EXPOSE | Pick Another Purpose
“Happiness is a pointless goal.” – Jordan Peterson
EXPLORE | Is Our Purpose a Right?
I do appreciate Mr. Peterson’s candor. Saying it like it is, is a lost art. Sadly, such a statement even needs to be made.
Not that we should think he has anything against happiness, or is suggesting that we should, but that there has to be more to a life’s pursuit than that. But what makes that a more difficult argument is that we’ve seemingly elevated happiness from being a pursuit, to life itself.
That is probably why we have such a difficult time when life is not so happy. It’s not that our pursuit has been interrupted in some way, but that we’re being denied the very purpose of life: to be happy.
There was a very important document created almost 250 years ago positioning the pursuit of happiness as an “unalienable right,” which we now defend in ways no one probably intended, and to our utter detriment.
I believe Christopher Gardner’s approach to happiness is more in line with what our Founding Fathers intended, and draws attention to where we have “left the path”. Mr. Gardner’s story may be somewhat familiar because of Will Smith’s portrayal of his life in the movie The Pursuit of Happyness.
Christopher (Will Smith) was banking on selling a device known as a “bone density scanner”. So much so that he put every penny, and every once of blood, sweat and tears into it. Everything was riding on his being able to convince doctors to buy his machine.
Rejection became all too frequent, and led to his losing his wife, his apartment, and being forced at one point, to stay (at least) one night in the men’s bathroom of a train station–with his young son.
It wasn’t until a random exchange with a stock broker allowed him to see a possible way forward: an unpaid, 6 month internship, where he had to be the top achiever–all while continuing to try and sell bone scanners. Work hard. Get an opportunity. Work harder. Hope that it pays off.
No promises. No guarantees. Just the freedom to pursue, and the blessing that comes from never having given up. There is something that is just so right about that.
What’s better than a pursuit, but a promise? At least that is how we’ve come to interpret our “unalienable right.” And as a right, it is a guarantee, and as a guarantee, it is to be the way things are–all the time. Happiness has been elevated from something we can realize (pursue) to what we should be (purpose).
“Purpose: the reason… for which something exists”. – Oxford Dictionary
If happiness shouldn’t even be a goal, then it should certainly never be a purpose: “I exist to be happy.” It’s a little easier to see how ridiculous that sounds when you put it like that. But unfortunately, in big and small ways, that is have become our belief.
Maybe this is the sign you are looking for. The sign that you need to ask yourself, perhaps again, for the first time: Why am I here? And what should I be pursuing?
EXECUTE | Don’t Confuse Purpose in Life for Purpose of Life
I believe it is a whole lot easier to answer the question of purpose in life, if you have correctly answered the question of the purpose of life. Though they are closely related, our purpose in life is not the purpose of life. The purpose of life we have nothing to do with. However, get the purpose of life right, and the purpose in life becomes a whole lot clearer, and attainable.
The Purpose of Life.
First, a quick disclaimer: For some, this is a hotly debated question. For me, it is not. I am convinced that our lives have a very clear purpose. However, I won’t be able to go into detail at this point. But suffice it to say, that because God exists, and He created us, it is in our best interest to be most concerned with what He would determine to be the purpose of life.
“…our ultimate concern ought to be how to be properly related to this being upon whom we depend moment by moment for our very existence.” – William Lane Craig
As God describes it, we were “fearfully and wonderfully made”, and it wasn’t for us to be happy. The chief end of man–is not about man. It has everything to do with reflecting the wonder of the Creator.
So much more could be said here, but even with this level of understanding (or agreement), the exaggeration of our “unalienable right” becomes untenable. How does our happiness trump God?
The Purpose in Life.
It was with this in mind that I wrote The Right Life Manifesto. It’s not quite a “manifesto”, but the idea of “living our best lives” was not acceptable to me. The popularity of this thinking seemed to completely ignore the (real) purpose of life. Rather than getting (i.e taking) the most from life, it just seemed most appropriate to instead put the most into it. Something that I am desperately still trying to wrap my arms (and heart) around.
It transcends all the self-help, pro-you, get-paid-to-do-what-you-love advice that has paved right over the basis for living the right life. Which is more “bloom where you’re planted” and doing right by what you’re given to do– whatever it may be, wherever you are, and with whomever you’re with.
The expectations we have placed on ourselves and others, in current struggles or pursuits in life, should now seem unreasonable and misappropriated.
Demote happiness, and start living the right life.
Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
