Life itself is magic. Finding purpose in life is a story of metamorphosis. It is a journey of shedding attachment and becoming consumed by the novelty of now. We become our purpose when we are able to wield passion to meet need. We uphold the cosmic human purpose when we act to lessen the sum of suffering. It is here, that we set free imagination to create a life worth studying.
A Note
January 8, 2022
Hi Everyone,
It is cold here in Boston, MA. I am writing this post as I strive to start this new year focused on developing myself as a stronger writer. Part of that is putting out my thoughts on the nuances of life. That is why I am excited to start 2022 with my first post about purpose.
A Study Worth My Time is my personal blog where I document my journey to find myself as a writer, an adventurer, and a philosopher. I use my blog to explore the nuances of life that bring purpose to our personal and collective experiences. I immerse myself in the process of reflecting, researching, and writing on each topic, in the hope that my words might be of service to others.
For a long time, I held back on publishing my writings because I was afraid that others would not like them or find any value in them. This year, I am letting go of this irrational fear. I am writing for myself, to express myself in the best way I know how to. These words are threads of my authenticity as a human being who seeks deep connections with others in uncommon ways.
I do not claim to know in full the textures, colors, and patterns of my own or anyone else’s purpose on this planet, or beyond it. My only hope is that these words can be a source of inspiration to anyone in their process of finding, redefining, or rethinking their purpose. This is an invitation to explore it together.
Mackenzie
Purpose Is The Journey
Our hyper-stimulated society is operating in a mindset of distracted boredom which has let the false expectation of having it all right now or else we are failing corrupt our understanding of purpose. This toxic narrative of an “all or nothing, right now” state of mind has set us up to stress over the goal of achieving purpose rather than valuing the process of growing into it. In other words, we have convinced ourselves that purpose is something to be conquered in a war of comparison instead of a journey of learning about who we are and what we value. The result is that many of us are in such a rush to uncover the wealth of our lives that we often forget that life itself is the treasure.
Through my own blundered seasons of obsessing over goals, I learned the importance of sourcing my energy from acts of patience instead from a place of anxiety. I bear witness to the power of developing a practice of patience with ourselves and our experiences as an effective approach for centering our purpose on the things we can control rather than on the things we can not. I am convinced that we find great inspiration for discipline and authenticity in patience when we bake it into our simple daily activities. For me, the act of walking teaches me what my mentor Dr. Grodin (Dr. G) often describes as “finding stillness in motion.” I think of this lesson as I take daily walks. Such a meditative thought helps me pull into focus the need for more intentionality in my movement so that it can transcend meaning from the physical to the metaphysical, and back.
It is with each step of practicing patience that dares us to journey further into the brilliance of being here now. Such an approach to finding purpose brings with it cosmic inquiry into the most personal aspects of what it means to be human, and how we define our purpose in all of the chaos of the universe. Being keen to the power of now transforms our understanding of purpose because it revives our spiritual integrity with radical acceptance of what has come, what is now, and what could come in the future. Practicing patience is an active way to be kind to ourselves, to others, and the earth.
I am confident that whatever it is which brings each one of us our subjective pique experiences towards going deeper in our growth with patience we should take ahold of and explore it. Because when we place patience at the center of our lives, we can better embrace the unfolding experience of it all in a way that diverts our spirits from the wells that run dry with insatiable desire, and towards rivers flowing with purpose.
Letting Go Of Fear Welcomes In Purpose
Paulo Coelho, coined the process of finding purpose in his novel The Alchemist as finding our “personal legend.” Coelho, famously points out in the book that "there is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." This quote implicates our attachment to fearing failure as the primary impediment to uncovering purpose, and thus, achieving our dreams. It is with hope that Coelho transmits the overwhelming possibility there is to overcome the fear that stands between us and our purpose by acknowledging there is only one thing out of infinity that can stunt a growing purpose, and that is fear.
Fear drives us to seek attachment to external things. Often fearful attachment to the material world manifests in our lives as major time investments into anything that prioritizes the prize over the process. Our affinity towards attachments to material things, when driven by fear, unsettles our critical thinking skills and opens a window in the fabric of society to welcome in the misguided desire of instant gratification as a filler to the void of uncertainty. We seek out these mediums that hit us with quick dopamine and serotonin rushes because we are fearful of letting go of the things we can’t control, and it is easier to numb our minds with outside influences instead awakening our minds to see all that we need already inside of us.
The implication of fearful attachments are seen in our growing inability to recover from failure with a deeper sense of purpose. The increasing number of record breaking injuries and deaths related to suicide, overdose, violence, and harmful banter on our screens should tell us that purposeful resilience is declining. Here, is where Coelho’s words should encourage us to find our authentic self in what we perceive as failure because it is through the process of failing that we become conscious of our fearful attachments to things that feed our ego and starve our spirit.
The truth is that the feast for the soul is not rooted in materialism. Rather the harvest that feeds our purpose is found in the internal landscape of letting go of the influences that poison our sacred soil. Detaching ourselves from materialism and turning internally to seek connections with our own values system prepares us to face failure with robust resilience. Meaning that when we are less invested in fulfilling our desires to colonize purpose with the validation of externally ephemeral elements, we are more spiritually adaptable to the ever changing landscape that will inevitably bring us in contact with failure in life.
Layering Purpose
There are infinite layers to purpose. In general, I think that breaking down purpose into an oversimplification of categorical thinking can provide a reliable launch pad for further inquiry into the multiverse of purpose. Therefore, I see the two sides of the same coin as individual purpose and the collective purpose. I think on the intra-personal level defining purpose comes from the spiritual compass we lead with- or do not lead with. In application, I think this often looks like articulating a personal value system in the form of the written word to which we hold ourselves accountable in our daily actions. (More to come on this in future post!)
In his book Think Like A Monk, Jay Shetty articulates what I find to be one of the most accessible definition for finding individual purpose. In the book, Shetty describes that finding a sense of purpose can be witnessed most noticeably at the intersection of passion and service. I appreciate his observation because it connects the spiritual with the practical. When we are able to hone in on something we are naturally curious about while simultaneously finding ways to use it to equally serve ourselves, others, and the planet we thrive.
Beyond the internal analysis of our personal legend is the lingering question of whether or not there is a universal purpose for humanity- a collective purpose, maybe? Personally, I am drawn to the conclusion that the most compelling shared human purpose is to work in ways that lessen suffering. Meaning that if we test our actions through a lens of added or subtracted suffering to ourselves, others, and the planet, then we can use it as a guide towards our personal journeys of finding purpose. Because when we are aligned with the greater purpose of lessening suffering we are achieving the primary purpose of humanity. Perhaps, if we take on this approach then possibly we will be more prepared to move forward in our niche contribution to the evolution of ourselves and society.
Let me leave off on a note of acknowledgment for how ambiguous purpose can be, and how often it can overwhelms us. This anxiety provoking feeling of finding purpose is normal in the given environment which highly values achieving a purpose over living our purpose. Ultimately, what is important is that we all contribute to the nuanced threads of individual experiences weaved together to create a universal identity towards the path of absolving suffering the best we can.
Stay true to yourself. Seek the authenticity. Welcome into your values connections that inspire you to detach yourself from the material world and breathe life into your purpose with patience. Follow the omens of good fortune, they will lead you to unveil your personal legend.
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