How to Find Your Purpose in Life

Your path to genuine fulfillment

May 05, 2024

You are part of the whole – ie even of several wholes; the whole family, the whole of humankind, the whole planet, and the whole universe … to name but a few. This is comparable to each of your 35 trillion cells being part of your body. Each cell has a purpose within it. Likewise, you have a purpose as part of your body. Likewise, you have a purpose as part of every whole you belong to. Together, they form the purpose of your life. In the following, I share my insights on how you can find it.

The essence of a bird is to fly. Its purpose is to be the best possible flyer. The essence of a cheetah is to run. Its purpose is to be the best possible runner. Nature forces every life form to be the best version of itself, as otherwise it can’t survive. The result is our planet’s biosphere in all its magnificence. Every life form contributes.

What is life? Everything in the universe decays. A leaf withers. A piece of flesh rots. Stones disintegrate into fine sand. Even stars collapse when they have reached a certain complexity. Decay destroys complexity. But there are also things that resist decay. Imagine a leaf on a tree and a leaf that has fallen from the tree. The fallen leaf withers within days, while the leaf on the tree remains what it is. This phenomenon is called life.

There must be a force in the tree that counteracts decay. Since decay destroys complexity, this counterforce must create complexity. The appropriate word for this force is growth.

If growth is stronger than decay, there is an increase in complexity and we see growth.
If growth and decay are in balance, the result is stability.
If growth is weaker than decay, there is a decrease in complexity and we see slow decay.

Let’s look at a tree. In spring, growth is stronger than decay and the tree grows new leaves. In summer, growth and decay are in balance. In the fall, growth is weaker than decay and the tree loses its leaves. We go through the same three phases. As a child, our body grows and our physical and mental abilities increase. In old age, our body withers and many abilities decline.

The essence of life is growth. Everything that lives grows – even if it is not visible. A life form must grow in order to stay alive.

Let’s take a closer look. There are four types of life forms. Each represents a new type of growth:

Cells grow in number.
Plants grow in number and size.
Animals grow in number, size, and sensorimotor abilities.
Humans grow in number, size, sensorimotor abilities, and mental skills.

The essence of a life form comes from the type of growth that characterizes it.

The essence of a cell is survival – and the best strategy for this is to increase in number by cloning itself, ie creating additional bodies.
The essence of a plant is physical growth in size.
The essence of an animal is sensorimotor growth.
The essence of a human is mental growth.

The purpose of a life form is to express its essence in the best possible way.

The purpose of a cell is to produce as many copies of itself as possible.
The purpose of a plant is to grow as large as possible.
The purpose of an animal is to become as good as possible in its sensorimotor skills, eg to become the best possible flyer or runner.
The purpose of a human is to grow mentally as much as possible.

The simple formula is: growth fulfills. In order to have a fulfilled life, you must constantly grow. This means you must outgrow yourself day by day. That’s what you did as a child. You curiously explored the world by constantly asking ‘why?’ and ‘why not?’ with all your senses and listening for answers. As a result, you grew at a tremendous rate and had a deeply fulfilling life. But as you grew older, you were educated/drawn into the limitations of the adult world. You stopped growing – and lost being fulfilled.

Most people feel they want to grow … simply because we all have this longing within us. Many try to grow physically or sensor motorically. From adulthood onwards, physical growth only means gaining body weight. The only healthy way to do this is through bodybuilding. But there are limits. Once you have reached these limits, all further training only serves to maintain what you have already achieved. If you can only maintain what you have already achieved, you will not experience growth and, therefore, fulfillment, despite perhaps significant efforts. Therefore, physical growth cannot fulfill you for a lifetime.

The same applies to sensorimotor growth. You can train to be as good as possible at a sport. But there is a point at which you can no longer improve. All further training then only serves to maintain what you have already achieved. And again, you no longer experience growth and, therefore, fulfillment. This is why sensorimotor growth cannot fulfill you for a lifetime, either.

Mental growth is an increase in knowledge and ability, such as understanding, insight, know-how, and creative expression. You achieve this through curious explorations of the world, just as you did as a child. There are no limits. Therefore, mental growth will always fulfill you.

But information is not the same as knowledge. When you read a book about nutrition, you gather information. When you do nutrition experiments, perhaps based on what you have read, you are gathering knowledge. Knowledge creates fulfillment. Information only creates short-term, superficial satisfaction. You see this with children: children strive for knowledge, not information. When they receive information, they keep asking because information does not fulfill them.

There are infinitely many ways in which you can grow mentally. Should you learn foreign languages, study physics, explore nature, write poetry, paint pictures? Perhaps you feel drawn to one or more topics. But is that your truth? Is this your purpose in life? Maybe you are just following your programs. Your parents could have programmed you more or less consciously; maybe they wanted you to do something that they themselves would have liked to do – or that they believed would be good for you.

Your purpose in life is not only based on your talents and inclinations, but also on the fact that you are part of the whole and should make your contribution. According to my research, we receive impulses already in childhood. Here are famous examples:

Little Albert Einstein received a compass from his father when he was about five years old. Albert wanted to know why the needle behaves the way it does. He became a mathematics and physics teacher and discovered his ingenious special theory of relativity in connection with considerations of magnetism.
Little Nikola Tesla had a cat. When he was about five years old, he observed sparks when he stroked its fur. Nikola wanted to know why. His father didn’t know the answer, but suspected a connection with the lightnings during a thunderstorm. Nikola then asked himself: “Is the earth a big cat?” He became a brilliant electrical engineer and inventor; electrical lightning became his trademark.
Little Pablo Picasso’s first word was piz, the abbreviation for the Spanish word for pencil, lapiz. Pablo began drawing and painting at a very young age. There was nothing else for him.

Relevant parts of the life stories of these three geniuses are in my book “Curiosity – The Mental Hunger of Humans.” More about how we lose our innate genius is in my articles ”Why and How we Lose Our Innate Intelligence – and Can Regain It” and and “You Were Born a Genius Too.”

So life is about finding your true talent, living it, and thus contributing to the greater good. Unfortunately, however, true talent is usually buried by social programs and therefore not easily recognized. As a result, most people choose what they have learned to choose and only fulfill their life purpose to a limited extent – or not at all.

If you have the courage to free yourself from your programs, what remains is what you truly are, namely a genius in a field that will reveal itself to you. I explain how you can free yourself from your programs in my article “How to Become What You Truly Are in 7 Steps” and in my book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box.”

Intuition plays an important role in finding and living your purpose. It is your connection to the universal order that drives everything and everyone to fulfill their purpose. See my article “Intuition is Much More Than Just a Sixth Sense.”

Let’s summarize: Your purpose in life comprises two parts. The first part is general: outgrow yourself mentally every day. The second part is specific and is connected to your talents: make your contribution to the greater good. See also my article “What Do You Need?”.

Further reading:

Book “Curiosity – The Mental Hunger of Humans”

Article ”Why and How we Lose Our Innate Intelligence – and Can Regain It”

Article and “You Were Born a Genius Too”

Article “How to Become What You Truly Are in 7 Steps”

Book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box”

Article “Intuition is Much More Than Just a Sixth Sense”

Article “What Do You Need?”

See also:

Article “Why Does Someone Get Cancer?”

Article “Knowledge is Not the Same as Truth”

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