Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life. We all need a sense of meaning, which is why people often turn to things like astrology or psychics to find it. When life has meaning, you can handle almost anything; without it, nothing feels bearable.
A young man in his twenties once said, “I feel like a failure because I’m struggling to become something, and I don’t even know what it is. All I know how to do is get by. Someday, if I discover my purpose, I’ll feel like I’m really living.”
Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose, life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope. Many people express this hopelessness, saying, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. My life drags by—day after hopeless day” and “I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone. My life makes no sense.” The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.
Hope is as essential to your life as air and water. You need hope to cope. Dr. Bernie Siegel found he could predict which of his cancer patients would recover by asking, “Do you want to live to be one hundred?” Those with a deep sense of purpose answered yes and were the ones most likely to survive. Hope comes from having a purpose.
If you have felt hopeless, hold on! Wonderful changes are going to happen in your life as you begin to live it on purpose. God says, “I know what I am planning for you. I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.” You may feel you are facing an impossible situation, but then, “God is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of—infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.”
Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. It defines what you do and what you don’t do. Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren’t. You simply ask, “Does this activity help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my life?”
Without a clear purpose, you have no foundation on which to base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources. You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at that moment. People who don’t know their purpose try to do too much—and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict.
It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God’s will. If you can’t get it all done, it means you’re trying to do more than God intended for you to do (or, possibly, that you’re watching too much television). Purpose-driven living leads to a simpler lifestyle and a saner schedule.
Knowing your purpose focuses your life. It concentrates your effort and energy on what’s important. You become effective by being selective.
It’s human nature to get distracted by minor issues. We play Trivial Pursuit with our lives. Henry David Thoreau observed that people live lives of “quiet desperation,” but today a better description is aimless distraction. Many people are like gyroscopes, spinning around at a frantic pace but never going anywhere.
Without a clear purpose, you will keep changing directions, jobs, relationships, churches, or other externals—hoping each change will settle the confusion or fill the emptiness in your heart. You think, Maybe this time it will be different, but it doesn’t solve your real problem—a lack of focus and purpose.
The power of focusing can be seen in light. Diffused light has little power or impact, but you can concentrate its energy by focusing it. With a magnifying glass, the rays of the sun can be focused to set grass or paper on fire. When light is focused even more as a laser beam, it can cut through steel.
There is nothing quite as potent as a focused life, one lived on purpose. The men and women who have made the greatest difference in history were the most focused. The secret to success is a focused life. Ask anyone and they will say, “I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”
If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop confusion. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Stop doing even good activities and do only that which matters most. Never confuse activity with productivity. You can be busy without a purpose, but what’s the point? “Let’s keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us.”
Knowing your purpose motivates your life. Purpose always produces passion. Nothing energizes like a clear purpose. On the other hand, passion dissipates when you lack a purpose. Just getting out of bed becomes a major chore. It is usually meaningless work, not overwork, that wears us down, saps our strength, and robs us of joy.
George Bernard Shaw wrote, “This is the true joy of life: being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
Knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity. Many people spend their lives trying to create a lasting legacy on earth. They want to be remembered when they’re gone. Yet, what ultimately matters most will not be what others say about your life but what God says. What people fail to realize is that all achievements are eventually surpassed, records are broken, reputations fade, and tributes are forgotten. In college, James Dobson’s goal was to become the school’s tennis champion. He felt proud when his trophy was prominently placed in the school’s trophy cabinet. Years later, someone mailed him that trophy. They had found it in a trashcan when the school was remodeled. Jim said, “Given enough time, all your trophies will be trashed by someone else!”
Living to create an earthly legacy is a short-sighted goal. A wiser use of time is to build an eternal legacy. You weren’t put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity.
One day you will stand before God, and he will do an audit of your life, a final exam, before you enter heaven or hell depending on your karma. “Remember, each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God. Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God.” Fortunately, God wants us to pass this test, so he has given us the questions in advance.
Just ask yourself, “What did you do with what God gave you?” What did you do with your life—all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy, relationships, and resources God gave you? Did you spend them on yourself, or did you use them for the purposes God made you for?
With these open-ended questions, let me conclude hoping that when you find answers to these questions, you will surely find a pathway to finding the true purpose of your life. Remember in Bhagavad Gita, Shri Krishna himself says, “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not fear.”
Author Bio
K. Sudheendra Nayak is a multifaceted author, professor, blogger, and poet hailing from Mangalore, Karnataka, India. With a background in Mechanical Engineering and M.Tech in Machine Design, he transitioned to a successful writing career. Currently lecturing at a prestigious institution in Mangalore, Nayak has authored numerous solo books, including the acclaimed "Way of Love & Way of Life: A Sudhi Poetry Series," and contributed to over fifty anthology books. His work has garnered international recognition, notably being part of the record-setting "Secrets of Love" anthology in the International Book of World Records.
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