Western culture tells us that we need to be serious a lot of the time, we need to find our purpose in life and get to work, that sort of thing. I’m here to tell you that we should step away from this mindset. Understand that there is no purpose, to any of this. Life is not about purpose. Life is about enjoying the moment and living in the present reality. I’m going to give you an idea later on that will allow us to shift our mindset in western society to include this perspective.
Let me first ask you: What is the purpose of singing or playing an instrument? Is it to get to the end as fast as possible, or to make the best piece of music that is marketable to the widest audience to sell the most records? I believe the point of singing or playing an instrument is to have fun making music. If you enjoy it, you should do it. It’s really rather simple.
I hear all the time that people are trying to find their purpose in life. They’re searching for it, attempting to figure out why they’re here and what they’re supposed to do in life. They get upset if they can’t find it, or grow anxious when something changes.
Another example: Some people say their purpose is to be a mother or father. God put them on this earth to have children and to guide them through life, but what happens to that purpose when the child goes off to university or moves to a different country? The parent is now aimless, as they have no children to guide. They’ve lost their purpose, according to them. Does this make sense?
We cling to the idea of purpose as an attachment. We need to let go of having a determined purpose in life. Destroying this attachment will free your mind and allow you to live as you are, in this present moment, and enjoy the activities of your life as they come to you.
We project our desire for purpose onto other animals.
As a western culture, when we see something in nature, we dissect it. We have to figure out what makes it work and why it does what it does. Everything needs to have a purpose, according to western man.
Why does the bird chirp its lovely song? Oh, it’s because he’s trying to attract a mate, you see, he’s singing louder and more boisterous than the other birds, so a female will select him over the competition. This is what most people think, but wouldn’t a bird sing simply because he wants to, or because he has fun doing so? We can project purpose onto anything we want, but in reality, animals and people do things because they enjoy them.
What is the purpose of me writing this message to you today? I’m not making money on this blog post. I do not run advertisements on my website. I do it because I enjoy talking about these things and sharing these ideas with whoever will listen. There is no underlying purpose, I simply enjoy writing and I have fun trying to get my ideas down into written form. That’s it, that’s simply it.
Tone Down the Seriousness
Throughout my time, I have spoken with a wide variety of folks that are very serious, not only with the words they choose but also in their demeanor. They carry themselves with a pompous exactitude, and get very upset at a lot of different things, especially things they can’t control.
If you look online and at various forum-based communities, especially political ones, you will see a variety of entrenched people that have a very serious ways of life, and they believe they know how everyone else should live.
The only person that knows how you are going to live your best life is yourself. Other people cannot dictate what the point of your life is, and what you should do or how you should enjoy your time on earth. That is for you to decide. Following other people’s rules for what’s acceptable and what’s not, is not going to improve your quality of life if you believe something else.
When you accept that all of this life, everything and everyone in it, is transitory, then you let go of the idea that all of this is permanent. We are temporary creatures, living on a temporary planet, with the opportunity to enjoy the time that is now. If you can let go of the idea of purpose, that things happen for a reason, or that a divine being put you up to something, then you will be able to embrace life as it happens and enjoy the bird singing without trying to figure out why.
Letting go of seriousness also connects to another common trap: the fear of legacy.
No Purpose No Legacy
A lot of folks are worried about what other people will say about them, or think about them, after they’re gone. A lot of this anxiety drives people to pursue a purpose, to establish a lasting legacy that can be viewed by other humans while they are alive. I am not one for legacy, as I don’t necessarily care what people think about me after I’m dead.
Look at it from this perspective: When I die, my brains ability to understand time is destroyed. I cannot think about what time it is or what is happening in the space of that time. So, once my ability to interpret time is gone, then everything that happens on Earth after I’ve died occurs instantaneously. Everyone else will be right behind me, because I will have no concept of time.
Having the desire to build something for other people to use after you’re gone is irrelevant. If people discuss things you’ve built after you’re gone, but your aim was to simply enjoy the time you spent building, then that’s fine. As long as you spend your time enjoying whatever it is you’re building, you’ll be fine. For example, if a musician loves the process of making and sharing music, and after the musician passes away the music is still shared, then that’s fine. In contrast, if a musician doesn’t like the process and doesn’t enjoy the music they make, and they only do it for record sales, then it’s not worth it.
Do not focus on the end-goal. Focus on the learning, the building, the enjoyment of the process and not its final result. Because if you only focus on the ending you will not be satisfied once you reach it, because you will not have learned how to enjoy the present moment.
In the end, life isn’t about purpose or legacy, it’s about the song itself, not the audience. And sometimes, the wisest voices remind us of this truth in the simplest of ways.
Very nice, Ryan. I enjoyed your perspective about living in the moment. So true!
Thanks, I appreciate it. I really liked that interview too, it was spot on and funny
I think this blog is appropriate to mention
One Day
One day the waves will forget the ocean
And wander their way up to the shore
One day the moon will quit being the watchman
Forget just who she’s shining for
Oh these bones will carry me home
One day these mountains will tire of standing
Drop their shoulders into the sand
One day the wind will give up its last breath
Go drifting off to some promised land
Oh these bones will carry me home
One day the fire will give up its ashes
And weave their way through the open air
One day the rain will cover us up, darlin
We’ll drink and dance like there’s no one there
One day the winter will give up its shaking
And lay itself by an open flame
One day the stars will stop flickering off
On and off and on and off
On and off and on again
Gregory Alan Isakov
That’s such a beautiful share, Isakov’s words really capture impermanence in a way that feels alive. The waves, the stars, the quiet return of everything… it fits perfectly with what I was trying to express here. Thanks for bringing it into the conversation.