Life Purpose Course

[ElvisN]

I've gone through the life purpose course many times, but I'm not able to really do the exercises. For example, the life purpose assessment. I don't know what to write. I don't even know what the questions are talking about. My mind gives a blank. Although this was not always the case, this is the case right now.

I find no meaning in life.

A little background about myself: I grew up extremely neurotic, like top 1% of neurotic people.

 

Edited June 10 by ElvisN

[Basman]

Contemplation is pretty hard if you are not used to it. In my experience, you just have to kind of sit there and keep thinking on the issue with a undistracted mind. The answer will not always immediately be clear to you and can take some time but never that long. It just feels like a lot of time because it is uncomfortable to contemplate with such focus I find.

Another problem when answering the questions in the life purpose assessment in my experience is a lack of experience. A lack of experience can make it harder to know for sure what it is you want exactly. A estimation of what you want approximately is sufficient in my opinion if you make the express intent of accruing more experience in the future so you will become more clear.

Life purpose is a long-term intention you set for your life. You don't need to figure out everything in one go.

[ElvisN]

Thank you @Basman

[Leo Gura]

You create meaning by finding a task that feels worthwhile to you.

What things are worth doing and why?

Edited June 11 by Leo Gura

[MsNobody]

Drop the neurotic label, it doesn't serve you. Plus we are all neurotic in this society. If by neurotic you mean highly anxious it means that you have a lot of energy and it just need to focused on the right things. 

What do you do in your free time? Look at your history of what you watch on youtube, look where you spend your money on, what do you usually talk about with friends? What books do you read? Big part of finding your purpose is knowing yourself. Once you find your center and know what your passions are, it all goes from there, then you will serve people.

What do you care about? or who do you care about? 

[ElvisN]

13 hours ago, MsNobody said:

If by neurotic you mean highly anxious it means that you have a lot of energy and it just need to focused on the right things. 

You are right.

13 hours ago, MsNobody said:

What do you do in your free time?

Self-help.

 

Thank you, your answer was very helpful.

[ElvisN]

@Leo Gura I find it hard to get up in the morning.

 

But I guess as @Basman said the problem might be a lack of experience.

 

What I find worthwhile is growing myself. I have started the practice of taking other perspectives.

[Leo Gura]

7 hours ago, ElvisN said:

I find it hard to get up in the morning.

Of course. Because your life has no meaning. You haven't created anything worth getting up for.

When you find something meaningful to work towards you will leap out of bed. You will be unable to sleep. You will wake up 3hrs early excited to get to work.

Edited June 12 by Leo Gura

[bazera]

@Leo Gura

Quote

When you find something meaningful to work towards you will leap out of bed.

Would you consider working on health and fitness, spirituality, or maybe just reading books and education as mediums to create meaning? Or do you mean creative work with that here?

[vibv]

38 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Of course. Because your life has no meaning. You haven't created anything worth getting up for.

When you find something meaningful to work towards you will leap out of bed. You will be unable to sleep. You will wake up 3hrs early excited to get to work.

That's generally true, but even then it can fluctuate. You have to re-align yourself with your purpose and redefine it again and again. Else it's even possible to fall back into depression.

I'm speaking from experience. I have a pretty clear life purpose (creating a religious experience through live-performances of my music & storytelling), but I still keep falling and have to find out, where I've lost track.

It depends on whether you're consistent by nature or not – I'm certainly not and that's my biggest hurdle.

[Leo Gura]

52 minutes ago, bazera said:

@Leo Gura

Would you consider working on health and fitness, spirituality, or maybe just reading books and education as mediums to create meaning?

They can be, depending on how deeply you pursue them.

But if you're just dabbling in those things then it won't be enough, it won't be very meaningful because it's such a weak, shallow, self-absorbed purpose.

What is the point of all your reading of books? What will you do with it? Just sit there looking at your toilet? That's not inspiring.

See, if you were reading books in order to help mankind colonize Mars, that would be deeply meaningful and inspiring.

Edited June 12 by Leo Gura

[bazera]

@Leo Gura In my mind it all interconnects, like for example, health and fitness not only for the sake of having a good body but also to perform better in other areas of life. Also, something like reading books helps me to expand my understanding of how the world works, and pushes me in some directions, to get at least theoretical guidance from reading more or less meaningful books (maybe from your book list).

But yes, I'd agree that one needs to have something higher, and health, books, spiritual practices, along with all the other stuff you talk about for example, can be used for deepening that thing. 

I don't have that at the moment, and that's why all the things I do seems shallow. Not all the time, but sometimes I think why do all these. Without a higher meaningful framework, it's easy to lose day-to-day meaning, at least for me.

 

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, bazera said:

In my mind it all interconnects

It only interconnects if YOU interconnect it in your mind.

And that's the work of creating a life purpose.

Edited June 12 by Leo Gura

[Moutushi]

6 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

They can be, depending on how deeply you pursue them.

But if you're just dabbling in those things then it won't be enough, it won't be very meaningful because it's such a weak, shallow, self-absorbed purpose.

What is the point of all your reading of books? What will you do with it? Just sit there looking at your toilet? That's not inspiring.

See, if you were reading books in order to help mankind colonize Mars, that would be deeply meaningful and inspiring.

@Leo Gura Devilry in healthcare is a life purpose for some, giving them a purpose to maximize profit at the expense of everything else, toxic stage orange. Here is a glimpse of it below. 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/drglaucomflecken_private-equity-goes-to-therapy-ugcPost-7206732179005931520-rjHt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

[ElvisN]

On 6/12/2024 at 5:49 PM, Leo Gura said:

Of course. Because your life has no meaning. You haven't created anything worth getting up for.

When you find something meaningful to work towards you will leap out of bed. You will be unable to sleep. You will wake up 3hrs early excited to get to work.

@Leo Gura How to create meaning if nothing feels meaningful?

[Leo Gura]

@ElvisN If you find absolutely nothing fascinating or interesting about reality, it's impossible to help you.

It takes extraordinary arrogance, blindness, and ingratitude, not to find all aspects of reality deeply fascinating.

A miracle is happening all around you every minute and all you can do is shrug your shoulders and say, "Meh".

Edited June 16 by Leo Gura

[UpperMaster]

3 hours ago, ElvisN said:

@Leo Gura How to create meaning if nothing feels meaningful?

What have you been historically attracted to. Maybe that will give you a clue.

[GabeN]

You need to kindle a fire within you to actually come up with those answers,

 

you need to be good at visualizing, be patient with it and try to feel what you are looking for in life, experiment with your mind and see what triggers that feeling that you're looking for and the reason why you signed up for this course in the first place, imagine the habits and discipline you need to develop to become that person you are looking for. this is what got me to begin the journey at least.. good luck

[ElvisN]

On 6/16/2024 at 8:20 PM, Leo Gura said:

@ElvisN If you find absolutely nothing fascinating or interesting about reality, it's impossible to help you.

It takes extraordinary arrogance, blindness, and ingratitude, not to find all aspects of reality deeply fascinating.

A miracle is happening all around you every minute and all you can do is shrug your shoulders and say, "Meh".

@Leo Gura Okay. How to overcome said arrogance?

Edited June 18 by ElvisN

[tezk]

If you find it hard to get up in the morning, you also might have a health problem. Same goes if you aren't excited about life. Healthy people are naturally excited and vibrant about life. Of course it's not black and white, but if your brain chemistry is off due to some unknown inflammatory problem, that will taint your ambition, excitement, and passion. The fact that you are extremely neurotic as well is probably indicative of something wrong in the body.