Understand your purpose. You will be happy.
Hi, my name is Lihui. I am an artist who enjoy asking deep questions and in the process inspiring others. What’s your meaning of life?
I am serious when I’m asking this question. Don’t walk away before I explain this question to you more in depth. It won’t lead you to a existential crisis if you ask it correctly. This is the question that can lead you towards happiness. Aristotle’s term is Eudaimonia. It is an activity rather than a emotional state. Imagine a grass is growing with its leaves green. It has a few competitors like thick and high trees around it taking nutritions yet the grass has just enough sunlight and nutritions from the soil for it to bloom. The grass has no emotion but we can call it happy for the healthy state that it is in. This is the type of happiness I’m saying here. It is to live a flourishing and fulfilled life. If you are a recent graduate student feeling lost, or you are in the middle of your career and you suddenly feel dissatisfied, you need to think about what’s the meaning of your life.
I spend a lot of time thinking about this questions and ask the same question to people from different professions, from businessperson, to salesperson, student, artist, designer, engineer, physicist, writer... It’s a difficult question because it sounds too big as a question. If I change a way to ask this question, it might be easier to answer: What is the purpose of your life?
I’m more interested to know why you do the things you do. What motivates you? Figuring out your purpose can lead you towards a fulfilled life.
Here are nine types of purpose. Each has a pitfall as a drawback to achieve happiness.
Type I: Eating and sleeping. Some people enjoy exploring new food and have good time with friends. Their lives are simple and they are happy. They take picutres of interesting food and when they go back home they go to sleep. Pitfall: Feel bored of repeating pattern and don’t know what to do next.
Type II: Nurture offspring. Nurture type people care so much of their kids. They expect their kids can extend their lives, to achieve more things than they can achieve themselves. They can be teachers, public speakers, or life couch. They pass around knowledge and wish all the best to the next generation. Pitfall: Give all the knowledge and hope to others and forget to take care of themselves.
Type III: Freedom. This type of people pursue freedom for its own sake. They don’t want to be constrained by others. They are Nomads. They travel around the world and meet different people. Pitfall: Avoid to make commitment and lack of long-term goal.
Type IV: Working. Working type people works all the time. Working itself provides them a sense of fulfillment. Sometimes, they forget anything else that is going on in the world. Pitfall: Spend too much time doing things and not think about the meanings.
Type V: Enlightenment. Some people have strong connection with “God”, “nature”, “greater being”, “buddha”, no matter what you call it, something that have higher power. It shines light onto you. When you see it, you feel temporarily forget of ego and you feel infinite love. People who meditate, have mind-changing drugs, or have near death experience, are more likely to pursue an enlightenment life. They want to use their life to pursue this light and achieve true happiness. Pitfall: Put God beyonds everything and forget of the materials world.
Type VI: Creator. Creators are solitude but they are really happy. They don’t need other people saying good words to them to boost their ego. If they have talent and good skills, they will indulge themselves in their own world. They just want to create amazing things. And they can find values and happiness in their own creation. Pitfall: Live in one’s own world and can only see one side of the world.
Type VII: Understand the world. Some people want to find the map of the world and feel fulfilled in the process of pursuing it. They enjoy learning physics, history, art, mathematics, biology, engineer and economy. They are dedicated “scientists” who constantly learn from everyday experience, run experiments to test hypothesis, and build up their perfect map. Pitfall: Live in one’s own minds and forget to feel emotion and experience things.
Type VIII: Seek for power. This type of people always seek to climb higher because they want to control things. Politicians may do whatever it costs to get to the power position and be able to change policies. Pitfall: Forget the importance of love and get trapped in their power position.
Type IX: Love and affairs. Love is everything for them. They are romantic and emotional. They want to be around with people they love and do things together. They might try polyamrous relationship. They can love different people at once. Pitfall: Get lost in the boundless sea of desire and unclear who they really love.
These are nine types of purpose that I can think of for now. I don’t think any of this purpose is inherently higher than others. People are different. I’m more happy to see a weird world with diverse values in which smiling faces each speaking of each own purpose.
I’m currently building counterreality to help people find the purpose of life through the lens of imagination: http://counterreality.com
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