The Purpose of Life

With little inspiration as of late, combined with my hectic schedule and encroaching essay deadlines, my blog has been a little neglected. However, I shall write something soon - since my theologically themed posts have been fairly well received, I am thinking about writing my next one on bodily resurrection. I'll let you know the fruits of my labour - after I've died from exhaustion and essay writing...

But for now, I'd like to talk about the purpose of life...an unsolvable issue really, but seeing as it's my degree subject to discuss unsolvable issues, it seems a rather appropriate topic!

Clearly, it depends on your outlook on life as to what you think its purpose is - if, indeed it has any purpose at all. Whether you're a glass half-full, or a glass half-empty kind of person, it really makes a difference to your world-view. Pessimists will generally tell you life in all its dreary mundanity has little meaning, and anything which does find meaning is reserved for the few people who get to where they are through good networking and sheer luck. However, optimists, I've found, seem to believe life is purposeful, and happiness is a quality that everyone deserves, providing they work hard. There's clearly loopholes with both arguments, but overall I'd like to think I'm an optimist.

I don't know what the purpose of life is - far from it! - and if you've come here looking precisely for that answer, you'll be morbidly disappointed. In spite of that, I do think it is important and central to one's well being to look for happiness, as much as one can, within life. I've found in my own limited experience that if I do not have a routine, or something to look forward to and get up for in the morning, then my purpose in life is infinitely reduced; and as a result I get melancholy and perhaps even a little depressed. Finding something to strive for is essential within human lives because it gives us a sense of achievement. Of course, some may argue that in striving for our goals, we have the possibility of failure. That may be true, but the possibility - and fear - of failure, shouldn't stop you from working for something in your life. What do you believe to be  worse - striving for something yet not getting it, but enjoying the work done to get there; or not striving at all and still feeling like a failure? The purpose here is to at least try - you'll never know what you can achieve if you don't branch out and reach for it, and if you do happen to "fail", all the better for you can learn from your mistakes and make sure you've grown from the situation.

Fear seems to be the defining element in many people's decisions - students don't ask for help for fear of sounding incompetent or inadequate, workers don't ask for job promotions or pay rises for fear of sounding arrogant or undeserved of such status, and people don't strive for their goals because of the fear of failure. This essential fear is inherent within Western society, perhaps even inbuilt - many of us are taught from a young age that your place on the ladder of life is usually on a middle rung - there's people below you and people above you, and it's easier to walk down the ladder than it is to climb up. The fear there is that if you climb up the ladder, you'll be looking down and inevitably you will fall. What is necessary here on this metaphorical ladder of life is the introduction of a metaphorical safety harness!  Once attached to this metaphorical safety harness (that is, your friends, family...insert other valid support network), you'll never need to have that fear of failing because you know you cannot fall, and you can gradually continue to work your way up that ladder.
There will always be a pressure to work up the ladder throughout life - don't get me wrong! - but what we also must consider is the possibility that staying in the middle of the ladder isn't so bad either. It's a happy medium so-to-speak, and who says in order to be successful you must be at the very top of the heap? Some of the world's greatest thinkers didn't go to the top universities, yet they were masterminds in modern thinking. At aged sixteen, Einstein failed his secondary school entrance exam, yet look where he got us!

So, the purpose of life isn't some grand design, (note that I haven't mentioned religion once - it has its place in this discussion perhaps, but not here). I'm not advocating some kind of hedonistic lifestyle, but it is imperative that happiness has its place within our lives. That, and the ability to continue believing in ourselves and striving for our goals leads to a purposeful life.