The Importance of Having a Life Purpose

How important it really is to have a purpose? I mean what is the importance of having a purpose? This article will be about that topic. The importance of having a purpose in life. I’ve been someone who actually just got my sense of direction about a year ago. Prior to that, I was in a quarter-life crisis. I can say that my life has changed a lot so I have a lot to say on the importance of purpose. So before everything else, I want to give the answer straight away. Why is it important to have a purpose?

It is important to have a purpose because it gives us a sense of direction on where we want to go in our life. Furthermore, it not only gives us a reason to wake up in the morning, but it also lets us enjoy the process of reaching our goals.

For me, my life really started after knowing my purpose. I do not believe that purpose is something cosmic like what others think. I believe that purpose is just something that we have to find and not predestined. I want to stress that out because it might look like for some that finding their purpose is a hard thing to do. I am someone who doesn’t believe in it.

More importantly, this article will be about the importance of finding our purpose. Furthermore, I’m going to discuss why is it important to have a purpose and what life is with and without purpose.

Is it important to have a purpose?

It is important to have a purpose since it keeps us on track with our goals. Having a purpose means that we have a sense of direction that we can follow. Following this brings us happiness not just in the end, but also while in the process of reaching our dreams.

I remember a few years back when I was in a quarter-life crisis which is normal for people who are in their 20s.

Actually, I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. I don’t know if I’ll make a website, or make a book, or make a channel, make a business? The list is endless.

It came to a point where I tried to target everything I can think of. I made a business, my first website, etc.

As humans, we are not good at multi-tasking. Same with our goals. If we don’t have any targets, to begin with, and just try to throw our energy wherever we find, we won’t achieve everything.

That’s the result. My first business is a failure, my first investment is a failure, and my first website is also a failure.

The reason is simple, we need to focus to get results. That’s what I learned later on in life.

A year ago, when I was doing self-reflection, I actually found out that I want to be a writer. I want to inspire others and make my website big.

I already have this website at that time but it is really small, maybe around 10 articles.

But the moment I felt a sense of purpose, I felt really excited about my website, and finally, I was so happy I found my purpose. I can’t even sleep and I want to build my website immediately.

That was the turning point in my life, right now, this site has a lot of articles that I can’t really count. I think it has reached 100 now.

Right now, I wake up with a goal in my mind. Make articles and make this website big.

Actually, my website now grew 50% since last month which is an amazing feat for me.

That happened because I got my purpose. I know where to focus on. I focused my energy here and for the first time in my life, I can see the results of my efforts.

These are small wins in which I always treat myself because I enjoy these small victories. Unlike before where I don’t have anything to be happy about since I am targeting a lot of goals at the same time.

As you can see, it is important to have a purpose. Without purpose, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. The funny thing is that I am happy even if I am still not in my goal which is to make this site way bigger than what it currently is.

I hope you got my point on the importance of having a purpose. In the next section, we are going to dive deeper into why it is important.

Why is it important to have a purpose?

Having a purpose is important because it keeps us focused on our real goals in life. This is because our purpose is personalized which means that we will have a different purpose compared to others. That way, we can give our energy to what really matters to us.

Now, let us go further on why it is important to have a purpose.

We are now in an age of social media. We can send pictures to our loved ones thousands of miles away with just a few presses of a button.

There are also social media sites where we can follow our family and celebrities.

But there is a negative side to that.

You see, every day we can see the lifestyle of various celebrities and people we look up to. We see the things they like and the things they don’t like. Their lifestyle and sometimes, we tend to compare ourselves to them.

The problem is with the comparing. Because of comparing ourselves to the lives of others, we tend to now know what really matters to us.

For example, their purpose in life is not the same as yours.

If your purpose in life is to live a quiet life away from the city, then that is your life’s purpose. It is irrelevant to want a life like the celebrities who sleep in a hotel every day because they are traveling the world.

Remember that on social media, people only post things that they want you to see.

And it is rare that you’ll see someone posting their problems. Most of the time, they are sharing the best moments of their life.

If you compare your ordinary life to someone who has the best moments of their life. Isn’t it unfair?

Remember that you are just seeing the tip of the iceberg when on social media. Even if someone got a new car or a house at a young age, you don’t know what is behind that purchase.

For example, I remember someone asking me to lend her money because she can’t pay her rent and might get evicted. But just a week after asking for money, she is bragging about how much money she earns weekly in her new sideline and saying she plans to spend a vacation soon.

Can you see the irony between that? It is almost impossible to have a complete life change in just a week except if you won the lottery.

That’s the problem with social media. It gives us false information or it does not give us the whole picture.

If you started to compare your life to my example where she seems to earn a lot and plans to spend a vacation, then you are not seeing the whole picture. She doesn’t even have money to pay for rent just a week ago.

So what’s the importance of a purpose in life and why it is necessary?

It is necessary to have a purpose in life because it gives us a sense of direction on where we really want to go. This makes sure that we are using our energy on the things that matter to us, and not something that matters to somebody else.

If you want to know the full meaning of finding your purpose in life, then I recommend you read my other article discussing what it means to find your life’s purpose. It is a good read together with this article: What does it mean to find your purpose?

Now, let’s dive deeper into what it feels like to live a life with purpose.

What is living a life of purpose?

Living a life of purpose means that you are happy with the process. This means that you’re not just getting up from your bed to reach your goals but also enjoying the small victories associated with it. It is having a meaningful life where you are in charge of your own life.

When I found my purpose and my goals, I was able to concentrate my energy on the things that I want. For the first time, I feel like I’m on track.

I am enjoying the process even if creative thinking is really hard to do.

I am just happy to get up every day excited to make more content for this website. I was excited to find ways to make this website load fast. I am excited to find ways to make it very simple but pleasing to the eyes.

All of that happened because I followed my own purpose. My own dreams and goals.

That is life living a purpose. When you find something that really matters to you, whether it is you or other people, then you are on the right track.

To know how to find your life’s purpose and values, I recommend you make a self-reflection. Don’t worry because it is very easy and I made a guide for you: How to develop your self-reflection practice.

Before, it was really hard to be competent. I am always wondering why am I working on these things. Why do I have a lot to do and see no results?

But now, I am more competent. I found out how to stay competitive and I go to bed tired but happy because of the progress I’ve made.

I started to enjoy working on weekends and holidays if necessary because I enjoy working. Before, all my holidays are for watching and mindless playing since I’m not excited about what I do.

I’ve actually made an article that discusses how to stay competitive. Those are what kept me competitive since I want to reach success. I know I need to do a lot of work to succeed and that’s why I need to stay competitive. Here is the article if you want to read it after this article: How to Stay Competent

But I want to stress something out.

Your personal purpose is not tied to work. Actually, I’ve seen people where they are doing something else outside their work because it is their purpose.

For example, if your purpose is to feed homeless people, then it is a good purpose.

Furthermore, our purpose is not always tied to money. For example, you can have a purpose of keeping the environment clean so you pick up trash every time you are out of work.

That’s why I said people have different purposes in life depending on their values. That’s why it is important to know your values and how to self-reflect to know your real purpose in life.

To have a purpose-driven life, you need to know your own values and purpose. This comes from self-reflection and not something predestined like what others tell.

I am stressing about predestiny because I feel sad for people who say that they don’t have life-purpose because they aren’t predestined to do anything.

If you are someone who fell in love with something at an early age and wants it to be your purpose, then good for you. My cousin was like that since he was in love with airplanes ever since age 5.

But for most people like me who found my purpose at age 26, then it is different.

It is important to live a purpose-driven life since only by knowing your purpose will you have the capacity to enjoy life. Having a purpose-driven life is like having a clear set of things to do and achieve which generally makes us happier and find more meaning in things.

What is a life without purpose?

A life without purpose is living life without anything to do. This is because our purpose is our means to have a clear set of objectives and goals to keep us going. Without a set of things to do, life becomes very dull and we ultimately just waste our precious life and energy.

If you can remember my life when I was first starting to find my life’s purpose and without any direction, I was wasting all my energy on numerous things without knowing which is really my goal.

That’s why I failed in all of them.

But there is something worse than that.

Some people who really have no purpose and drive in life tend to be less happy. It is not surprising since they don’t have anything to do. Most just go on with life carelessly since they live a life without purpose.

A purpose is not something very important to everyone. It is not something noble. While it can be noble, it depends on the person.

For example, right now my purpose is to build this website bigger. This is by no means noble like cleaning our environment. But it is what makes me happy.

It keeps me waking up every day full of life and joy.

Now, some people with no life purpose will usually spend every day like it is a drag.

I am usually active in forums and I can see some confessions where they are just living their lives in a virtual world because they think this world is plain useless.

But the truth is, most of the time, they still don’t know their purpose.

I repeat, your purpose is personal. That is why even if you achieve great things in life if that is the purpose of another individual, you would not feel happy about it.

That’s why you can see people who are very rich but not happy with their lives, and you can see someone climbing mountains and is very happy even if he or she doesn’t have a lot of money.

But, it is still good to see the life of others especially biographies. This is because we might not get any purpose in their life, but we will have some inspiration.

Like the picture above of a guy happy in front of the laptop with a small victory, that is life with purpose.

It doesn’t matter how big or small the achievement is, the important thing is that they did their best and they saw some improvement.

It keeps us awake despite being tired, or it gets us out of bed without much drag.

I really hope you find your purpose in life.