Building a Life: Meaning and Purpose

Why are we here? What does it all mean? What the hell am I supposed to do with my life?

Without answers to these questions, otherwise intelligent people can become paralyzed by indecision and self doubt. To overcome this paralysis we need to have answers or at least acceptable working theories.

What is the meaning of life? I say that the meaning of life is living. Life is to be lived and enjoyed and has no other meaning. You don’t need to believe anything so crass, but you do need to figure out what life means to you. Without a defined philosophy man is like a ship without captain, adrift in an ocean of chaos.

One word of warning, however, your basic philosophy of life must actually be pro-life.

If your religion or fundamental philosophy encourages you to disregard the health and physical safety of your body, then you will have problems.

If your basic worldview is anti-money, anti-property and anti-profit, then you are likely to have problems there too.

Exhortations to poverty, chastity and self denial are anti-life and anti-humanity. If your religion proscribes the enjoyment of sex, or faces you to maintain relationships that are not conducive to your physical and emotional wellbeing then, I’m sorry, but you need to get yourself a new religion.

A healthy attitude toward pleasure and success is pre-requisite to everything.

Once you’ve come to your own conclusions about the meaning of life and the nature of reality, it’s time to start asking questions about society and your role in it.

As modern westerners we’re often told that we can be anything we want to be, or else that we’ll never amount to anything at all. Both of these lies are equally damaging.

The meaning of life is the same for everyone, even if we don’t necessarily all agree on what that is. The purpose of a life, the role of one individual in society, is something else altogether. Each of us is possessed of our own greatest passion, our own special talents and our own hidden wyrd. We can’t all be warriors. Nor can we all be priests, poets or magicians. Some of us were meant to be workers, some business people and, yes, some warriors or intellectuals. We can’t all be kickboxing personal trainers or society would have a really hard time getting much of anything else done.

Man needs a comprehensive philosophy, a worldview that explains something of the meaning of it all. He also needs a purpose, a goal, a mission or a role to play in society lest he be consumed by his own cosmic insignificance. Without meaning and purpose, nothing in life makes sense.