According to my understanding, the purpose of my life isn't something big. Like, inventing the medicine to cure cancer, or helping in the mission of taking the civilization to other planets. It's not to go up to a dark evil castle and defeat the evil villain, neither it is to save a princess from some evil witch's grip.
It might sound lame to me and to others, since we grew up watching movies and epic animes.
However, there will be some dragons to defeat in this game of life. Like my dragons would be:
The reason I said that my life does not have those "great" purposes is because there's some cause behind great purposes. There's a driving force behind them. Just because they sound noble and great, one cannot "act" their way onto working towards them. It causes losing your "self".
Power comes in response to a need, not a desire. You have to create that need. - Son Goku
For example - You want to be a doctor or more specifically a surgeon, because, when you were young or in your teens, you saw someone who looked cool talking about how they are a surgeon. Now you start working towards, and learning about it. But, you realize, you don't like blood going everywhere and cutting into people. That is something that you cannot see yourself doing for your life. Sure, it might be an awesome thing to fix people, but you better pass it off onto someone else.
At this point, if you continue, you will have to just act like you like the thing. You might become a surgeon eventually, maybe a good one, maybe a bad one, but that is not just the thing for me.
I don't like to act, it makes me feel I've bound myself to a personality that is created to please others around me.
So, here is what I feel my purpose is. I've thought about it for a while, and this one resonates the most. If you're reading this, don't be a ghost, ping me on Twitter/X and talk about your purpose with me.
My purpose is to experience things. That's it, plain and simple.
Currently, I can experience this amazing world of software development, and the art of making software. Just building things out of thin air, tapping at some keys, that could solve some real-world scenarios or make some bucks for giant corporates.
Soon, I can experience the joy of buying a few things, and sharing it with my bros. Nothing fancy, just like a portable pool for our rooftop and one of those benches with a shed and a mini fridge. So that we can relax on Sundays. Yea, I'm avoiding public pools.
I can experience the professional world, how it is to apply for jobs, and interact with people in a professional environment.
I can experience the struggles of finding a suitable partner, and then finally the joy of spending time with her.
I can experience spending quality time with my parents when they're old.
I can experience raising kids, to be honest, cannot imagine this one right now. I need to learn so much more, I'm very naive, and need more maturity.
I can experience making some good amount of money, so me and my future partner can go around the globe.
I can experience participating in a triathlon.
I can experience trying to break some world record.
I can experience building a PC or a gaming room. (maybe)
I can experience exploring cybersecurity.
I can experience meeting people all around the globe and learn about their experiences.
I can fucking experience sky diving without a parachute. (not referring to self-harm, watch this)
I can just experience so much.
Now, this brings me to my goal as well.
Goals are defined by the driving purpose behind them.
Example, your goal could be to wake up at 4am, because your purpose is to get better grades in your exams or you're traning for an upcoming sports event.
Now my goal isn't to become a millionaire or a billionaire, to buy big cars or a mansion, or to date a supermodel. These goals never resonated with me, and I often felt frustrated when these ideas were pushed down on me implicitly.
One argument is that "what if your parents get sick, and you lack money to save them, in that situation wouldn't you wish you had strived to become a millionaire?". I wish I had a good answer for this, maybe I'll have one in the future. In case you have one, ping me. My answer to this is, if you keep building scenarios in your head then money will never be enough, and your loved ones will be gone whether you like it or not. There can be many scenarios, one can be that you were in some other country on a business trip or event or something and your loved ones passed away in an accident. You tried your best to reach them, but just couldn't be there in their final moments. Now, Would that wealth feel meaningful to you?
In no way, my intentions here are to demean someone. There's no one right answer to this, we all are always thinking about such "what-ifs" and doing things to the best of our abilities.
If becoming just a wealthy person is your thing, then sure go ahead, maybe you have a different driving purpose. It could be anything from - caring about your loved ones, philanthropy, building a business, sponsoring something, etc.
Also, I'm not saying I don't want to be a wealthy person. What I'm trying to state here is that, becoming wealthy isn't just about getting to that end goal of consuming that shiny thing, it's about experiencing the path towards it.
So, simply, my goal find things that are worth experiencing.