The Ultimate Purpose of Life

The Purpose of Life is very simple, and it is the same for all people. The Purpose of Life is simply to experience it.

Our lives are perfect and complete exactly as they are. Even the things we perceive as imperfect and incomplete, are actually part of our perfect and complete lives. 

Each of us is born into this earth as a unique human being with a unique set of challenges and circumstances. These are the exact challenges and circumstances that we need in order to have the precise experience we desire to have on this earth. 

Many of us have a tendency to compare our lives to those of our friends, peers, neighbors, celebrities on TV, and so forth. Often it seems as though the lives of others are more interesting or in some way better than our own. 

However, this is a mistaken view that can distract us from being attentive to our own lives. When we waste our energy being dissatisfied with our own life or envious of the lives of others, this significantly depletes our Personal Power. 

In fact, our Personal Power comes not from wishing that we were living someone else's life, but from fully embracing the challenges of our own. Personal Power, and therefore happiness, is simply not possible until we learn to fully appreciate our own lives, exactly as they are Here and Now. 

Now, for many of us, this is a difficult proposition to accept. Our lives can often seem very mundane and insignificant. We see other people doing amazing, creative things and 

living lives of greater affluence and variety than us, driving better cars and living in nicer houses. We may hate our jobs and wish we could be an athlete, or an actor, or a CEO of a cool technology company, or an adventurer, or whatever. 

Well, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that fully embracing, accepting and appreciating every aspect of our lives does not mean that we cannot change some aspect of it. In fact, we are free to do whatever we want with our lives. 

The bad news, although it is not really bad, is that we cannot actually become anybody else or assume someone else's role in life. We must change those aspects of our lives we wish to change in the context of our own lives. For instance, if we want to be an athlete, we are free to try. We may or may not have the innate talent required to be a professional athlete competing on the highest level. But no one can stop us from trying. 

The point is that we are free to do what we please with our lives. If we don't like our job, we can simply stop doing it. If we don't like a relationship we are in, we can simply get out of it. What we have done up until now does not have to dictate what we do in the future.

Even while we accept and appreciate our lives exactly as they are, this means accepting and appreciating the challenges inherent within our lives, embracing those challenges, and overcoming them. 

Ultimately though, it doesn't matter whether we are an accountant, a carpenter, an actress, a housewife, a factory worker, or a CEO. Our Purpose in Life is simply to experience the life we have been given. Now within the life we have been given, we are free to experience it however we please. This means that we are free to live our lives passively and just take life as it comes. We are likewise free to set goals and intentionally change any aspect of our lives. 

Our lives are like a day at the beach. Some people on the beach play a spirited game of volleyball. Others run for miles on the sand. Still others simply spread a blanket, lie down, and drink a beer. Our lives are our own giant sandbox, and we are free to play in it however we choose. We can painstakingly build an elegant sand castle, fight with others in the sandbox, or simply sit in it and enjoy the sensation of the sand on our feet. 

When we find ourselves feeling lost and confused and overwhelmed, wondering what we should do with our lives, the answer is simple. We can do whatever we want. Or do nothing at all. There is no wrong answer. There is simply the experience of life, in This Present Moment. This is the ultimate purpose for which we were born. 

The opportunity to live our lives is a great gift. We were given the gift of life precisely for the opportunity to simply experience it. And the highest expression of appreciation for that gift is to simply embrace it and experience every aspect of it in all of its glory and uncertainty and pain and hardship and joy and sorrow and fun and sadness and triumph and tragedy. 

These emotions are part and parcel to EVERY person's experience. And none of us who live for any length of time can avoid experiencing ALL of these emotions. In fact, far from avoiding these emotions, the precise reason we are here is to experience them. 

To simply experience it. That is the Ultimate Purpose of Life.