Finding your purpose in life: could it be this simple?

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I’ve long struggled with trying to find meaning and purpose in my life. Why am I here? What’s most important? What should I be striving for? During the religious times, add “what does God want me to do?”

Tons of books have been written on this subject, the most obvious one that springs to my mind being The Purpose-driven Life. I read that, but it didn’t really clear anything up for me.

Some people seem to have it figured out. Look at Ash Ambirge, look at Chris Guillebeau, look at Leo Babauta. But most of the rest of us seem to be adrift. What are we doing? What’s it all about?

One thing I’ve noticed in my life is that if I’m enjoying what I’m doing, I don’t care if it has any grand design or profound meaning, or any purpose whatsoever, really. It’s when I’m discontented that I find myself demanding, “what is the purpose of doing this?!” and railing about pointlessness and wasting time. I always thought that was just a personality quirk, probably a sign that I’m hedonistic, or just childish.

But this week, I happened to read both of these:

“The point of living is to enjoy life.” — Reclaim Your Dreams by Jonathan Mead

“…make being happy the most important thing in your life. Because, let’s face it… isn’t it?” — “How to find true happiness in 2011” by Lachlan Cotter (The Art of Audacity)

Could it really be so simple? The point is just to be happy?

I don’t know the answer, but what if this were true? Thinking about it feels like a rush of freedom.

If the point is just to be happy, then doing what I want to do is what I’m here for. I don’t have to spend energy worrying about whether I’m on the right path or being virtuous enough or profound enough. I can just do the things I like, and I’ve got the right answer.

Come to think of it, a lot of perceived inadequacies seem to melt away. Suddenly the facts that I’m not interested in history, don’t want to go to lectures, and get a big headache from the news and politics, no longer mean I’m an insufficient intellectual or a bad citizen. They just mean those things are outside the scope of my purpose, at least for now, so they wouldn’t be a good use of my time. Thus, skipping them isn’t bad, it’s good!

Similarly, I never have any idea what God wants from me, if there even is a God… my problem no more. I don’t have to ask, seek, knock, strive, and keep talking, begging, praying, into the echoing void, trying to guess the right answer or what would please. I can just relax and enjoy life.

Even setting priorities and making decisions becomes much simpler. If the purpose is to be happy and enjoy life, you do the things that make you happy or bring you joy. Not only are they the fun things, they become the important things! (Somehow in my default system, fun things are automatically low on the importance scale–in fact, they’re usually the first to get cut.)

If the fun things are also the most important, that removes most of the conflict about what to do. Suddenly everything lines up and falls into place.

It almost seems too good to be true.

The most obvious objection to this idea is that it’s too selfish. Mere happiness isn’t enough; without helping others, we can never find true fulfillment. But hmm, even there, it sounds like the goal is still making ourselves feel good, we’re just calling it “fulfillment” instead of “happiness.”

Besides, you can’t truly give to others unless you have a foundation of strength and a wellspring of love within yourself to give from. Otherwise, it comes from fear and guilt and can’t be a true gift. Authentic happiness–not the kind where you stick smiley faces on everything and tell yourself a lot of cheery-sounding lies, but deep, real happiness–is what enables that strength and love, which make giving possible.

Is this hopelessly naïve, or have I been making everything way too complicated all this time? If anyone has any insights or thoughts they’d like to share, please comment–I’d love to hear them.