[glok]

Freud believed that the goal of a healthy life was for mental contentedness. Even a healthy life is interspersed with a great number of trivial and unimportant psychological symptoms. He wrote that the neurotic that needs treatment simply has more debilitating symptom-formations that prevent enjoyment and active achievement in life.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” ~C.G. Jung

The hard truth seems to be this: We live in a vast and awesome universe in which, daily, suns are made and worlds destroyed, where humanity clings to an obscure clod of rock. The significance of our lives and our fragile realm derives from our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life’s meaning. We would prefer it to be otherwise, of course, but there is no compelling evidence for a cosmic Parent who will care for us and save us from ourselves. It is up to us. Carl Sagan on the Meaning of Life | Brain Pickings

Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. ~Grandma Moses

Other than what theists believe, only therapists to a degree have ever talked to me about the purpose of being ensconced on a rotating sphere.

Many have written about purpose and meaning. Here are two:

Finding Your Life?s Purpose | Going on the Ride of Your Life
Your Purpose In Life | Psychology Today

Religious dogma aside (to honor the guidelines), it seems we, once again, get to choose and put into play our conception of our purpose in this life.

One day, my therapist asked me to imagine standing in front of a closed door. On the other side of the door was the life I wanted to live. He asked me to describe my life. I had no idea. I just wanted to be rid of the demons I battled daily and the side effects of medications that did not seem to be working.

Since then, I have put a lot of thought into the purpose of my life. A frequent answer is a waste of resources. On better days, I would state to help others live a better life. I have hurt a lot of people, but I have helped some too. The more I do to help, the better I feel about myself.

What do you think? Have you defined your purpose?

[SoupDragon]

l think there is no ultimate purpose, other than to set to know ourselves deeply and do no harm.

[hvert]

I find that I am interested in this topic during certain periods of my life and not in others. Right now, I am not interested. For me, if I examine that question, I come up with the answer that there is no purpose, no point. It's not a pleasing line of thought.

I prefer a more hedonistic approach to life, not necessarily in a gluttonous sense, but in an enjoyment sense. If I think about that, I also get distressed -- so I tell myself it is simply an experiment for the next few months, to enjoy what I can

[ifst5]

I don't know, for me it almost has a whiff of arrogance about it. Like human beings are the most special or important creatures on this earth. I don't really care why i'm here to be honest, all i know is that i am and no one's making me stay if i don't want too. So there's a choice irrespective of higher meaning and that's enough for me.

[glok]

Arrogance? Now that is a first ... especially when anyone can make their purpose whatever they want it to be.

[ifst5]

Originally Posted by glok

especially when anyone can make their purpose whatever they want it to be.

So you've effectively gone and answered your own question? Besides i said *almost* a whiff of arrogance, and it's true. The planet is destroyed, there are wars without end, poverty that there's more than enough money to fix and on and on it goes. I'm not overly fond of humanity but i especially dislike sitting here and asking ourselves these sorts of questions when there's work to be done. Maybe that's a useful purpose.

[Perna]

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi helped me the most, I guess, with purpose, especially his book, The Evolving Self.

[A Red Panda]

I don't think there's any purpose. We're born, we live how we want, we die, we decompose and feed other organisms. Done! I'm perfectly alright with this.

[glok]

Maybe that's a useful purpose.

Is something stopping you from fixing what you want to fix? It is a worthy purpose and better than yabbering here.

[ifst5]

Originally Posted by glok

Is something stopping you from fixing what you want to fix? It is a worthy purpose and better than yabbering here.

Money mainly. But i campaign as much as i can. I simply have difficulty reconciling myself to the limitations. But as long as the view remains as outwards as possible that's something.

[DSM-3.1415926]

What's bothersome in my case is the idea that under the Glorious American Way(tm), I have to have some grand, overarching supreme purpose at all times, and must constantly measure my success or failure against how close to or far off I am in achieving it. Nothing's said about multiple smaller purposes achieved in smaller steps.

I liken my depression and verbal self-abuse to being in a tear gas chamber -- and being expected to consent to remain there because I deserve to be. (For those unfamiliar: CS tear gas is only an irritant -- just the severest one ever made. Since it doesn't destroy tissue, its pain can be prolonged indefinitely.) Right now my "purpose" is to get the (bad word) out of the chamber and into fresh air; any "higher" purpose is a luxury until then.

One thing for sure: Being an atheist is liberating in that I can't stand being spoon-fed purpose by religious "authorities." And no, atheism does NOT give me license to behave abhorrently.

[(JD)]

I think you have just said that you have no real purpose--long term--and no way to cure your current status? Yet you're happy being an atheist. Okay.

I cannot find purpose without my God...knowing the story and the big picture surely makes it worth living for me....though it can also make it enticing to leave (knowing what's beyond).

[A Red Panda]

JD: I'm glad that your religion makes you happy and makes you feel like there's a point.

But your post sorta feels like you're negatively judging someone else for being happy to be an atheist.

I'm happy and totally content being an atheist - I feel like my choices are mine and aren't dictated by anything. I accept that my life is done with when I die, so the good things I do for others I know I am simply doing for their benefit and no ulterior motives. The purpose I put into actions is just because I want to.

There is no purpose. As numerous scientists have put it, if you could rewind the tape of evolution & replay it, the chances that Homo sapiens would once again evolve are vanishingly small. Something in the neighborhood of 99.5% of all of the species that have ever existed on earth are now extinct. There is no reason to think the fate of our species will be any different. One can try to make of her / his life whatever s/he wants. But, in the end, we're all just "dust in the wind."

[PoorPrincess]

A very engaging discussion which glok has brought up for us this Sunday.
Princess has tuned in late to the discussion, thus will re-read the above posts before making comment on above posts.

I only know that "all of this" was of considerable personal work for myself and my peers during our thirties and into our early forties decades. This perhaps was closely correlated with helping to steer midlife the course of work/further education/career, to reflect more of our values and aspirations, changing at midlife reevaluation.

By now, we are in our early sixties. For most, family is by now for many their purpose, even if it was not so two decades ago. Peace Corps friends chose to adopt and have a family at mid-forties.

In my experience, what is my purpose has changed through time.
It is especially difficult to ascertain at this late age, stage, debility . . . changes in age, health, circumstances, income/finances, resilience, capabilities, etc. what can possibly be my purpose beyond how I may live with a sense of dignity, meaningfulness (enjoyment also) and not simply how I may survive these times and my own challenges.

As I think someone mentioned above, nowadays my life's capacity and purpose is consumed with how to survive the traumas in my mind. Stretching myself to imagine 'beyond the door' my life as I would have it be is no great pie in the sky; simply what I/my life was when I was still whole last year.

Even then, my 'purpose' evolved and changed with the changing needs of those friends, beloved elders of my community. I made my purpose within my little coastal community to be the 'Go To Gal', a nexus, if you will. It was a small, good, satisfying, happy life.
I greatly miss that sense of purpose in my life.

Thanks for the food for thought here, folks.

[DSM-3.1415926]

Originally Posted by (JD)

I think you have just said that you have no real purpose--long term--and no way to cure your current status? Yet you're happy being an atheist.

To clarify: I have no long-term purpose now, because the short-term purpose of emotional survival in the face of serious men'al illness is all-consuming. Once I've hurdled that, then I can start thinking about higher purposes. And being an atheist doesn't preclude that -- it's just harder because I don't get the luxury of swallowing one "prepackaged" for me. Harder -- but far from impossible. Religion has far too long declared itself to have a monopoly on the distributorship of purpose/virtue/meaning.

I believe that each being has tremendous purpose, larger and greater than we humans can comprehend. When I think of existence, I think of something like a choir: perhaps it isn't noticeable when we all sing (exist) together, but should one of us not sing with the others the melody and harmony are suddenly thrown askew. Spirituality is omnipresent for me; being part of the Creator, together with all other existence, is part of the purpose of existence.

[Fuzzybear]

Generally, I tend to have two purposes as I go through life. I try to keep them in mind when I'm trying to refocus myself or figure out like, "WTF am I doing? Does it even matter? Am i content? Do things suck more than they are good?"

1. Make myself content by improving myself.
2. Make myself content by having a positive affect on others.

"...and that's how you get to Llama School! ***ClapClap!ClapClap!***"

But really? That's pretty much it.
Try to improve things when I can.

It makes me happy.

If I am making things worse for myself or someone else, I'm doing it wrong, so try something else.
Done.

I think the quotes by Sagan, Grandma Moses, and Soup Dragon's allusion to the Hippocratic Oath pretty much say it for me.
Does there need to be a Purpose? All I really hope for when my life is over is that the good I may have done outweighs the bad.

[PoorPrincess]

Originally Posted by George H.

I think the quotes by Sagan, Grandma Moses, and Soup Dragon's allusion to the Hippocratic Oath pretty much say it for me.
Does there need to be a Purpose? All I really hope for when my life is over is that the good I may have done outweighs the bad.

Thanks, George, for stating it so simply.
I second that last statement.

Unsure of your age/generation, however you sound to me a 'mature senior adult', at best guess. And it seems for 'us' in our 60s, that we are no longer trying to define our Purpose in life, e.g. education, calling, work, profession, family or otherwise, artistic or otherwise, etc.

Pretty much it is simply as you so well said it.
Thanks.

I wish you well.

[glok]

I probably do a disservice to "mature senior adults" by saying for much of my life my purpose was to be here asking anyone who would listen, "Why am I here?"

[Restin]

Glok, have you every read anything by the great contemporary physicist, Fred Alan Wolf? Maybe look his name up on-line and see what he has to say about life.

[Grey Matter]

Originally Posted by ifst5

So you've effectively gone and answered your own question? Besides i said *almost* a whiff of arrogance, and it's true. The planet is destroyed, there are wars without end, poverty that there's more than enough money to fix and on and on it goes. I'm not overly fond of humanity but i especially dislike sitting here and asking ourselves these sorts of questions when there's work to be done. Maybe that's a useful purpose.

As a former student of philosophy + biology, it is not arrogant to question ones purpose or how to put purpose into action. What is arrogant, however, is suggesting that your purpose may be worth more as you are placing your causes on a hierarchy that you are limiting others to touch.

Humans are some of the only animals capable of critical thinking therefore we are capable of understanding our place on earth and we are also capable of finding resources in order to preform better ourselves or maybe find work that fulfills us while helping others.

You may not be a fan of humanity, but you are human. And that is a start to self discovery. Just because an individual looks further into themselves does not make them arrogant, it is one of the only individual status that differentiates us from other animals. We are taught, by society, to not embrace this due to its "selfish" nature. Which is rubbish. There is nothing selfish about further self discovery or the righting of ones personal compass.

Take me, as an example. I was purposeless. I felt useless. I realized, after all my education and student loans I cant ever pay off, that I wanted to help people in abusive situations. I stumbled upon a program that takes in underprivileged adults and gives them a free education to obtain a regently recognized certification in crisis counseling. I work 12 hour shifts 3 times a week and is that not helping others through my own self discovery? Is that not aiding in the betterment of society through me searching for my own individual purpose in life?

I am not aiming to attack you. I have always personally disliked the idea of ignoring our own individual growth because the world has gone to hell. We may not be able to fix these things on our own, but I'll be damned if people are told not to learn to embrace themselves and find, or create, their own directions and purposes to fulfill and create a better life for themselves.

Humanity may have been shot to hell. That doesn't mean the individual needs to be shot down, too. It just means we have to work harder.

I apologize for not reading this whole thread, but this one reply stood out to me for some reason or another.

[brainhi]

"I am not aiming to attack you. I have always personally disliked the idea of ignoring our own individual growth because the world has gone to hell. We may not be able to fix these things on our own, but I'll be damned if people are told not to learn to embrace themselves and find, or create, their own directions and purposes to fulfill and create a better life for themselves."... Thank you Grey Matter.

Good or bad in the perception of others - your purpose is your purpose...it has meaning for you and that is all that matters. It's not what other say it "should" be.
We tend to seek out others that share some of the same values (not every value).

I have great purpose in my existing career - and I am scared to death to lose it. It took me a long time to have this experience - it's meaningful for me. Figuring out what your purpose for yourself might be is not easy - anyway for me it was not. I know I do not have to pretend when I get to do something I love.