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"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving, "said Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Without a sense of direction, we just drift through life. There is plenty of things to preoccupy us, leading us to believe that we have a purpose. Yet it is only a purpose if it goes beyond survival and coping. A purpose is a grand vision that enhances your experience of life, a vehicle to raise your sights and bring you a richer adventure.
Another value to finding a purpose is to have peace-of-mind. This happens because drifting itself is depressing, filling the soul with a sense of emptiness, a touch of futility.
Mary Shelley put it this way: "Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose--a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye."
Your purpose is what your soul longs to do.
Sometimes it means doing more of what you are currently doing, aligning it with your talents.
Often, however, you may be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people doing the wrong thing. You feel out of place, out of tune, out of whack, out of line. You feel somehow disconnected. You feel disoriented, even confused and frustrated.
In this case, you may have to set sail to new lands, so to speak, and cut loose your attachment to the old landscape.
"One doesn't discover new lands, " pointed out Andre Gide, " without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."
As you set out to achieve new aims, you will find yourself adrift in an unfamiliar place, where the old has fallen away and the new has yet to be.
However, despite the discomfort of this new place, there is also a sense of renewed energy and love for life. You feel more yourself. Changing your life is not easy, but nothing could be more rewarding.
All human beings, whether they realize it or not, long for a purpose, a mission, a sense of doing something special. Few achieve it, though. It requires dedicated thought to define yourself and to stand up for what you believe in. It is much easier to follow a path outlined by society.
It boils down to what Shakespeare said, be true to yourself. Then you will live in harmony with yourself and others as you move toward a life worth living. "This above all: to thine own self be true," said the bard, "And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Despite this obvious way to find happiness, few people give it much thought. As Arthur Schopenhauer put it, "We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves to be like other people."
Finding a purpose, stopping the natural drift that most people stumble into by default, is essential if you want your life to have meaning. The meaning of life is what you decide it is and no-one will stand in judgment of it. It's your adventure. It's up to you to decide your life purpose, to determine what your life stands for and where it's heading.
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