It’s great to have a plan for your life – a plan that will lead you where you want to go.
However, it’s also true that the best things in life cannot be planned. Life is full of uncertainty, and many times the best things in your life will be things that you never saw coming.
Understanding life’s serendipitous nature is key to understanding the true meaning of life.
The Purpose Driven Life
by Rick Warren
⏱ 10 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
What is the Purpose of Life?
Since the dawn on humanity, people have been searching for the answer to one all-important question – what is the purpose of life? It’s a question that has many different answers. Yet, at the same time, it’s a question with no answer at all.
Many people treat life like a game that can be won or lost. This isn’t necessarily an altogether wrong approach, as it can keep you motivated to reach your goals and make the best of the time you have available. However, there’s much more to the purpose of life than winning and losing.
In the truest sense, finding your purpose in life is the purpose of life. Any other aspirations such as wealth, relationships, prestige, and all other material rewards are simply by-products of this goal. Finding your purpose in life may give you these things, but they are not themselves the purpose.
Everyone’s purpose in life is different, and every purpose yields different rewards. If you are striving after the rewards of a purpose that is not your own, though, not only will those rewards be incredibly difficult to attain, they also are not likely to bring you fulfillment.
On the other hand, if you pursue your true purpose in life – whatever that might be – any rewards that come along the way will be the exact rewards you need to make your life complete.
Since the dawn on mankind, people have searching for the answer to one all-important question – what is the purpose of life?
You Can’t Plan Your Purpose
An individual’s purpose in life is not to plan out and construct themselves, like a blueprint for a house. At the same time, it’s not exactly something that you are born with either. Your purpose is something that develops over the course of your life.
It is shaped by your environment as well as your genetic predispositions. Many people believe that everyone’s purpose in life is pre-ordained. In the end, though, it doesn’t matter whether it is or isn’t – everyone still develops a purpose in life, and that purpose is ultimately something that is out of their control regardless of whether or not it was chosen for them at birth.
You can ignore your purpose in life and follow a plan that you create, but following a plan rather than following your purpose will never bring you the same fulfillment. The best things in life come when you follow your purpose instead of following a plan. Following your true purpose brings the rewards you need and want the most, even if you don’t realize it.
This may include rewards such as wealth and status. Still, these rewards will always be secondary to the most significant reward you receive when you follow your purpose in life – happiness and fulfillment.
Anyone can plan to make lots of money or excel in their careers, but no one can plan to be happy. All you can do is follow your purpose and enjoy the happiness that it brings you along the way.
Your Life Purpose is Your Contribution
There’s something to be said for reaching your personal goals and building an incredible life for yourself, and such things are certainly a part of life’s purpose. However, what you give back to the world is just as big a part of your life’s purpose as what you take you from it.
When you are gone, you will be remembered much more by what you contributed rather than what you acquired. Live life striving to contribute as much as you can and striving to make the world a better place, and you can rest assured that there will be a meaningful and important purpose to your life. If You Were Going to Die Tomorrow, What Would You do and how Would You Want to be Remembered?
One of the best ways to put your life into perspective is to imagine it ending. If today was your last day on earth, what would you do with it? Would you be satisfied that you’ve lived a great life, or would you be burdened by regrets? How would others remember you if you were gone tomorrow?
Asking yourself questions such as these can frame your life in a way that allows you to evaluate it more clearly. You have time now to fix any of the things you would like to fix if your life was ending, but it’s essential to keep in mind that this won’t always be the case.
Related: How to Find the Freedom and Happiness of Living In the Now
How Life’s Purpose Evolves
A person’s purpose in life is rarely a static thing, and it can certainly change and evolve. We are all different people than we were ten years ago, to varying extents, and your purpose in life doesn’t have to be the same purpose that you followed back then.
As you grow as a person and as your situation in life changes over time, you may find that your purpose in life changes as well. Perhaps you become a new parent and determine that your true purpose in life is to raise your children as best you can and provide them with as many opportunities as possible. Perhaps you discover some tragedy or injustice in our world that touches you so deeply that you decide to help those affected by it your new life purpose.
Whatever the case may be, know that there is nothing wrong with allowing your purpose in life to evolve as your life changes over time. If anything, this evolution of purpose is something to be expected and embraced.
Learn to be Yourself
It’s challenging, bordering on impossible to find your purpose in life if you spend your life trying to be someone other than yourself. The pressures of society tell us that we are all supposed to live our lives following a particular formula, and overcoming these pressures is a challenge that every individual must face.
Far too many people cave to these pressures and live the life they think they are supposed to live rather than living a life that is true to themselves. How can you be expected to find your true purpose in life, though, if you live a life guided by societal norms and social pressures rather than a life driven by the desires and purpose that you feel deep down?
If you want to find and follow your life purpose, being true to yourself is an essential first step. Only by following your unique path can you reach the destination you were always meant to achieve.
What is the Legacy that I Want to Leave Behind?
Legacy is something that people tend to think of more frequently in their latter years when the end of life is approaching, and legacy is soon to be all they have. However, there’s no reason why you can’t start focusing on your legacy while you still have time to change it.
How do you want to be remembered when you are gone? What impressions and contributions would you like to leave behind? Remember, your time on this earth might be limited, but the time that follows after you are gone will stretch on into eternity, and the legacy you leave behind is your opportunity to shape what that eternity looks like.
Legacy doesn’t have to be the only purpose in your life. Finding joy in each moment without worrying about the future is an essential part of life’s purpose as well. However, determining the legacy that you would like to leave behind and striving to create that legacy can certainly provide you with a satisfying new sense of purpose in life.
What Difference Have I Made to Other Peoples Lives?
No one lives their life in a vacuum. Every decision you make, everything you do or don’t do, is sure to have a direct effect on the lives of everyone else in your circle – and the difference you choose to make in their lives is an integral part of your own life’s purpose.
Ensure that you live a life that contributes to others’ happiness as well, and you are sure to feel a much stronger and more satisfying purpose in your own life.
Focus on What Brings you Joy
If all else fails in the pursuit of your life purpose, focus on what brings you joy. In the end, no one can say with any certainty what the real meaning or purpose of life is. If you live a life that brings you joy while also bringing joy to others whenever you can, though, you will certainly live a meaningful and enjoyable life even if you never do discover what the real meaning of that life might be.
In your efforts to build something lasting in life and achieve your goals, don’t lose sight of the things that bring you joy. There’s no point, in the end, of striving for success and achievement if you don’t find happiness along the way. Perhaps success and achievement aren’t things that bring you joy at all, and you’d be better served to pursue a life exploring your passions than a life spent chasing fortune. Whatever the case may be, use happiness as your compass in life, and you are sure to enjoy where it leads you.
The best things in life come when you stop chasing after what society says you should want and start following your unique path. Only by finding your true purpose and committing to that purpose above all else can you open yourself up to the most generous rewards that life has to offer. Do you feel as if you have already found your purpose in life? If so, be sure to let us know what that purpose is in the comments below.
With the Snapreads app, you get the key insights from the best nonfiction books in minutes, not hours or days. Our experts transform these books into quick, memorable, easy-to-understand insights you can read when you have the time or listen to them on the go.
