Why You’ve Lost Your Sense of Purpose

Meaning should be your guiding compass in life

In the days when tyranny dominated Germany, Viktor Emil Frankl, a jew psychiatrist, was barely surviving the horrors of the Holocaust. There were many times when he struggled to find any reason to wake up the next day and accept his existence.

Simply thinking about what would wait for him the next day was enough to convince him that he shouldn’t open his eyes anymore.

Nonetheless, he chooses to open his eyes, every day, despite his terrible living conditions.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

He found his life’s meaning, transcended his condition, and embraced the suffering. Surviving and having the posibility to help others was honoring his life missions, and granted his existence a sense and a purpose.

He was there for a reason

Getting lost in life

The wonders of being a kid

When you are kind, you are not thinking, you are simply in the moment, being completely driven by your interests and curiosities.

You are engaging in dance through the reals of imagination, exploring different worlds, concepts, and ideas.

You see dragons, and you are the knight, trying to get a treasure, and fighting fiercely against the enemies from your path.

You follow your decisions and don’t think too much about them. This sometimes leads to spontaneously expressing love, but also greed.

It gets you wonderful moments but also troubles. You are thought about good and bad, love and hate, sadness and happiness.

Life starts to become clearer and the raw novelty that follows every moment of your awareness gets concrete shapes and clear definitions. You start making sense of the world.

You are a hero, a dreamer, and a joyful adventurer through life, expressing raw energy and little to no inhibitions.

Then you are civilized

For some, this simply means learning more about the ways of the world, shaping the raw-edged of their behavior in useful means for navigating the world.

If done correctly this process can lead to that raw energy, creativity, and force of life being channeled toward self-determined directions. Towards the light of meaning, and the fulfillment of their inner purpose.

Unfortunately for many people, this is the start of the process of degradation towards the disconnection from their inner child, identity, and meaning.

It can make one take deep dive into nihilism forgetting that life ever had meaning

Your childhood circumstances are an important factor in the trajectory you take in life

Once you are on a trajectory of falsehood, away from your true values and meaning, you will fill your life with objects of meaninglessness.

Friends that are not really your friends, a job you despise that is not even remotely in your area of interest, a house that is too expensive because you bought it to impress other people, a shallow life, which you may wish to end.

Even in those circumstances, you can hear an internal scream, trying to envelop your ears and get your attention.

A memory, an understanding of who you truly are, and where you should be going.

You get the idea that you are lost and you have no idea why. Everything is terrible but you’ve accepted that, you even enjoy it at times, because the lies you told yourself were working.

Now the facade is starting to disappear, you are vulnerable and a realization strikes you.

Your life is not everything it should be, and you decide to correct your mistakes, repair the bridge to your inner self and listen to the voice that was screaming at you.

You are looking again to the path where the air is filled with meaning and purpose, where interest and curiosity are the norm and reality is a play and adventure, a tragedy and a treasure, a place where you want to be.

Stumbling Towards The Light

If you are not fortunate enough to find yourself on a path of meaning, you will find yourself struggling to find it.

Doctor Jordan B. Peterson, a famous Canadian clinical psychologist, indicated in one of his lectures that the best indicator that your life is on a good track, is how meaningful you find your day-to-day life.

You can use meaning as a compass, this feeling is something that transcends the good and the bad because you won’t necessarily only feel it when there is pleasure around.

It will help you become more resilient and able to take on the challenges of the world.

The way to make the journey towards finding your life’s meaning easier is by engaging in a process of honest dialogue with yourself and others.

You need to question and try to listen to what your inner self tries to convey to you. To brutally eliminate what you feel to be wrong in your life, and to embrace the liberation that comes with the truth.

You will find suffering because it is a real part of existence, but you will also meet salvation through the good which is the other side of the coin that defines this world.

Questioning will start to show you the path towards finding your place here.

It will help you understand how your life fits in the grand scheme of things, and why you are an essential part of existence.

Final Thoughts

Getting back on a path of meaning and purpose doesn’t require sophisticated tools or understanding. It simply comes with an honest attempt, to question yourself, your life, and the reality around you.

It is a truth you’ve known as a child, a reality that was forgotten, that can be remembered if that’s what you want.

Many people might be afraid of finding the truth of their life’s meaning because it doesn’t always provide comfort. Knowing that you are so distanced from who you are, and who you could be.

They will sabotage their efforts, and lie to themselves, never having the humility to accept their mistakes.

Nevertheless, there is always a part of them that could muster the courage to admit that they could be wrong and that there is a purpose to be discovered.

Pursuing a path of truth, working with the good, redeeming themselves by stumbling towards the light.

Walk the path that you hear calling you from inside, embrace adversity and let your life’s meaning show the direction you should follow.

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