What’s your life’s purpose?

[Dtail]

To just enjoy this special stage in life.

 

[Bflotomny]

My ultimate life's purpose is to test the: "It 5 o'clock somewhere" theory.

 

[grasshopper]

Let the 4 dogs in and out, and keep the hummingbird feeder clean and filled.

 

[CaptTom]

At 92, my father says his purpose in life is to keep the doctors employed. It seems to have become his full-time job.

Between his doctors' appointments and stay-at-home orders for the rest of us, he gets out more than I do!

 

[Blueskies123]

Jordan Peterson has put a lot of thought into this question.

Here a few quotes:
“The purpose of life, as far as I can tell… is to find a mode of being that’s so meaningful that the fact that life is suffering is no longer relevant.”

https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2019/07/07/jordan-peterson-on-the-true-meaning-of-life/

 

[ckelly78z]

I strive to be a pillar of strength, and rational calmness in a world filled with needless anxiety.

 

[Nemo2]

I'm here to piss people off....how am I doing so far?

 

[Jpg1717]

What is your purpose

My purpose is to try to help others. 30 years as a public servant in the fire department. I try to live up to the motto of my Jesuit High School - “ Men for Others”. There is also a famous line from the book The Purpose Driven Life- “it’s not all about you”. Great book that talks about a life well lived by serving God and your neighbors. It is not easy, but all we can do is try to give our best efforts.

 

[Markola]

I don’t pretend to know. I read Siddhartha and, after all kinds of pursuits toward a purpose, he ends up as an old man sitting by a river just watching it flow by. I think it’s a nice thought.

 

[Hermit]

My life purpose is to spoil my grandkids. Getting on the nerves of my children is a side benefit. Bothering DW brings occasional enjoyment but is hazardous.

Life is good.

My purpose has been to take care of the kids camp down the road. Up until now it has been mostly sage advice when the camp director stopped by for a chat and a beer. This year it will likely be more assistance on the financial side.


With the new grandson now here I think I may need to expand my horizons like MichaelB. I'm pretty sure DW is watching over all these efforts and am pretty certain she would approve.

 

[Calico]

What is my purpose?

I did a survey of the cats.

The consensus is that my purpose is to serve and worship them.

 

[audreyh1]

I don’t think in terms of purpose. I just live.

 

[Just_Steve]

42

 

[WyomingLife]

Libraries are filled with books on this topic, of course. Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” is perhaps last century’s major work in this genre. There, Frankl says the purpose of life is to find meaning in life, in essence. This is the basis of Logotherapy.

I read a lot of cosmology and such. Beyond surviving and procreation, science doesn’t provide much in the way of answers to this question. Without purpose, you end up with Nihilism, I suppose, and from a societal perspective that position could be deemed destructive. Still, it isn’t difficult for me to conclude that life has no discernible purpose. We’re all just scratching in the dirt, trying to make it another day.

 

[tmm99]

Oh, there's supposed to be a purpose to all this?

I do just whatever I feel like doing, having multiple purposes every day...

 

[target2019]

The purpose of life is to have a good laugh.

 

[Tiger8693]

I think the purpose in life changes over time.

Years ago, my purpose was to listen, learn and obey my parents. And as I am reminded of today, it has now changed to listening, learning and taking care of my parents.

Oh, and the most fun, my granddaughter!

 

[Winemaker]

Making and enjoying the most wonderful glass/bottle/barrel of wine.

 

[bonvoyage]

Understand and characterize human cognition and how it evolved

 

[sengsational]

The Stoics thought it was about best leveraging the part of us that makes us human. We all are built on an animal chassis, and our brains are a bit of a Rube Goldberg device with the cortex piled on late in the process. So expanding that time between stimulus and response, where you can put the thing that makes us human to work is my purpose. The rest will just fall into place because I'm at my most creative and most loving when I'm in that space.

 

[steelyman]

The Peanuts cartoon (post #20 in this thread) is actually pretty wise, like many in the Peanuts series. I think many would say they try to become a “bodhisattva”.

 

[MyObjectivism]

Very interesting topic. Trying to explain in one line what the highest purpose of life..

Living with heart and following what heart says rather than with mind. Recently lot of articles are coming in media about "how to manage with corporates than mind" so no escape to this by saying we can't survive if we follow this.

 

[Dawg52]

For some it seems to be arguing with others on their asset allocation For me....simply to enjoy life.

 

[CaptTom]

Oddly, it's easier for me to tell you what it's not.

It's not to accumulate wealth or power. It's not to put down or take advantage of as many other people as possible. It's not to "win the game."

Maybe it's simply to be remembered for the good you've while you were here. Which I guess brings me to this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, as told to me by an older woman when I was about 16 or 17:

“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

 

[street]

Years ago a topic came up with having a purpose in life theme. I remember one comment very well to this day.
They said, a hammer has a purpose, and we should live life and fill our goals.
I always remembered that and made sense to me.

I think a word I would use is I have a cause in life not a purpose in life.