The person needs to change his life, but they don't see a goal for it. No target indicates no direction or point of departure. As a result, the hours wasted wallowing in procrastination.
I'd like to share a secret about this: I don't know what the meaning of my life is, and I don't think it matters.
The Cult of a Call
I use the words "life intent" but I might just as easily use the words "passion," "calling," "mission statement" or some of the other hundreds of self-help buzzwords that are flying around these days.
If you know the call of your life with strong certainty, it's perfect for you. Although I'm not sure that necessarily matters to the rest of us who don't.
Answering the question too fast can be bad, as it narrows your view early. I would rather enjoy confusion and more comprehensive experience than response early and lose opportunities.
Although, with all the supposed advantages of having a life intent, how can you sit in the dark? You're not only going to be like the readers who sent me letters, frittering away time before clarity hits them?
Let 's look at why people believe that understanding your life's purpose is important, and I'm going to share why I disagree:
Reason One: No Meaning in Life = No Encouragement
This one seems to make sense, considering the reader email I sent. People with simple mission statements, whether they live intentionally or accept non-compliance, appear strongly inspired.
The error here is to believe that you need to know the destination to inspire yourself. I don't know where I'm going to live, who I'm going to be, and the programs I'm going to work on in five years. That's all right, I'm also inspired to focus on smaller tasks to better myself today.
Smaller ambitions can lack the grandeur of a life calling, but they may also be encouraging. In certain cases, incremental changes can be more inspiring, since you see success now than in decades.
Reason Two: Without understanding the Big Picture, you can't do the Big Stuff
The premise is that without seeing the big picture, you're not going to do something big. You can be inspired by small projects, but they would be uncoordinated. The biggest achievements, however, can only be accomplished by those with fantastic dreams.
Unfortunately, there is not sufficient evidence to back up this assumption. Yes, people who did great stuff always have big ideas. But how many people do you meet who's still going to have this brilliant plan, and never get it done?
There is a class of machine learning algorithms programmed to discover a precise attribute, without understanding what it would be beforehand. I think that a fruitful life is lived in about the same way. Not understanding the exact value (which is always impossible), however creating a theory that will discover it along the way.
Reason Three: Mission Holds You Focused
The reasoning is that without a mission in life, you're going to be unfocused. It is important to have a perspective on life, but I disagree with the common consensus of how people really create one.
If you improve, you will have a greater effect on your ability to make money, credibility, and pleasure. When the ability improves, it becomes more and more advantageous to make an attempt to improve that ability compared to other hobbies. This provides a reinforcement loop that ultimately focuses your life on a single collection of skills that you are most excited about and have the greatest influence on.
The positive reinforcement loop of ability and reward is normal, and may ultimately lead you to "discover" the meaning of your life. The challenge is that you can't tell precisely when the loop will go in advance. Trying to forecast your call early in life may derail the more normal process of constructing the call.
Getting a short-term emphasis (say a project, launching a blog or learning skills) is a positive thing. It's a positive idea to be incredibly optimistic about this endeavor. But while concentration is necessary in the short term, I think it is equally important to be open in the long term, so that you can see where the journey takes you.
Reason Four: Understanding Your Mission Makes You Maintain in Question
If you knew with 100 % confidence that you were supposed to be a doctor, you would not give up the second time you missed your MCAT test. Here the point is that life is full of moments of uncertainty, and it's easy to give up without any sort of anchor.
I accept that some sort of anchor is important to me. Feeling crappy about failure, a failing idea, or a nearly infinite plateau of mediocrity, is not just a fair appraisal of the truth. It hurts bad, and the initial impulse is to reduce our loses and stop the suffering. Even if we know it's going to make matters harder.
