“Do I even have a life purpose?” I still remember the first time I asked myself the ever-present question. The answer was disconcerting: I hadn’t even really thought about it. I knew what I was supposed to do — at least, I knew what society expected me to do:

Go to college. Get a “career.” Work an arbitrary 8 hours per day. Work 50+ years. Retire and die.

I wasn’t thrilled. Just because the rest of society was doing it didn’t mean I should. If anything, that everyone else was doing it was just another reason to do it differently.

The fundamental question “What am I going to do with my life” is unavoidable, especially for someone who hasn’t yet found the answer. Post-graduation drama? Midlife crisis? Both are caused by a lifestyle not yet lived in terms of the individual’s basic need: to fulfill his purpose.

What is a “Life Purpose?”

A life purpose, is the fundamental “value” or “goal” that you should satisfy during your time on earth.

A life purpose isn’t just a goal, and it isn’t just a responsibility. Your life purpose is the fundamental reason you want to wake up in the morning — it’s why you live. Discovering or creating a specific life purpose isn’t easy, and some simply never figure it out. But they should — purpose is the staple of living life.

The Need for Purpose

The depression epidemic is a tragedy. Over 15% of people in developed countries are clinically depressed. That means that local churches, schools, and businesses are filled with people who have an extremely low sense of happiness or satisfaction. In contrast to the availability of food, housing, media and technology, this is simply unacceptable. Depression shouldn’t exist in a society that has it “easy.”

To understand the cause of depression we must first understand the cause of happiness.

Happiness is an internal consequence of both internal and external causes. In other words, happiness “happens” on the inside you, not the outside. Because of this, one of the most fundamental causes of happiness must be internal; the primary cause of depression is internal, such as a basic value (purpose) not being quenched.

Remember, everyone acts to achieve his values, regardless of what the values might be. It was Epictetus who said, “In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.” Everyone has a philosophy, or worldview — no exceptions. This is why a fundamental value must be present — a life purpose.

The philosopher Ayn Rand explained the concept well:

“A central purpose serves to integrate all the other concerns of a man’s life. It establishes the hierarchy, the relative importance, of his values, it saves him from pointless inner conflicts, it permits him to enjoy life on a wide scale and to carry that enjoyment into any area open to his mind; whereas a man without a purpose is lost in chaos. He does not know what his values are. He does not know how to judge. He cannot tell what is or is not important to him, and, therefore, he drifts helplessly at the mercy of any chance stimulus or any whim of the moment. He can enjoy nothing. He spends his life searching for some value which he will never find . . .”

The leading fundamental cause of depression is the lack of a personal life purpose. Casually ask someone you meet on the street what their life purpose is and you’ll typically just get a blank stare.

The fundamental foundation of every action is our value code; we take action for a reason. If we have more than one value, we must have a fundamental set of basic values to compare all of the others against. For example, if I’m driving to a meeting and am going to barely make it on time, I shouldn’t pull into McDonald’s for a snack — my “Driving purpose” is the meeting, so it trumps the munchies.

The same is true for life. Your life purpose is your fundamental value that demands to be satisfied. What’s your fundamental series of values? What should they be? What should they not be?

Don’t Make This Mistake

One of the biggest mistakes one can make is to think that “purpose” is the exact same as “goal.” Goals are extremely specific events you want to occur, not concept values you want to achieve. For example, “I want to make a million dollars” is a big goal; “I want to eat lunch at Burger King” is a small goal. Obviously, neither are complete life purposes.

Ironically, if you tie your life purpose to a specific event-oriented goal, you are setting yourself up for a fall. For example, if your goal in life is to win a specific competition, then you’ll find purpose until you actually win the one competition. But once you win, you’re left in a self-caused value vacuum. Your value was achieved — now what? The same idea is true for life purposes like “make a million dollars,” or “travel to Europe.”

Instead of tying yourself down and restricting your life purpose to a single goal, focus on an entire lifestyle purpose. For example, rather than having your goal “to do” something, make it “to be” something.

Don’t make your life purpose to make million dollars; make your life purpose to be a millionaire. Don’t make your life purpose to travel to Ireland; make your life purpose to be a traveler. The difference seems minute when written out, but the actual impact is huge.

How to Find Your Life Purpose

For years, I expected to become a lawyer; I was expected by others to become a lawyer. I was interested in ideas, politics and analysis. I won local, state and national tournaments in formal debate. It was simply assumed that because I would be good at something then that’s what I should do with my entire short life.

The moment I realized that I wasn’t cut out for a job working for a firm, and didn’t want to put in long hours on someone else’s schedule, but wanted to write, travel and always maintain 2-3 college courses; I knew that something drastic had to change.

I finally decided to simply ignore conventional wisdom. Instead of just doing what was expected, I would only do what it took to achieve the greatest amount of happiness and would quench my basic values.

I slowly unearthed my purpose by going on two-hour long walks and rationally breaking down everything I knew about myself. I day-dreamed about the perfect lifestyle — then determined to achieve it. In my mental Utopia, I was an author, and wrote about life itself. I had a web-based job so travel was possible. I worked several hours per day, leaving more than enough time for college.

Honestly imagine the perfect life doing what you want to do. Now go out and achieve it. As Epictetus said, “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” After determining the perfect life, I made steps to achieve it. I have no doubt I will, because success is a choice.

Last Thoughts

Life’s too short to waste on anything short of greatness. Figure out what the perfect lifestyle is. Figure out what makes you tick. Figure out perfection. Now go out and get it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding your life purpose. I’ll be writing more and more instructions for living purposefully; if you haven’t subscribed, make sure you do — you won’t want to miss the free guides.

Also, stay tuned for the next article in the Personal Development 101 series: understanding the need for a passion — an ultimate source of energy that will lead you to success, though the road is long.

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