What is the Purpose of our life?

We all hear about a visionary person, more often as a “visionary leader”.
What does that mean?

Well, it is the one who we feel has a vision. For the purpose he or she is having. Like for the nation, or company, or community, or team, or party, or so on.

Did you notice that we have spoken about “purpose” here?

A vision needs a purpose to be relevant. Without it is directionless. But the question is — what is the purpose?

If you ask me, maybe I will say it is a set of goals that I want to achieve. But is that it?
Goals change over time, and short-term goals change fast. Does our purpose change very often?

I don’t think so. Then we will not be speaking so often about the purpose of our lives. It is the reason for our being, the reason we exist.

Humans are similar to animals in most ways, except a few. One of them is very important — our ability to think beyond immediate survival. That is why we think of past and present, invest in relationships, and build things that we may not enjoy. And that is typically where the purpose comes into the picture.

If we look around, we will find that most people are leading a purposeless life. Indeed, a large majority of humans don’t have a choice, they are in a daily battle to survive. But among the ones who have a choice, the lucky ones like us, we mostly fritter away the choice.

This group is different. It is full of entrepreneurs, one of the most difficult jobs in the world. And hence we need to think differently — for our sake, and the sake of society at large.

I will recommend all of you, if you have not already, to read this Harvard Business Review paper “How to Measure Your Life” by Clayton M Christensen, an academic and management consultant. It may be a little hard, but we do hard things every day.

https://hbr.org/2010/07/how-will-you-measure-your-life

Christensen mentions three measures for success:

1. How can I be sure that I will be happy in my career?

2. How can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness?

3. How can I be sure I will stay out of jail?

The third question is a little out of the ordinary, and I suggest you read the article to understand what Christensen means by it. But if you look at the first two questions, happiness, and harmony comes out at the top.

A nurse in Australia recorded what people say when they die, and these are the top five regrets that she found expressed:

1. I wish I had dared to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected me to.

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

3. I wish I had dared to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish I had let myself be happier.

Get the drift? Our life purpose should ideally be aligned so that we have fewer things to regret about. And from there we will be able to define our vision.

In my experience of talking to people who evaluate the lives of dear ones, these are the three things usually spoken about about a life well lived:

1. Have they done the duties expected of them, especially for the people they were responsible for?

2. Did they have people who loved them till the end, and who will miss them?

3. Was the death relatively easy, without much suffering and bitterness after a healthy life?

The purpose is the first step toward defining a personal vision. We will talk about that some other day.