PURPOSE - NOT NECESSARY BUT ADVISABLE
I do not believe life needs a purpose. But choosing one helps me decide what deserves my time and what kind of life I want to live.
PURPOSE?
PURPOSE - NOT NECESSARY BUT ADVISABLE
When I am early for an appointment, I might go for a short walk or read a few pages of a book. If someone asks what I am doing, I might say, “Just killing time.” I say it as though the appointment is the part of my day that counts and the time before it is simply something to get through. But the walk and the appointment both take up time from the same life. And sometimes, the walk turns out to be the better part of the morning.
Some years ago, I took this thought a little further. If my life is the time between my birth and my death, then everything I do in that interval is, in a sense, a way of killing time. I could spend it working, learning, helping someone, or sitting quietly with a cup of tea. The fact that my time will end does not make any of these things less worth doing. It does make me ask which of them I want to give more of my time to.
This is where purpose comes in for me. I do not believe I need a purpose to justify being alive. I can enjoy a morning, keep my word to someone, or do a good day’s work without fitting it all into a grand plan. But when I have several things I could do, and time for only a few of them, it helps to know what I want from my life. That is why I think having a purpose is advisable.
For myself, I have chosen four things to work towards: peace, happiness, quality of life, and longevity. These are plain words, but they help me make decisions. If I repeatedly give up sleep to get more work done, for instance, I may be achieving something I value at the expense of something else I also value. Sometimes that is a trade I am willing to make. Having a purpose helps me notice when an occasional choice has become a way of life.
I still call all of this killing time. The phrase reminds me that I am free to choose what makes sense to me, and that others are free to choose differently. I want to live as long as I reasonably can, and I want to enjoy and make good use of the days I already have. For me, that is purpose enough.
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