

Well said Ecce Homo,

I'm gonna reflect on that...

Thank you,
ThisMoment

[Manomanman]

Originally Posted by DavidLawson

If you could choose any life purpose what would it be?

I think we cannot choose our "purpose" in life - it chooses us.

If I could choose mine, it would be to be extremely attractive and be admired by everybody for my physical remarkability. I would also like to sit around and talk about what I felt, and that would be good enough...people would just listen and soak it all up.

[Mounds]

If I had to choose a purpose, I would say it's to be amazed everyday and to pass on that amazement to others.
I'm not going to lie, I don't run across astonishment everyday of my life. I will say that I run across it most days. As for passing it on, I taught a few people how to follow eye patterns as someone accesses different parts of the brain. They were definately amazed.

[blossom]

Our purpose is to BE here...why else would we have come? Being born is fulfilling our purpose of being alive and part of life. Anything else is just searching for meaning.

[Karanime]

To do whatever you want, and love it. We spend our lives searching for the "right thing to do." It's being ourselves.

Wonder how we missed that one.

And, if so inclined, you can save the human race from oblivion by advancing as much as possible as quickly as possible.

/<3

[kamalkat]

THERE IS ONLY ONE PURPOSE OF LIFE AND THAT IS TO KNOW THE TRUTH.No one can tell you you have to discover it for yourself.End of story.Else you would never ever be satisfied with whatever you have got even billionaires are not satisfied.

Originally Posted by DavidLawson

Hey there. I'm new to this thread.

I have a thought experiment:

If you could choose any life purpose what would it be?

I often read things saying that all we need to do is discover our true self, to plumb the depths of our being and discover what it is that we really want to do.

I have a little quibble with this. I think humans are reasonably malleable so I can cultivate certain beliefs and certain life purposes. And some are better than others.

For example, some passions are easier to make money out of than others. Say I have a choice between juggling (which I love now) and playing football which I don't love as much but I could earn more by doing so (I wish), and crucially I can come to love it more.

It seems to me not just a case of finding what you are most passionate about, but finding a group of things that you are passionate about and then assessing them against a criteria to decide which passions to focus on (and they may not necessarily be what you are initially most passionate about).

The criteria could include:

Ability to make money from it
Sustainability
How many needs it simultaneously ticks off (playing a team sport aids your social needs, while reading does not)

What are your thoughts?

(The thread title should be: What is the best life purpose - but I can't edit it now)

[ChrisG]

Originally Posted by ThisMoment

This is THE question of LIFE...

What is my purpose? And after years of searching, I've found the answer.

There is no PURPOSE.

Now some people consider purpose as making a difference. Which is health, but who's to say what making a difference really is. A world changing event/act can be a threat to someone else.

Don't fall into he trap of overanalyzing life.

LIVE...

No purpose, ThisMoment? Then what are you going to do with your life?

Surely, while you're here, there's some difference you can make?

But I agree with your last point. If you overanalyse life, you end up falling into a web of vague, conflicting high-and-mighty-sounding ideas that will just tear at your mind and be very painful.

Just LIVE. Ignore all the spiritual stuff telling you to do this or that with your life. At the very least, take it with a pinch of salt. You will have so much fun, and any purpose will reveal itself to you as life goes on.

I agree with Karanime also. Forget trying to find "the right way to live"- just be yourself!