Living with Purpose: Finding Meaning in the Mundane
It seems that an existential crisis has become a rite of passage. Though we laugh at existentially fraught teenagers and their wonderings…
It seems that an existential crisis has become a rite of passage. Though we laugh at existentially fraught teenagers and their wonderings (“but what does it all mean?”), we must all admit that we have felt it at different times in our lives; there is something distinctly human about our search for meaning and purpose. Even those with answers to their questions in the form of religion and science must find themselves, at times, awestruck by the world, the sheer unknowability of our vast universe. How do we find meaning in our day to day lives? How can we live with purpose?
It was well said by the philosopher Viktor Frankl: “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’” A survivor of the Holocaust, Frankl lost his family and endured unspeakable tragedy. Frankl was intimately acquainted with loss and hardship but found the profound truth and the will to live with purpose in spite of it all. Frankl writes that the purpose of life is different for every individual, but that meaning can be found everywhere. “Ultimately,” Frankl writes, “man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked.” This is a compelling premise: we are not those who question the meaning of life, but those who ultimately define it.
Living with purpose is not a question of finding one particular meaning, one overarching truth that defines existence for every living person. It is personal. It is working hard to provide for your loved ones, or pursuing a personal goal that matters. Purpose in life is variable, but can be found by every person, in every circumstance.
Sometimes it’s as simple as remembering why you do the things you do. Every morning, the sound of an alarm clock and the taste of a bitter cup of coffee may seem mundane and empty. But there is something profound in the realization that your actions serve a greater purpose: the passion for the work you do, or the love for the family that is fed and clothed by the money made. Living with purpose is the acknowledgment of meaning in the seemingly mundane. It is seeing that each of us has a unique purpose and a place in the lives we live.
Like all complex questions, the question of living with purpose has a complex answer. It is not a simple solution, but reduced to its simplest form, it implies a life of intentionality: a life of recognition of our power to choose, to define the meaning in our lives each and every day. We do not live our lives by happenstance, and we are far more than victims of circumstance. Even the most oppressive circumstances leave us free to choose our way, the freedom to find meaning in any of the limitless places it can be found. Perhaps the beauty of the question is that there isn’t any one answer, only the freedom to choose our answers for ourselves.