Can you please help me answer these questions, I'm doing research on purpose. I've been thinking a lot about this lately and I'm genuinely curious what the people in this community experience.

When it comes to life purpose, which of these resonates MOST with you right now?

A. I don't know my purpose and I'm actively trying to figure it out.

B. I have a sense of my purpose but fear, self-doubt, or circumstances are keeping me from actually living it.

C. I've never really thought about purpose. I'm not sure it's something I believe in.

D. I feel like I'm already living in alignment with my purpose.

When it comes to other people, which of these resonates MOST with you right now?

H. I feel most alive when I'm helping, creating for, or contributing to others in some way.

I. I want to make a difference but I don't know what I have to offer.

J. I'm focused on building my own life first before I think about serving others.

Then a few open questions I'd love your honest take on:

— Do you think purpose is spiritual, psychological, or something else entirely?

— Do you think purpose relates with "what/who" you are like something you do or create, like a job/role? Or do you think it's more of "your why" for what you do?

— Do you believe your dream life and your purpose are connected - or are they separate things?

— What does purpose actually mean to you - not the dictionary definition, but what it feels like or looks like in your real life?

No right answers here. Genuinely just curious where people are so I can tailor my approach to help. Drop your letter combo + any thoughts below. I appreciate it so much!!

Can you please help me answer these questions, I'm doing research on purpose. I've been thinking a lot about this lately and I'm genuinely curious what the people in this community experience.

When it comes to life purpose, which of these resonates MOST with you right now?

A. I don't know my purpose and I'm actively trying to figure it out.

B. I have a sense of my purpose but fear, self-doubt, or circumstances are keeping me from actually living it.

C. I've never really thought about purpose. I'm not sure it's something I believe in.

D. I feel like I'm already living in alignment with my purpose.

When it comes to other people, which of these resonates MOST with you right now?

H. I feel most alive when I'm helping, creating for, or contributing to others in some way.

I. I want to make a difference but I don't know what I have to offer.

J. I'm focused on building my own life first before I think about serving others.

Then a few open questions I'd love your honest take on:

— Do you think purpose is spiritual, psychological, or something else entirely? Does the label even matter?

— Do you believe your dream life and your purpose are connected - or are they separate things?

— What does purpose actually mean to you - not the dictionary definition, but what it feels like or looks like in your real life?

No right answers here. Genuinely just curious where people are so I can tailor my approach to help. Drop your letter combo + any thoughts below. I appreciate it so much!!

I feel angry, enclosed, full of life but no place to put it.

Instrumentals and music, theyve been a guiding light in my life through the thick and thin they let me go into worlds I otherwise couldnt see. and im in love. in love with everything about how the melodies sound, the emotion they invoke, and the stories they’re tied to. they alwasy need a story as a foundation otherwise what message will the song give others? what lessons will they teach? what worlds will they envision? and yes this brings joy, yes this brings fulfillment. but what on earth do i do with all this enthusiasm? its only grown over the years but im no musician. i cant hold concerts i cant do anything but preach about how good it feels and its not enough. because others dont get it, because it doesnt earn money, because aside from my own personal wonder its utterly useless and that THAT makes me angry. this love ive developed is not cherished in my current world (my current world being one where people expect me to keep pursuing neuroscience or something in that realm because that is what I’m trained in now). instead my skills in a lab are more cherished considering i can work for $30 an hour with it at most.

lab work is fun but it doesnt invoke that same joy. but that innate joy has no skill set at least i dont think it does. what the hell am I doing? I better serve the world by going all in on something I find interesting so thats why im testing stuff out or at least I was until I felt a big piece of my foundation fall out from under me. which was university, a school system, a template of life I can rely on and gave me an excuse to keep learning things for the fun of it. I graduated I have a degree I am a bachelors of neuroscience holder so what now?

im hopeless but then i hear the happy melodies of a world I strived to understand along with its countless lessons and im once again in awe. hopeful that theres an answer for me in my own mind that ill come up with eventually. so im not completely hopeless. im just tired of wandering because wtf. surely it doesnt take this long to recover from burnout? my inner child wants to explore again. to learn that life doesnt need to be this torturous road that i cant escape. its not like that anymore i dont have to be a doctor, i dont have to be a lawyer, i dont have to be anything except for what i choose. thing is i never gave myself the chance to make this choice, to give myself the freedom to think otherwise because I had to do my best and that meant doing the most prestigious back with my high school self. and that meant being a doctor in my mind back then. but I couldnt handle the stress, well I did in undergrad but the utter uselessness I felt in my work. I didnt change any lives, i only disappointed myself day after day with long hours, little rest and fearing my professors the next day. it sucked so bad i got physically sick, lost weight, lost hair, gained weight and through it all i swear the only things keeping my soul alive were my enthusiasm in reading/writing stories, music, running, and talking about them with friends. but what now? ive escaped that hell of a workplace lab but now im back at square one. what the hell do i do that doesnt bring me back to that state of despair?

I keep thinking i should start a youtube channel to document this transition period of my life, i should compose music even though i know absolutely nothing about that I could learn, I should start meditating and doing yoga again even though it feels like im wasting time and should work in a lab again to earn some money and be useful and be an adult, but another part of me wants to learn to draw as well so I have some way to express these frustrations that doesnt end in a long journal entry or emotional breakdown in front of my parents who cannot even begin to comprehend why im so distressed. i cant tell them ANY of this because they’d know that I have no idea what im doing with my life, and they’d get worried, scared, because if their daughter doesnt know how to lead her life, and my parents are at the end of her lives, they wouldnt be able to take care of me anymore. so I have almost no other choice than to just figure this out on my own. I’d appreciate any feedback on this thought process since its been plaguing me for the past few weeks. I dont know how to escape it but I have to if I want to move forward. I’m sick of doing things out of fear but starting from ground zero… I didn’t think it’d be so difficult.

If you feel alone , shattered and do not understand what is going in your life you can try and talk to me I would host a workshop on whatever time suits the majority of you next Sunday . You can join on Google meet teams that I will host . In the end you all can send me feedbacks

how do you discover your life's purpose/your best career and if your true passion isn't possible for a stable career (like artistic careers that don't flourish financially unless you have important connections or u are a nepo baby)

35M

I’ve spent most of my adult life hopping from interest to interest. Having travelled around the world a bunch and been through a whole career and quit that career, I’m now
35 and I live in the US in a tiny studio while I work a retail job.

The questions Ive asked myself often is where did I go wrong? Why am I here? How do I get to where I want to be?

These days I spend thinking about if I should leave it all behind and take what little savings I have and move out of the country next year. I’m quite miserable here in the US and don’t feel like I’m going anywhere except for to work 5 or 6 days a week and barely having any time for anything other than that.

I love writing. I’m an artist. That has always stuck. I don’t think I’d be mad at getting a basic job somewhere and living abroad and writing until I die. Somehow this seems like the most ideal situation. Anything beats being in the U.S. where I’m uninspired.

Lastly, I’m single. Nothing here is tying me down.

I don’t know how to proceed. I’ve lived abroad once but just not sure if I should do so on a whim again or stay and do more of the same. Perhaps me being 35 is intimidating me and making it harder for me to decide.

25M

Ive been trying to figure out this issue for a multitude of years

Done therapy a few times with different diverse group of people didn't help

I've tried a multitude of different things over the years to see if it ignites that spark and just nothing ever sticks

Like i know I'm only young once and so I feel like im wasting precious time and like I dont want to do that but I just have absolutely no idea how to solve this problem

I've sorta come to the conclusion that you either sort of just inheritly know what that means for you or you dont

And if you do and utilise it you can have an incredible life but If you dont it is seemingly completely impossible to "Figure out" and you're just Perpetually doomed for eternity

Its happening! i have just about everything ready to start this new life, in only a weeks time I'm going to be in a brand new place with no trace of my old life I'm leaving behind.

I'm very excited about this new change and I'm ready to finally live again; this fresh start means more than just running away from a life i wasn't happy in, its a chance to make my life what i want it to be without caring how others feel about it.

So as i where young and naive i felt like wohoo lifes awesome and you can do anything and fell so in love with law of attraction, but as i grew older, the spell kind of have lost its charm, when i started realising ohh, everyone probably wants to be more prosperious, when that sunk in, i kind of got into this realisation, that theres no easy way of getting rich except putting in maximum effort and praying for luck and once that sunk in, ive honestly, lost all will to live... everything just sucks, being broke sucks, competing for customers sucks. Then what the frick is the point of grinding when i lose my youth... borrowing money also suck, but people wont, generally listen too you. If you dont look like you have life together and too have life together, it means to be succesful in the eyes of propaganda heh. Heres the irony of things, when you start too realise that everyone, is just talking nonsense from their perspective of what they believe is right. Lifes gotten kind of dull ngl..... idk just ranting feel free too, inspire me, or something

Mostly for men, but all can weight in.

If we take exemples of really great men we can often observe their sexual behaviors and put them in two categories

Either hyper indulgent or abstaining totally

Ray Charles,Elvis Presley,gengis khan,alexander the great,Martin Luther King were known to indulge in exapades

But also plenty of other that seem to grow power from sexlessness :

Michael jackson,Steve jobs, isaach newton,Mike Tyson,Frederick nietzche,Muhammad ali,buddha

It seems like prehaps its not the sexual abstinence that make them so powerful but the willpower they build by going against their most hard wired desires that make them so much greater than the common of mortals

Or prehaps they are outliers that are not even made in the same way than all of us

On the other side

Hypersexuality is a fuel that can make you stronger as well because by expressing all these impulsions you can become all that you truly are and express your power totally

Prehaps some of us gain power from intercourse but some others are drained by the act (mike tyson)

Me on my end believe in my ikigai (higher purpose)

A goal so powerful and so insurmountable that I would do anything to be able to achieve it.

In truth, it might be the only thing I care about

And it seems like people that are driven can gain or lose a lot by choosing the way they decide to engage sexualy

My question is if I want to pursue my life mission with all that I have what would be the best course of action:

Be extremely diligent and focused on this aspect but having some level of frustration

Or

Not restraining myself at all or very little and express myself totally in that way at some expanses

At the end of the day everything into life is a trade off

I let my life crash and burn, from mental health issues to disillusionment with how my life was supposed to end up; in just a few weeks i am moving to a small town away from everything I've ever known in an attempt to find peace and a new purpose in life.

my question is how can i find purpose after losing what i always thought it was? how can i cope with becoming someone i don't recognize?

We're thrown into this world, and we accept what it tells you that life is about. We climb our ladders and work hard to achieve the American or whatever kind of dream the world put in you mind, that is supposed to be rewarding and fulfilling. But what if we've been barking totally up the wrong tree the whole time?

We were put here on earth by a loving Creator God that had a perfect vision for humanity, and a perfect plan you YOUR life. But the "powers that be" have obscured that plan, and set us instead in a wheel like those mice run around in.

A select few will see through the fog and come to know the REAL meaning of life. Which is....to love and be loved, and to know your Creator personally. Material acquisitions never give lasting satisfaction, and relationships with people are never ultimately fulfilling, but they can be nice elements of life once you have a relationship with Jesus, and make HIM your master passion.

Going in circles

Since I was a child,..I never really cared for toy train sets. And the reason is, they only go in circles. They never arive anywhere. They seemed empty & useless and bored the fire out of me. What was the purpose of just going around in circles!!

In some ways life itself is such an endless-loop circuit. By virtue of the earth's rotation...the rising & setting of the sun, ...we're propelled into a life-long series of days and nights, waking and sleeping, and daily routines.

From a child I had a problem accepting the itinerary of life set before me, if it had no clear objective or destination. I needed to know there was a clear goal and purpose. Most people just sort of blindly follow the masses. And though I was no exception, I just wasn't comfortable doing that.

Not being raised with religion, I had no foundational Creationist view for understanding the meaning of life. And just before the threshold of legal adulthood, it came time for me to settle the issue. I heard about God. I knew the Bible was supposedly His "handbook", so I was open to the option of a creation oriented meaning for life, ..and God it's designer.

The Bible I thought...would bring me to a connection with God and my purpose for existence. I mentioned here life being like an itinerary that's before you, and interestingly one definition for itinerary, is "A handbook for travelers". We can have peace in the journey of life. And even joy. Knowing where we're going. What our mission is, our purpose, and our destination. Just get that handbook. It's readily available, and it's also alive,.. and in a way sentient,...as a Spiritual medium to make Jesus personal, and your personal guide through life.

I remember when I was starting out, it was Important to know that. In school, teachers would ask "what do you want to be? " "Where do you see your life direction heading towards?" I felt like I was one of the few that didn't know. I just couldn't put my finger on any particular profession or goal for life.

Once I decided I would like to get into Artifical Intelligence. That seemed to be interesting to me. But when I tried to develop an academic strategy, no one was interested in encouraging me in it, or really gave me any helpful assistance. So I gave it up.

I've made my way in life and got me a good job...but, when I look back at those thoughts I had that said, "I'm not going to put my heart and soul into something If I can't be totally commited to it." I think possibly It was hard because the world simply didn't offer anything that was meaningful enough. I had given my life to Jesus earlier, and what led me to do THAT, was my quest for the meaning of life. God revealed to me, that the meaning of life is love. To love and be loved, and to have a relationship with the Loving Creator.

Once you have THAT down, it changes everything about how you look at life. My life was no longer my own. Jesus purchased it with His shed blood. Nothing the world holds up as meaningful and desirable, meant much to me anymore. God takes care of my needs and has a plan for my future. When you REALLY know and believe that, you are able to have great peace. Lasting peace. I still function in the world same as you. I still have to hold down a job and make my way, but now I look toward a sure and glorious eternity.

And I Know....what my purpose is.

I thought I share a philosophy that helped form a strong personal core and platform for many possible life purposes.

I committed to having the people of all future generations (POF) as the top priority. Meaning that using the principle of "equal consideration of interests" as described by Peter Singer, I weigh their interest.

I mean above the current generation. And that is a key distinction because it avoids the people-pleasing. It allows me to stay focused on Humanity as a whole. It also helps with any bitterness/trauma that I still have.

So from here I try to take paths that overlap with a)the optimally helping the POF and b)making happy my nuclear family (partner, kids and me) if I hopefully manage to build one with a partner.

This focus grounds me. It reminds that even if everyone leaves me, I can at least focus on helping the people of the future.

Love to hear your feedback.

This was inspired by a quote by L.E.Boltzmann: I am conscious of being only an individual struggling against the stream of time. But it still remains in my power to contribute in such a way that, when the theory of gases is again revived, not too much will have to be rediscovered.

in a discussion of life's meaning, there should be the mention of it's origin. The question then becomes not WHY we're here, but how did we GET here? If the answer is God created us, then it follows He had a reason in mind. And being settled in a confidence of knowing why God made you, is a very enlightening and freeing feeling that changes how you live your life, and gives you a purpose to live toward.

​

…but that you’re waiting to feel certain before committing to anything.

Keep thinking, questioning, and doubting every path, not because nothing feels right, but because nothing feels guaranteed. So you stay stuck, not lost, just unwilling to choose. What if clarity only comes after commitment, not before it? 🤔

Yesterday I saw the movie: Soul 2020

Which it can look like a childish movie but it’s really important to watch. It taught me that my purpose of life is not just about pursuing a certain career and do it for the rest of my life. Its supposed to be about appreciating everything in life. What do you guys think?

Depending on your philosophy, your purpose may be a certain way, but sometimes I notice that my purpose shifts to enjoyment of life rather than amounting to something in the eyes of the world as they say. Recently I have begun to discover more technologies being released, I got to try OLED monitors, highly graphical games, HDR, and it’s been awesome. I feel like I am living an purposeful by just enjoying the new technologies being innovated, released, and just how cool it is all. The games on Steam, very realistic games, it definitely is something to remember by.

After Non Stop Failures since childhood,still I am 43 old want to change world and just started a new Lotus Soul Tribe for World Humanity Welfare in 2026 Chaitra NavRatri... Maa You know well what I am doing , why I am doing how I am doing ... You know well what will happen I am just an instrument while I can quit ... I am surrendered while I am in Action for You as Chaitanya not Arjun... You should come for me now ...God Just waiting for you .. I am lost in my Soul purpose or its ongoing Pattern ... I am what I am ... Please Two Three Guys Support me to create a Good team for good initiatives for World ... I have lots of Worth , planning ideas or Whole God Strategy।।।just join hands please idont know reddit power ।।।I tried insta or facebook or youtube ।।। Still working I hope one day God will appreciate my efforts n my feelings ।।। Namo Shri Radhe 💐🪷 on Insta @onesoulmitra

I’ve been looking at the pattern of how people search for their purpose, and it’s interesting how most treat it like a hidden object they’re supposed to stumble upon. There’s this heavy expectation that one day everything will just align, and you'll suddenly know exactly why you’re here.

But the more you look at behavior, the more it seems like purpose isn't a destination you reach, it’s more like a side effect of being useful in a way that doesn't drain you. When people stop looking for a "grand calling" and start paying attention to where their natural curiosity actually leads them, the clarity starts to show up on its own.

It's strange how much pressure we put on ourselves to find a "purpose" before we’ve even allowed ourselves to just be curious about something. It makes you wonder if the search itself is what’s actually keeping people feeling stuck.

Almost a decade i battled anxiety, but it ruined my entire career, due to this my grades fell, since I felt i can't understand things how others can understand it easily, my overthink was on another level, i had been dropped of from college for a year due to bad grades somehow i graduated from University, but the confidence was lost, the mind was fried, somehow landed a job and almost in the job from past 5 years can leave it becoz lack of skills i try to learn new stuff but after 3rd day i feel lost, have no idea what's going on , kindly help.

Self improvement requires knowing your purpose in life. I believe that each of us has a life purpose that when pursued, would lead to a very profound and different life.

My question is about how you guys dealt with the urge to fulfill your life purpose while still being able to pay the bills?

Yes, some life calling are profitable like teaching something but how about those that are not?