The many purposes within a lifetime

So much is written about a purpose-driven life— both religious and self-help experts offer their own guidance on the steps to follow to uncover why/how our existence has meaning. It shouldn't be surprising that this can feel daunting— if not suffocating— when one tries to interpret their own desires, beliefs, and talents to reveal their life purpose. How your experiences shape your subconscious cannot be compressed, and delivered to a table in a neat package with any confidence, and to do so would be a terrible simplification of a complex journey.

I believe there will be many purposes that are fulfilled within a single lifetime. Despite our best efforts to shape and focus our actions into a meaning that satisfies our need for order, it should be considered that the exercise of finding purpose is just that. An exercise that needs to be repeated, revisited, refined. There is nothing wrong in performing the search for purpose, so long as it's understood that it's like trying to catch the ocean in your hands. The fleeting clarity is inevitably replaced with a searching, a longing.

There will be many purposes in a lifetime.