I've spent almost my entire adult life searching for purpose but I often just end up feeling nihilistic. It's natural to me to ask "why bother?" a lot, which is a depressing mindset, but also the mindset of somebody searching for purpose.
When it comes to work, I think it's hard to find purpose in white collar jobs as I believe most have an impact which (to me at least) is too abstract. As an example, I once worked for an insurance company and my entire life was done through a computer where I worked with numbers. It was hard to recognize that I was doing something that actually had an effect in the real world.
I've often thought that doing physical work is a lot more rewarding, simply because you can feel and see the fruits of your labor. I love to garden. Of course, most of the jobs that are rewarding and purposeful, pay the least. Purpose often doesn't make money!
You may be connected already, but one of my professors at UW Bothell is all about finding purpose, he'd be good to talk to if you wanted to have a good conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhtar-badshah-6250105/
Lastly, this post reminded me of one of my favorite quotes. It's from The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell. I noticed somebody else recommended it to you, but it's a book I go back to again and again:
"To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr. Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of his efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile."
If thinking up answers on this topic were easy I would have done so by now. I don't think I can answer from my couch. Given my human nature, I think I would have to go to another town or a cabin... or at least a coffee shop on the far side of town.
I've spent almost my entire adult life searching for purpose but I often just end up feeling nihilistic. It's natural to me to ask "why bother?" a lot, which is a depressing mindset, but also the mindset of somebody searching for purpose.
When it comes to work, I think it's hard to find purpose in white collar jobs as I believe most have an impact which (to me at least) is too abstract. As an example, I once worked for an insurance company and my entire life was done through a computer where I worked with numbers. It was hard to recognize that I was doing something that actually had an effect in the real world.
I've often thought that doing physical work is a lot more rewarding, simply because you can feel and see the fruits of your labor. I love to garden. Of course, most of the jobs that are rewarding and purposeful, pay the least. Purpose often doesn't make money!
You may be connected already, but one of my professors at UW Bothell is all about finding purpose, he'd be good to talk to if you wanted to have a good conversation: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akhtar-badshah-6250105/
Lastly, this post reminded me of one of my favorite quotes. It's from The Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell. I noticed somebody else recommended it to you, but it's a book I go back to again and again:
"To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr. Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will find that in spite of his efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile."
If thinking up answers on this topic were easy I would have done so by now. I don't think I can answer from my couch. Given my human nature, I think I would have to go to another town or a cabin... or at least a coffee shop on the far side of town.