Fr Paul Lelen Haokip
Contd from previous issue
“You either utilize your gifts and talents to create a life more meaningful, or you create it.
Give yourself the freedom to refine, edit, and change your purpose statement until it reflects you.
Purpose in Life
Having a purpose in life offers psycho-emotional well being and the fundamental factors to happiness and longevity.
Failing to discover the meaning of life will lead to lifeless focus, less efficient output, burdensome life, depression and stress.
On the other hand, having a purpose will motivate an individual towards a satisfying future. Even when things go wrong in life, the sense of purpose helps find and do things that add meaning to life. Life is unpredictable, filled with several unwanted experiences (failure, disappointment, sickness, etc.). It is a healthy sense of purpose in life that helps put those unwanted events in perspective, motivating you to re-focus and move ahead. It also helps identify things that truly count if circumstances change. Get the energy to keep going when things get tough and become more resilient as you grow.
Benefits of having a sense of purpose
There are three main beneficial domains in having a healthy sense of purpose: psychological, physical, and academic. People who lack purpose in life have a higher chance to associate with drugs and other addictions. Purpose in life serves as the central component for optimal human development and psychological wellbeing. Purpose in life helps the individual have an optimistic worldview, hope, life satisfaction, and boost up self-esteem. Purposeful life brings psychological wellbeing and physical health. Several psychological studies found purpose in life is hugely associated with a wide range of physical health indicators.
It can also improve physical functioning and lower the risk of disabilities. Even in the field of academics, purposeful life is also associated with indicators of success in the classroom. Another study found that even inducing a temporary purpose-mindset hugely improves students’ academic outcomes, including self-regulation, college persistence, grade point average, and the amount of time spent studying. “The only way you can really postulate any kind of a goal at all is imagination. And if you don’t postulate high flown goals-if you don’t hitch your wagon to a star-it’s a cinch you’re not going to get up to the top of the pine tree because it takes that much to get this much.
You know, in Alice in Wonderland it says you have to run just to keep up. You have to run twice as fast if you want to get any place” (L. Ron Hubbard). Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory (Physiological needs, Safety needs, Belongingness and love needs, Esteem needs, Self-Actualization) and move on in a systematic procedure in fulfilling your needs. We are all created with a special purpose. So, make use of your life, for you have only one life. Discover your purpose by yourself, rather than what society wants you to do.
(The author is a PhD research scholar, Department of Sociology and Social Work, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Email:
[email protected])