The purpose of life is to leave the world better than you came to it. Purpose is about experiencing all parts of being human. When you have a reason for waking up, that's when you have purpose.
Hello, friend. Welcome to Advice column, crowdsourced Learning for Your Life's Journey. A couple of months ago when the new year rolled around, I was working on my goals. And I started thinking about which of them will really matter at the end of my life. It got me contemplating about what the purpose is of being here and how I can keep that front and center in my mind.
And since I was curious what other people thought, I carried my microphone around and asked, I hope these responses give you fuel for contemplating the same question. So let's dive right in.
My aunt just recently passed away and she left 10 purposes for life. The first one, do something for somebody, preferably without him or her knowing. Number two, remember the true meaning of your life. Don't forget your prayers and blessings to God. Number three, exercise, walk, workout, dance, move your.
Number four, don't let bad feelings ferment. Don't go to bed without clearing up misunderstanding with those close to you. Number five, have breakfast and dinner with your family. Number six, read something inspirational. Number seven, appreciate the beauty of nature. Number eight, express your gratitude to someone.
Number nine, hug and kiss your family. Tell them you love them. And number 10, insist on making your contribution to the world. Make a plan for tomorrow. That to me, is the purpose of life.
The purpose of my life is my journey in pursuit of passion, values, opportunities, knowledge, and compassion. It's also important to me to leave the planet with a carbon neutral footprint and creating opportunities for kids through computer education so they can find their passion and opportunities.
My relationships with living things, especially people are the most important to me. If my life experiences have left a positive influence among others, then to me that is a wonderful thing.
The purpose of life is to love. I used to think the purpose was happiness, but I find happiness hard to hold onto, especially when you look around and not everyone is happy. I used to say to my children, try not to make other people feel bad about themselves, even if they make mistakes. Because if everyone was kind, the world would be filled with happy, unique, and creative individuals excited to build the world.
We all wish it would be. At that time, I wasn't thinking that love was life's purpose, but I think deep down I already knew.
For me, the secret of life is an ever-changing topic. But some common themes seem to hold strong. That is to learn to love, learn to trust, learn to take chances, learn to make mistakes, learn to. Learn to do the best with what you've got, and most importantly, do it all with humility, gratitude, and never sacrificing your values.
I believe the highest purpose that we all have is to be of service. I think being of service is one of the most selfless and selfish acts, which makes it wonderful that. that we can do selfless because we're really focusing on helping everyone around us selfish, because there's not a greater feeling in the world than being of service to someone else, helping make an impact in someone else's life.
And if we all moved through the world with a greater sense of service, I. The planet would be a better place.
The purpose of life for me is founded in my Christian faith. Question. One of the catechism is what is the chief end of man? Um, and the answer is very clear. It's to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Um, not only does this as a purpose of life, take the focus off of yourself and, and put it onto somebody who is.
Truly good, um, who is the source of all goodness in creation, and it takes that focus off of yourself. Um, for me it's really freeing and the book of Romans, Paul talks about becoming a, a slave to Christ. And it's this idea that the only person with true freedom, In the world is a slave to a perfect master.
So putting that focus on glorifying God and and putting him first in all things is, is the purpose of my life.
The purpose of life, I think is to expand, to expand the world as we know it. And. And our existence as we know it, uh, to build people and things that will live beyond. My lifetime.
I've been thinking so much lately what the purpose of life is, and I really just do not know, and I think about it every day, especially after my father passed away last year, and ever since he died, I've been really looking into afterlife. Near death experiences and just to try and figure out as much as I can, what the purpose of this life is about.
And I'm just trying to find clarity on that because sometimes I wonder, sometimes it just feels so hard and there's just, with the happiness, there's just so much sadness and hurt and pain, and maybe I'm just feeling a lot of that right now. But I just wonder what is this life for or why? , you know, and all the things that happen in life are people that are just, you know, don't seem like very good people.
And that how they hurt others and how people hurt people. And there are. Really beautiful, miraculous moments too. And now my father's deceased and just makes me wonder, you know, how to live the rest of my life in the best way possible, but also what is the purpose of this life? I am still on an exploratory mode trying to figure that out, and I don't think I ever will, but I do believe that there's something after he, after this, and I'm looking forward to it.
The purpose of life for me is not to be happy. It's to be useful, to be honorable, compassionate, and to make a difference that you have lived and lived well. This is a quote that I read many, many years ago. I believe it was 1961, uh, when I grew up, um, in the Bronx, in New York City. And I've tried to live my life to the extent I can by this quote.
The purpose of life is to create deep and meaningful connections with others while being able to recognize and identify the small things in life that really contribute to happiness. I would guess who would vary by person. And it certainly has varied during, during different phases of my life. It has always come back to something that fulfills me, gets me up in the morning, and generally has something to do with making a contribution to other people, to community, to the betterment of an organization.
To me, purpose is about living all of life. I used to think it was about finding happiness, and I realized that's fleeting, given every moment and experience, and now I've come to this place of feeling all feelings. and experiencing all parts of being human, and that includes what we might label as good or bad, but just the depth of love we can feel, the depth of grief we can feel.
To me, that is such a beautiful part of this journey, this walk we call life. I kind of look around and I'm just in amazement of the colors we get to see and the sounds we get to hear, and the smells we get to experience, and the food and different tastes we get to have. And so really having the full breath of all that God has given us to live and experience really just.
Being human.
Those were such thoughtful answers. A big thank you to our respondents for sharing. Some of the themes I heard were that the purpose of life is not about happiness. I heard a theme of love, love for self, and for others of contribution, having impact leaving the world a better place. I heard a theme of relationships and how important those are.
I heard about glorifying God. I heard that it's about feeling and experiencing life. I loved the word expansion and that it's about expansion and appreciating. Beauty was another theme. And then I heard a theme of developing character, for example, humility. I was also thinking about something I recently heard, which is a list of the five regrets of the dying written by a woman named.
She worked in palliative care and found themes in people who were dying and what their regrets were. Those five were. I wish I had had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. Two, I wish I hadn't worked so hard. Three. I wish I had had the courage to express my feelings.
Four. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends and five, I wish that I had let myself be happier. I've been reflecting a lot on why my dad's life was so impactful and so meaningful, and one of the quotes that he really liked also comes to mind as I reflect on what people said. That quote is by, I think it's pronounced Steven GRE or Grille.
I expect to pass through this world, but once any good thing, therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again. thinking about all of this, I think for me the purpose of life is probably three things.
To have a kind and loving impact. So to make life better for others and leave the world a better place because I was here to grow. So to become the fullest expression of myself and my potential. And then three, to have experiences to the things that I see, to the things that I feel. What about you? I'd love to hear what you think The purpose of life.
You can email anytime at advice column podcast gmail.com. Check out the show notes for the links to the people who contributed to this episode, and thanks for being on the journey with me. I'll see you in the next episode.
