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Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#91
>There are plenty of studies that show that having a "purpose" and working after it is correlated with higher happiness or well being. "Purpose" is vague enough, so to make things worse I am going to conflate it with "life meaning", "calling" or "personal values".

Some subjective sense being correlated with blah blah blah doesn't mean any such thing objectively exists. It doesn't. You have no purpose. Nobody designed you. You're free.

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#92

Check out the book “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, purpose is overrated, being a skilled professional is underrated.

I second this. However I'd like to note that in the later chapters, Cal Newport does develop the concept of 'mission' which has some overlap with the concept of purpose but is defined more constructively.

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#93
I suspect that one important part is to get rid of other people's ideas.

For example, in this discussion, currently the most upvoted answer says that your purpose must be a source of income. Well, not really. Some people have a day job to keep their bills, and write poetry at night, and they consider the poetry to be their purpose. Of course, it is awesome if your purpose can also become a source of income (because then you can spend more time doing it), but do not put the cart before the horse. First find out what your purpose is, only then start thinking about making money from it.

Similarly, "what you are good at doing" is a nice thing, but that often comes with practice. Do not give up on trying new things.

Try different things. Afterwards, notice the emotions connected with your memories of doing those things. Explore around the things that felt good; try doing something similar but different.

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#95
post #89

In plain english, "Ikigai" is the intersection of: - what you enjoy doing - what you are good at doing - what you can get paid for doing Imagine a a circle for each of those categiries as a Venn diagram - the middle of the 3 would be "Ikigai." Try making a list of all three, then see if there is overlap.

I tried that and it completely broke me working with other people who did a shitty job of what I loved doing and didn't care. I now worked out the thing to do is earn lots of money turning something you hate but are good at into something tolerable. That gives you time, energy and money for the things you love.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#96
post #7

do drugs. travel alone. try lots of different kinds of jobs. good luck.

I concur. A mushroom or LSD trip in nature is the quintessential human experience and has been immensely helpful even for those than never continued use of the substance.

It's alright. Definitely a cool experience. I wouldn't go so far as to claim it changed my life or even perspective. But it did push me to do some new things that I had been considering for a long time but slacking on.

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#97
What if purpose isn't something you find, like coins on the sidewalk, but something you choose?

There may be many things you like or think have some value or that more of it should exist in the world. But maybe expecting one of those things to grab you in a cone of ethereal light is expecting too much. Perhaps the point is that you can choose and you should.

Go read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#98

Values come first. Purpose is then to live a life where you don’t compromise on your values.

How do you decide which values to prioritize?

It can be hard. :)

I usually ask someone else who I trust to help me think through it.

For decisions that cannot be undone, usually, you one takes a leap of faith and goes for one value over the other.

Re: Ask HN: How do I find my “purpose”?

#100
I think making the world a better place is probably the best thing one can be doing with their lives.

Thankfully there are great resources that can help; my top recommendation is 80,000 Hours - named after the roughly 80,000 hours that one will spend in their lives working. Given how much time that is, it's worth doing something good with it.

https://80000hours.org/

Following your passion may not be the best way to go - https://80000hours.org/articles/dont-follow-your-passion/

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