Finding your purpose

I believe life is not meaningless - it may be objectively meaningless, but subjectively we can forge a meaningful path through the chaos. What is messy can be raw material for what is beautiful. As human beings, we all have the same overall purpose - to love God and love each other (see What are Christian values for what I mean by 'love'). However, the parts we each have to play in that overarching purpose are varied and personal. We have a singular purpose with many particular subtasks.

There are four incredible resources I've found on this topic (two secular and two Christian) which have enriched my life immeasureably:

1. Hunter S. Thompson’s Letter on Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life.
2. What Are Values? How to Discover Yours and Build a Life of Purpose.
3. If I Could Only Teach You One Thing: Why God Made You with Rick Warren.
4. Before The Person :: Relationship Goals (Part 1).

Of course, as a Christian, I think that we cannot find our purpose apart from God - but people of other faiths and none are free to disagree. I have found prayer for guidance and wisdom to be incredibly powerful. Just as we cannot know why a book was written apart from its author, we cannot know why we were made apart from our Maker. God is more than happy to teach us the purpose He created us for, but He reveals it to us gradually, step by step, piece by piece - rather than all at once.

However, one of the ways God speaks to us is through our own consciences and inner senses of calling / passion. The things we were created to do drive us and inspire us like nothing else. I'm not sure that "do what you love" by itself is good advice, though there's certainly an element of truth to it. I think we should do what we're good at, what we're wired for; we tend to become good at things we love, or love things we're good at. That said, many people love sudoku but that doesn't mean there's a well-paid, secure career in it.

So, here are my tips for finding your purpose:

1. Pray about it.
2. Reflect on what you're good at (everyone's got their gift(s)).
3. Reflect on what you enjoy, what you seek, and why.
4. Discover what's most important to you - what your values are.
5. Explore and experiment with different hobbies, different subjects, different jobs.
6. Acquire knowledge (e.g. read books, consume educational content, and read academic literature).
7. Talk to those wiser and more knowledgable than you.
8. Ask and seek answers to the big questions. Once you've found them, keep at it.