For Men: Living a Purposeful Life

Living a Purposeful Life: Part 1 - What is life purpose ?

We all have a life purpose, meaning a reason for why we are alive. I define living one’s purpose in life as combining your strengths, gifts, interests, and abilities to serve society or fulfill a need in the world, living the life you were designed to live. Buckminster Fuller once stated, "the purpose of our lives is to add value to the people of this generation and those that follow". Truly living your purpose brings joy to others as well as to us. You can not lose your purpose, it’s waiting for you to search and find.
Many times we see men living a life of mediocrity, sort of drifting through life, sometimes numb and discontented spirits. Some of these men appear to have it all together, maybe it’s the nice house, abundance of "friends" or material possessions that gives off this façade, but the truth is these men feel unfulfilled and unhappy. A purposeless life for the adult male may involve constant restlessness, forever seeking something that is "out there", dissatisfaction, feeling unfulfilled, working a dead end job or having no job at all, failing to meet your responsibilities and so on. It may involve abusing substances or other people physically and or emotionally. Within the teenage population living a purposeless life might look like: failing grades in school, dropping out of school, lack of direction, minimal or no involvement in positive activities, drug and alcohol abuse, associating with a deviant crowd, feeling apart from everything. Disappointingly, we have too many men living lives without purpose. You may witness this apathy on television, with some of your family or in impoverished environments where you may observe men both youthful and aged out on street corners, smoking, drinking or selling drugs, not knowing that there is something much more constructive designed for them. Purposeless living is becoming a major crisis in my honest opinion. But luckily, regardless of your age, background, limitations or whatever else, you do have a purpose for your life. You can serve society and make both the present and future a better place. You don’t need a certain title or educational degree to be of service and fulfill your life purpose. Having a strong sense of purpose reinforces getting up in the morning and living a full life. Your life purpose can involve something that you have been trained to do, something that comes as second nature or a combination of both. Simply put, people who are following their life’s purpose know that they are here on earth for a reason. People lacking a sense of purpose tend not to know why they are here, sometimes finding life to be meaningless or pointless. Living with a purpose can help you experience:

• The feeling of being more alive and vivacious
  
• An increased feeling of contribution. Stronger health and mental/emotional well-being.
• Less fear of death knowing you’ve inhabited earth during this particular time period for a reason and you have the job of living out that purpose during this lifetime.
  
• A feeling of passion about your work and activities, something to look forward to.
  A heightened sense of happiness and self-esteem.
• Authentic joy!!