The map to life's purpose...

Hint, it is unique to you and this is the map to uncover it.

When I was in Cambodia at the Genocide Museum I was on a journey wondering about life’s meaning.

I realised that meaning or purpose or calling, whatever that is we are searching for — for it to have a true answer — it has to be an answer available for every human. People without anything have to be able to grasp it.

I stopped in the middle of my tour watching an elderly man sweep. The tour guide caught my pause and came over to inform me that man had been tortured here during its active time. After I regained myself from the shock of the answer I had to ask why. Why would someone remain here? The guide informed me he was here to ensure people knew the truth about what happened.

His purpose, meaning, calling — wherever we want to call it was to ensure truth prevailed. This ‘purpose’ wasn’t available to him during those years of torture. This ‘drive’ he now has to tell his stories came about late in life, by simply living the path life put in front of him. What happened to him is awful and my heart will always be heavy for what happened there. The truth this day unfolding led me to some truths about our search for meaning in life, fulfilment and purpose…

To say we all have a single life purpose is to say we are all built the same.

We know we are not.

We are intensely unique beings in what inspires us, motives us, creates awe in us, and fulfils us.

Would a better way to focus this question to appeal to the unique differences each of us contains, be to say, how do we find a sense of fulfilment, a sense of drive, a source of inspiration in our daily life?

To find an answer we must also acknowledge we are beings of evolution and that we evolve within our lifetime. And so, whilst some of us find meaning and purpose in a single calling or activity, many of us find this in various things over various periods within our life.

To complicate this matter further we also need to acknowledge in seeking such an answer that we are beings designed to seek, search, to grow. This is apparent throughout history as we as a species have never ceased to seek, discover and invent.

And, we have the absurd condition, which French philosopher Albert Camus said of our desire to seek meaning where no tangible meaning is to be found. We will always hold a corner in ourselves that will lie unsatisfied, that is what has driven humans to do so much.

But, we also know it is in our searching we find satisfaction — as temporary as it only ever is — which is why we have continued to do so.

And the rest of the answer is up to you. You will uncover it only on the path of living the life in front of you, in line with the callings, interests and curiosities that you hold, restricted by your unique set of obstacles.

Live.

Through living you will find things interesting, uncover callings, and/or curiosities.

Follow them.

They may change. Allow them to. Acknowledge you are a being of evolution and that is perfectly normal.

They may not change, all well and good too.

They may arrive very late in life. This happens to many. When they arrive is extremely unique too. If they are yet to arrive for you, all you can do is continue along trying out things that interest you or trying out things in search of things that interest you.

Finding interests or curiosities is the best any of us can hope for. For these to unfold means you have lived your life and what is a more perfect way to honour this life than to live it?

For it isn’t easy to live a life. It is hard, heartbreaking, challenging and confusing.

We have responsibilities we must work towards and only after these can we do our searching.

Know every setback, every obstacle is part of our path. No one before us has been spared of them. No one has accomplished in any way that their life becomes free of them.

It is an absurd condition. Yet when we look around it is also a very unique one.

Live it.

You are doing amazing at it. No one will ever know just how much you have struggled.

Channel every struggle into your search.

Seek as far inside yourself as you do out into the world and you will have a life that is as close to finding purpose, a calling or meaning, that any of us can ever hope for.

In summary:

• you will always feel a twinge of unsatisfaction — this is our natural state of drive

• purpose/calling can arrive at any time over our entire lifetime — for some, this is very late in life

• purpose/calling can change over a lifetime

• if you don’t have anything yet that interests you, go searching

• follow your curiosities, they may lead somewhere, they may not

• setbacks and obstacles are part of our path in life

• responsibilities are part of life

• seek as far inside yourself as you do out into the world

• you are doing amazing to live this challenging life

• living life is the perfect way to honour our life

Photo by Melody Temple on Unsplash