What is Your Purpose?
Core values and their ability to develop meaning. This post concludes with an exercise to assess current values to better understand yourself and determine purpose.
Why?
Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.
-Victor Frankl
Why do you do anything? Every choice we make inherently has a reason behind it regardless of conscious consideration. Getting out of the bed in the morning and every subsequent action has an underlying purpose. Reflecting on our values, perceived purpose, and the power of our choices leads to true awareness and understanding of our respective “why.” Reasoned choice is one of the few things we truly own in this life, yet we often delegate decisions to our subconscious or allow them to become clouded by emotions, perceived obligation, or negative thinking patterns. We often forget or don’t even consider our underlying why. There is essentially nothing that we HAVE to do. Too often do people hate aspects of their life or stray from their authentic selves because of a misguided sense or complete lack of meaning. Lying on your deathbed with regrets of wishing you did more of (fill in the blank with whatever truly matters to you) can be prevented by assessing your core values to develop your sense of purpose today.
Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.
-Victor Frankl
Understating your respective why is imperative. Floundering throughout life without a well-defined purpose leads to lack of fulfillment or even despair. Your why is the driving force to be the best version of yourself. In my favorite book of all time, “Man’s Search For Meaning,” author Victor Frankl details his remarkable story of being a young psychiatrist working on a therapeutic method to help people find meaning in life before losing everything, including his family and life’s work, as he became a prisoner of war for three years during World War II. In what is now one of the most influential books ever written, Frankl outlines his horrific accounts as a Jewish prisoner in Nazi concentration camps, primarily Auschwitz, while simultaneously explaining how these very experiences further developed and eventually cemented his new counseling method called logo (meaning-centered) therapy. Logothetapy is an existential analysis of one’s life to find purpose that promotes freedom of choice and personal responsibility. Witnessing and enduring the worst possible existence, Frankl demonstrates that beauty and meaning can be found in any situation. He explains how a sense of purpose was the driving factor that promoted survival of prisoners who were not directly murdered. The lessons he learned and then applied to his future system, capitalizing on his experiences to help others, demonstrates an empowering mindset about the power of perceived meaning. Once you know your purpose, nothing can take it away. Even in death, a well-applied purpose can be transcended to others.
Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.
-Victor Frankl
Determining your purpose in life may seem like a daunting task when viewed in terms of absolutes. The pressure of knowing your definitive why as soon as possible can be just as detrimental as not developing one. The answer to the question of “what is your purpose?” shouldn’t be absolute, especially before becoming an adult. The search for meaning is an ever-changing culmination of components comprised of our passions, values and skills. Knowing what you enjoy, what you believe is important and what you’re able/want to be able to do, is where your unique why(s) can be derived. The pursuit of self-actualization through regular value assessment and purpose development is the goal, not any specific outcome.
Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated, thus, everyone’s task is unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.
-Victor Frankl
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