The Significance of Having A Life Purpose

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What is the purpose of your life? Together with other existential questions, this could be both easy and difficult questions to answer. While some might argue that people could live their life like flowing water, it is worth noting, however, that the answer one gives to this question – hence revealing his ultimate purpose – might influence the extent not only to which he could overcome struggles and challenges but also to the attainment of a meaningful and fulfilled life.

To begin, a life purpose needs to be defined, in which according to a publication by John Templeton Foundation, there are three important components that define a purpose in life, including a goal orientation, personal meaningfulness, and a focus on aims beyond the self. This means that a life purpose is an objective covering a distant, long-term horizon aims that guide the steps and actions needed. Further, a life purpose is most likely to be personally meaningful, and motivated, at least partly by a willingness to make an added value in the world beyond the self. This definition of purposeful objectives proposes goals are deliberately selected, and a study suggests individuals might have a motivational responsibility in choosing and paying attention toward particular goals, including their life purposes (Fishbach, 2014).

As a result of its aforementioned definition, a life purpose is essential and beneficial for individuals, particularly following its association with meaning. In relation to a meaningful life, a purpose in life reflects a subset of sources of meaning (Bronk & Dubon, 2016). This means that meaning is a broader and more inclusive concept than purpose. Having a life purpose, therefore, brings fundamental benefits since it would contribute to the fulfillment of meaningful life. The first benefit is that a life purpose promotes an individual to be adaptive, innovative, and enthusiastic with his life. For instance, Bronk (2012) found that deriving pleasure and a deep sense of meaningfulness from engagement in the research samples’ ultimate purposes complemented with the skill in utilizing useful strategies to cope with challenges such as maintaining confidence in a final settlement and using innovative ways to solve problems helped them sustain their commitments to the ultimate purposes.

Moreover, it is suggested that commitments to ultimate purposes might develop as time passes by. This means that while the ultimate purposes were remaining, the ways to accomplish those purposes were often altered, which implied that individuals might be adaptive and agile to achieve their life purposes. The certain focus of the samples’ actions shifted as they had new approaches concerning new resources and confronted stimulating experiences. Hence, it could be inferred that having a life purpose may encourage someone to keep up-to-date, develop acquired skills, and explore new abilities synchronously.

The second benefit comes from a broader context of young and adult people where it is obvious that a remarkable purpose in life contributes to a pivotal role in healthy identity development (Bronk, 2012). The figure that an individual hoped to become was hugely influenced by what he hoped to accomplish in his life. This is to say that the sense of self was complicatedly entwined with the sense of purpose. Albeit limitations are applied regarding the study, it is still worth noting the suggestion of the study to serve as an important guide. For instance, it is imperative to know that the presence of mentors and peers with similar minds establish positive developmental contexts that probably support not only the evolvement of a remarkable purpose but also the healthy growth of young people.

Meaningful Work

The third benefit appears in a more specific context, that is from the perspective of taking actions following one’s role, particularly in a work environment, in which someone could obtain life contentment from meaningful work or anything that he does by setting a notable purpose that aligns with his established values, interest as well as pertinent skills, and working towards that “dream job”. Every movement towards the dream job would bring satisfaction to an individual. Even if an individual has attained his dream job, it does not necessarily mean that it is terminal. Instead, it is actually an entrance to a new platform in which an individual could explore and contribute more to society and focus on aims beyond himself following his new role.

It is suggested that work has become a focal point in providing meaning, stability, and a sense of community and identity in individuals’ lives (Cartwright and Holmes, 2006). The importance of work is not only about the degree to which individuals could contribute to others but also about themselves, and how much they could be able to realize themselves since it is pivotal for individuals to feel that their existence and unique selves matter (George and Park, 2014). This means that individuals have to experience their work aligns with their self-image of who they are, their originality, values, and interests, which further could be called self-realization. Thus, self-realization is an inner value for individuals that might affect their ultimate purposes and how they could realize the purposes through meaningful work.

The question then, how could one know that the established ultimate purpose is meaningful and worth doing? Probably, the study of Martela and Pessi (2018) might help to answer such a question. They propose that meaningfulness in the broadest sense is about work importance as an overall assessment of work as regards whether it is naturally precious and worth doing. According to the study, it is suggested that the more employees feel that their work has benefited other people, the more they ought to feel that they are giving a higher purpose through their work. It could be inferred that if someone could provide individuals with work where they are allowed to realize themselves and where they feel they are given a wider purpose then he opens those individuals the chance to truly feel that their work is significant and worth doing.

Furthermore, the importance of meaningful work in serving an ultimate purpose is about finding some personal values and interests in one’s work-related activities that cause them worth doing, and further, it is a general assessment of the value or worth of one’s work (Lepisto and Pratt, 2017). The value and worthiness of an individual’s work could be evaluated by questioning the connectedness of individual personal values, interests, and abilities with his work, or the existence of uncertainty and isolation from any values that an individual feels regarding his job (Weber, 1958; Bellah et al., 1985). For those reasons, a notable life purpose could closely be attributed to a meaningful work, in which the latter could serve as an ultimate purpose but not automatically means that once an individual has reached it then it is finished. Instead, it is a good way to bring fulfillment and satisfaction to one’s life by serving a higher purpose through what he does and the value-added given to society.

After all, the significance of having a life purpose does not lie in the attainment of that purpose, but rather in the path and process of attaining the aim and moving towards it. An ultimate purpose helps someone mapping and draw the direction in his life to which he would further use his valuable resources, such as time and efforts, to produce significant steps that bring him closer to the purpose. In other words, having a noble purpose might convert one’s valuable endowment to other valuable things that result in an added value to bring him one step closer to his purpose which in turn would leave him satisfied. As Jordan Peterson – a renowned psychologist – once suggested that it is not attaining an aim that makes us happy, but having an aim and moving towards it.

In conclusion, discussion regarding the topic of a life purpose is a complex issue. While some people might think that having an ultimate purpose is too far away, nonetheless, individuals essentially need to possess ultimate life purposes to serve as guides that direct their steps, in addition to the benefits it brings for those who own it as some researchers have suggested. A purpose that does not need to be a perfect one since owning a direction is better than having no direction. Without a start and a purpose, an individual would remain stuck seeing the world pass him by. Someone might not even need a starting line to start taking an action. If we think what we are contending for is worth the contend then contend for it.

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References
Adolescent Moral Development Lab at Claremont Graduate University. (February 2018). The Psychology of Purpose. John Templeton Foundation

Bellah, R. N., Sullivan, W. M., Tipton, S. M., Swidler, A., and Madsen, R. P. (1985).
Habits of the Heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Bronk, K. C. (2012). A Grounded Theory of the Development of Noble Youth Purpose. Journal of Adolescent Research, 27(1), 78–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558411412958

Bronk, K. C., & Dubon, V. X. (2016). Approaches to fostering purpose among adolescents in
educational settings. The International Forum for Logotherapy

Cartwright, S., and Holmes, N. (2006). The meaning of work: the challenge of
regaining employee engagement and reducing cynicism. Hum. Resour. Manage.
Rev. 16, 199–208. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2006.03.012

Fishbach, A. (2014). The motivational self is more than the sum of its goals. Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 37, 143-144.

George, L. S., and Park, C. L. (2014). “Existential mattering: bringing attention to a
neglected but central aspect of meaning?” in Meaning in Positive and Existential
Psychology, eds A. Batthyany and P. Russo-Netzer (New York, NY: Springer),
39–51.

Lepisto, D. A., and Pratt, M. G. (2017). Meaningful work as realization and
justification toward a dual conceptualization. Organ. Psychol. Rev. 7, 99–121.
doi: 10.1177/2041386616630039

Martela F and Pessi AB (2018). Significant Work Is About Self-Realization and Broader Purpose:
Defining the Key Dimensions of Meaningful Work. Frontiers in Psychology. 9:363. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00363

Weber, M. (1958). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, ed T. Parsons.
New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

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