Benjamin.my … and his miscellaneous takes on life.

Your One And Only Purpose Of Life, Be Happy

Have you ever been through a period of boredom, like you are meant to do something different? Something big and beautiful perhaps, or something simpler and happier. It differs from a person to person, and sometimes it feels like... you are trying to look for your purpose of life, the something that you are meant to be doing in this very brief life that you are given with. But that would be ridiculous because everyone has exactly the same purpose of life and it requires no seeking at all. All you ever meant to be... is to be happy.

Yes, to be happy. That is your purpose of life. That is my purpose of life. And that is the purpose of life everyone else has.

But wait you say, it can't be that simple. What about those people who are made to do great things. Great leaders who have led nations out of crisis, great philanthropists who have saved millions to billions of lives, and great thinkers who have inspired generations and generations of people? Surely they were written in their destiny somewhat and that they were able to discover it much later, eventually fulfilling what they were born to complete.

Let me try my best to explain. And there are two things that I need to elaborate. First, the definition of happiness. Second, how it leads to doing what you are "meant to be doing", which in my opinion are the channels to fulfill your life purpose (ie being happy) instead.

Definition of Happiness

Happiness in this context, is slightly different from what we usually define it as. You know when you get a brand new car, or a brand new house, or something that you have been anticipating is finally coming, you would be telling everybody around you that you are "soooooooo happy". And it would be feel somewhat like a toned down version of excitement isn't it? More subtle, yet probably last longer than excitement too.

But in terms of the purpose of life, happiness would feel a lot more like... contentment. It is a very subtle feeling of peace, of everything is going smoothly and as it should be. To put it simply, it feels like life is being very cooperative to you and nothing is going against you. There is no resistance within you so to speak.

So for you or everyone else, there is only 1 purpose of life, that is to live this feeling. The correct term would be, to be at peace, to be content, to be happy.

Then, What Are You Meant To Be Doing?

However, if the purpose of life is so simple, then what you are meant to be doing this life? Isn't there something that is destined for you by somewhere beyond the heavens?

The answer is very simple. You are meant to do whatever that would allow you to be at peace, to be content, to be happy as much as possible, and it doesn't matter if it involves a great mission of life, or just being plain average and simple.

Sometimes we tend to confuse that, our purpose of life has to be something grand. The thing is that, people who tend to discuss their own purpose of life, tend to be people who are more ambitious, who would like to see and control how their lives unfold. And so you hear them discussing how to inspire people, how to change humanity, how to save others lives. But noooo, it doesn't have to be that grand. It is perfectly okay to just be an employee in McDonald's that serves others with a smile, as long as that's what you feel happy about.

The Easiest Way To Find Your Channels Of Being Happy, Is Just To Do What That Allows You To Be Happy The Most

Fact is, simple and average living people tend to be happier than the ambitious people. They are more in-tune with life so to speak. They do not really resist life. Whatever life throws them, they accept it and moves on. Without any resistance, it is easy to be at peace with circumstances, to be content with what they have, however little it might be sometimes, and just be happy with life. Of course, try not to confuse simple and average living people, with people living below poverty line. They may be a lawyer living a good middle-class income, but still leads a simple life.

Ambitious people on the other hand, tend to resist life. They like to think that they are able to control how their life unfolds, and sometimes when things don't go their way, they become enraged, thus offering a lot of resistance towards life and no longer being at peace with circumstances. At the same time, these people are not content being simple and average, they want a mission that they can work on their entire life, something to be proud on when they look back at their last days. And that's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Problem is, most of us hardly know what that mission is... no?

It is not easy to figure out what you are meant to be doing, and that's for a very good reason. You are never destined to be doing anything. Even if you delve into destiny study, it usually points out a likely path that is not guaranteed. It's up to you to decide what you would like to achieve in this life, and some of your natural talents, natural gifts may lead you into certain likely fields.

So, a good way to figure out what is your purpose of life, or in the context of this article, the channel in which to fulfill your purpose of life which is happiness, is to keep doing things that allow you to feel content about life.

Everyime you do something that makes you feel happy, it leads you nearer to the channels of fulfilling your life purpose. You give things a try, and decide that they are not too bad at all, and you won't mind doing some of them more often. Through that, you would refine your desires and be more specific what is even better in allowing you to be happy. Eventually, you would come upon something that you have finally decided that, you don't mind doing this for the rest of your life at all.

The channels may be changing through your life, or it may not. It doesn't matter. But there will be something that at this moment, you don't mind, or better still, would love to do.

You may start out as a tax accountant, sorting out the taxation problems that your customers may have. And you find delights in solving what your customers perceive as hell-ish tasks. So you keep doing it. One day, you may be inspired to bring it up to a next level. You ask yourself, "hey why don't I run an educational seminar on the taxation system to educate your customers and their friends?", and you ran your first seminar. Not long afterwards, you receive feedbacks that your attendees would like more information on certain topics, and you started running more specific seminars in addressing those needs. Then you might even find the urge to write a book, start a blog, or run a advisory group with help from volunteers. One day you look back, and you realize, wow... you have done so much. But really, it all started just by doing what you like to do. :)

Of course your life wouldn't unfold in the exact way. But hopefully it would give you a rough idea how things would be like, just sticking to what you like. I was just telling a friend the other day that, I think most professions that help people one way or another way, via healing, via inspiring, via motivating etc, are likely to be the most fulfilling jobs. So maybe you can start there.

Now perhaps you belong to a different group, you are an accountant who hates his job. "Every time the end of financial year comes, I have to stay up all night and rush for deadlines. How could I ever feel happy with this job?" you say. If you cannot accept it, try to remove yourself from it. Look for another job, perhaps transfer out of your department. Your new job may have lower salary, or it may not be exactly what you want to do right now (which perhaps you do not yet have a solid idea), but it is a good start to not feel all the resistance everyday. Then slowly, explore and look for things that please you. Slowly but surely, you will get closer and closer to a channel that would make you content with life. Tricky bit is that, you will have to start soon, if not now, or it would not appear magically out of thin air one day and just land on your laps.

In Short...

In essence, the common mis-conception of purpose of life, is that it has to be something grand and inspiring, like being the president, being the the richest guy in the world, or being a saint like Buddha etc, and that the ones who achieved it, must have discovered their purpose of life somehow one day. Truth is, it is nothing like that. Your purpose of life is simple, that is to be happy, to be at peace, to be content with your life. The channels to achieve this purpose could vary greatly and it doesn't matter.

Why did some of the greatest people in history end up doing what they do? Because as they continue to be, or strive to be content with their lives, they realize that certain channels, certain mediums, certain missions are more likely to allow their being of happiness than the others, and so they moved towards the great things that they have done.

But let's not discount many others who lived their lives happily without leaving any footprint in the history. They do, have fulfilled their purpose of life.