To preface this article I think it's imperative I address the fact that I am far from the most qualified person on this topic. My thoughts are not necessarily applicable to everyone's current circumstances, and my views are the amalgamation of my past reactions and experiences. I feel it's important to address this as I myself view most advice given to me as egomania. What may be a boon of advice to one person could spell disaster for others.
I find myself increasingly in the midst of this discussion in contemporary discussions with my peers as we are faced with media, books, comedy, and tragedy on creating meaning in life. We live in an age where much humor is derived from our incessant need as humans to create purpose in life, and in so doing I have come to the paradigm that there's often a basic dilemma when it comes to creating purpose within our lives when we feel stagnant, or less than adequate.
I believe Shakespeare framed this dilemma better than most of his peers at his time. "To be or not to be; that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles..."
This truly is the question, to float with the tide, or to swim towards our goals. Whether or not it is consciously or subconsciously chosen we all face this dilemma when it comes to making choices dealing with our futures in life most of the time.
Why not float when we have no goal? It is undoubtedly better to float and enjoy the tide than it is to swim in our own uncertainty when our goals are uncertain to ourselves. Of course, the next question born out of this is how do we find a goal? Not an outlandish goal, but a real, tangible goal. To go with the flow, or swim towards our goals...
The answer to the question is neither.
One of the true tragedies of life is that we seek to understand our goals instead of the people chasing those goals, ourselves. We create goals for ourselves which require certain demands and expectations we bend ourselves to conform to. For instance, when I was a young man (about 5 years or so) I sought to be a veterinarian. It is reasonable to assume that I am no longer pursuing a career as a Veterinarian, and the reason why is because, since the inception of my desire to become a veterinarian, my perspective has changed on what I want to do. Myself, not the Veterinarian is what has changed in the time of my perspective altering. Every person is a summation of their past experiences and decisions. As a person experiences more things they grow and their thoughts on certain perspectives change as well. Every reaction is a process for us to learn from and every experience changes who we are as people.
Maybe not for everyone, but for myself it would seem to be a fool's errand to adjust one's life to the demands of a goal that one views differently every day.
The answer to our question must not deal with goals at all, lest we enter into a very deep rabbit hole surrounding Existentialism. I'd recommend reading "Being and Nothingness" by Sartre and the infamous "Myth of Sisyphus" by Camus for more literature in that field. It makes little to no sense for myself to discern how to create purpose in life within a small footnote of writing, especially considering how I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most qualified to discuss this topic.
At best, to put the entirety of our faith on tangible goals is unwise. We don't strive to be cops, bankers, veterinarians, or doctors. We strive to be ourselves. Of course, this doesn't mean we can't BE cops, bankers, veterinarians, or doctors, but rather we seek to bend the goals to us as individuals. Within every person, there is an inherited heredity of characteristics and skills that have been acquired by them through their experiences and environments. This also includes our innate desires as people to seek functions that render our life meaningful. We all want to BE something, we all want to matter.
Essentially it can be broken down into this: People must choose a path which allows their abilities and talents to function as efficiently as possible toward gratifying our own desires. In doing this we fulfill the need to function in a pattern towards set goals, we avoid frustrating our potential by choosing paths that put no limit on our self-development, and we avoid the horror of seeing a dream wilt or lose its charm as we are closer to it by bending the demands of the goal to the individual instead of bending the person to the demands of the goal they seek.
Basically, by not dedicating our lives to reach a pre-defined goal, and instead choosing a life we know we will enjoy we create the power of our own will in front of us. The goal should be secondary, and the primary focus should be our functioning toward the goal we seek. It is considered ridiculous for a person to function in the pattern of their choosing, but it is more ridiculous for a person to give up the power of their own will and allow for others to define your own goals. A person who procrastinates in choosing their own choices will inevitably have their choices made for them by circumstance.
If you feel like any of those ideas or thoughts resonated within yourself, you now have a couple of options. Accept things as they are, or seriously seek out something else. However, don't forget that as a person we should not be looking for goals, but a way to function instead. People should decide how they want to live within a certain function of life, and from there find what they can do to make a living within said life.
But what if we don't know where to look, or what to look for?
That is the true dilemma we all face when we task ourselves with these questions. Is it worth giving up what we have to search for something better? The only person that can make that decision is ourselves. Giving yourself the chance to look takes you a long way on that path.
Of course, this is my view on things, and my thoughts are not applicable to every person's journey in life. I believe this was the easiest way for me to generalize this paradigm I find myself at currently, but I'm sure there are a plethora of other ways for us to create meaning. I only see this as my personal frame of thought. This article is not meant to send anyone on the road to El Dorado, but instead to give them insight that it's not necessary to only accept choices that have been passed to you in your life. There is much more to life than that. No person HAS to accept something they don't want to do for the rest of their life.
