Purpose of Life, Does It Really Matter?

The purpose of one’s life has always been an intriguing topic of discussion for everybody. It will stop you from doing whatever you are doing, take a deep breath and think, really think.

What is the purpose of our life?

This question seems to put different people in different roles of life as we know it. Yet, purpose of life does not have anything to do to what one is doing for living or to what is the duty of a person, it is more connected to what is the detailed value or influence a person brings to his or her individual surrounding, be it individual member of the family, work colleagues, member of the organization one affiliated to or any other member of wider community entities.

Have we serve our purpose in life? 

One’s purpose of life does not apply in a generic manner. No one purpose for everyone or everything. A man can have different purposes to his wife, children or his extended family. A single individual will have an influence on another single individual; this influence is what we call “purpose of life” and that is how we all are inter-connected with each other. One person to the rest of the world.
For example, I do not know James Herriot in person, but his books eventually influenced me to become a veterinarian (For you who do not know James Herriot, he is a British veterinarian whose interesting books have became best-sellers, and filmed in a TV series called “All Creatures Great and Small”). When he wrote his books, Mr. Herriot did not think that his books will become best-sellers or start a TV series, let alone influence a hillbilly boy in a small town of a tropical country which name he may never heard.

If we are going to have an influence so big that can make a person re-direct his or her course of life, what should we do to provide them with the best influence their life can offer?

Why bother thinking about it? So what if we do not give them a good example? In my opinion, people learn from what others achieve as well from what others do not achieve. I heard this line in a TV series which title I forget: in science, failure is also a result. That’s it, we can also learn from other people’s failure. Learning something is opening yourself to be influenced by what we are learning.
Of course, it would be best if we can leave good examples for others to follow, but this is life, do not expect everything will happen according to our plan.

For quiet some time, being taught to always have a positive-thinking mind, I always think that my purpose of life is to become a great person. I have no idea on what industry will I become a great person on, but I just knew that I will be one.
When my age hit 40 and nothing was happening yet, I re-think my purpose of life. Maybe mine is to breed one, or prepare a way for one of my descendant to become a great person I dreamed to be.

Then something hit me, maybe, I’ll be just me. No great person, just an ordinary person that do the 9 to 5 thing, retire one day before found, if I’m lucky enough, dead while sleeping. Cause of death: old age. Flat meaningless life.

Is it? Is our life can fall into “meaningless” category?

When I was a little kid, I always look up to my father. I always see him as a great person that can do no wrong, and right to his last days, he never failed to give me that impression. So now, when I think about him, I always remember him as someone having a high standard, a very discipline person and an honest one. My mother, she is more of a flexible person, but a very resilient one. She is someone that will never take a “no” and walk away trying to cope with the sad reality of life. She will fight back to make that “no” becomes a “yes” however long it might take.
With all due respect, they are not great persons in the eye of the world. In their line of work, probably they are “better than average” persons, I guess they are,  but not as great as, say, Mahatma Gandhi. They are not persons that will change the world in any way, but I think from the way I describe them above, you can see that they have big influence to my life. I was brought up and shaped to their images, I think and act like them, blend their way of living the life and make it mine. So, I think, I may not be a great person in my life, but I have 3 children shaping the way they think, talk, walk, sleep, eat and everything else to resemble mine and my wife’s. It is scary to think how can an irresponsible lunatic like me can become a role model to 3 persons who may one day become great persons in their own world. It is depressing for me to remember that I don’t think I have give them good example in life. I just hope that they may understand one day that their parents are not perfect. We are not gods that can do no wrong, we are imperfect vertebrates trying to do the right things which sometimes just confirms our imperfectness due to failing to do so.

In a small way, remember that regardless you have kids or not, someone or if you are as lucky as I am, your children, are shaping their life according to yours. Be the best that you are: be yourself, and make them proud that they are following a good role model they can not be disappoint about.
If our life is interesting enough to be put into a biography, or to be told by other people, then we have a chance to influence life of people from the faraway lands. But if not, make sure you leave a good trail for your closest ones.

Either way, do not worry if you don’t know what is the purpose of your life, just as you have learned from somebody else, somebody will learn from you, that’s the essence of life. That’s all that counts.