Life Purpose: 3 Alternatives to a Values-Based Purpose

Is your life meaningful?

A life purpose based on honorable and admirable values will add direction and meaning to your life.  It will bring a sense of guidance and clarity that will help you to make decisions and to simplify your life.

However, generally, many of us spend our lives chasing after things that leave us feeling empty and insignificant.  We lack meaningful purpose and therefore wander off into things that leave us feeling drained and confused.

Recognizing these false purposes is an important step toward getting our lives back on track.

Three Common False Purposes that Rob Us of True Meaning

I call these false purposes because they produce the opposite effect in our lives when compared to a values-based purpose. 

The three common false purposes are:

1.  Chasing After Pleasure

“Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.”
~ Thomas Jefferson

Pleasure is not a bad thing.  We need to enjoy living, but it should not be the compass that guides our lives.  Many chase after pleasure at the expense of everything else.

They pursue the buzz that comes from pleasurable activities to the detriment of what is truly important.  They have mountains of debt from spending well beyond their means.  They have kids with bad behavior because they never disciplined them.  They have a trail of broken marriages and relationships because once the fun wore off they moved on.

Chasing after pleasure is an alluring and deceiving false purpose.  The trouble is that you can never get enough and what gave you the buzz yesterday won’t continue to give it to you today.  There is a law of diminishing return involved with pleasure.  You have to constantly push it further and further to achieve the same high.

Many people fall into the trap of chasing after pleasure.  They feel empty inside and believe that if they can just get to that next level of pleasure, then they will finally feel fulfilled.  If they could just get that bigger house or more cooperative spouse or climb that next higher mountain, then everything will be fine. 

Of course, it is not.  Chasing after pleasure in whatever form is a false purpose that cannot produce true feelings of meaning and significance.

2.  Pursuing Riches

“Grief and greed are as inextricably entwined as love and marriage should be.”
~ Ann Kent

Some people think that making money is their life purpose.  They put all their energy into trying to get rich ignoring almost everything else.

There is nothing wrong with wanting or having money.  Being rich is fine, but it will not bring fulfillment or meaning to your life.  Just look at all the rich and famous people in the news with lives that are a complete wreck.  Do they appear happy?

Money is just a tool.  It is a means to an end.  It must be given a purpose.  Pursuing money with no higher purpose is simply greed.  Greed will not produce a good life.  It will leave you alone and bitter.

People that have made pursuing riches their life purpose are always duped by the next get-rich-quick scheme.  They are obsessed with money.  They’ll do almost anything to get it even if it means compromising their integrity.

Money comes and goes.  If you don’t have a values-based purpose to live for, then you might become one of those people that jumps out the window when the stock market crashes.  Obviously, these people had nothing greater than money to live for.

3.  Climbing the Business Ladder

“Drive thy business, let not that drive thee.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

I started to name this false purpose, “Climbing the Corporate Ladder”, but it doesn’t matter if you work for someone else or for yourself.  There must be a greater reason behind what you are doing.

Stephen Covey warns us, “You don’t want to climb the ladder of success only to find it is leaning against the wrong wall.”  Blind ambition may take you to the top, but you might not like what you find when you get there.

Again, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be successful in business.  You just need to make sure that your life is built on something more sturdy than a career or a business.  These too come and go.  They are fickle animals that aren’t always predictable.

People that have adopted this false purpose are generally workaholics.  They live, breathe and eat work.  When things go terribly wrong, they often wind up depressed and even suicidal.  Their work is all they have and if it dries up, then they have nothing to live for.

You can’t work forever and even while you are working you need a purpose worthy of your long-term commitment.  This will ensure you leave a legacy worthy of all your effort.

A Values-Based Purpose Is the Only Kind That Makes Sense

These three things that so many devote their lives to pursuing are mirages.  They appear to be worthy of our commitment, but they are not.  They are delusions that lead people off the path of true joy, significance and accomplishment in life.

What do you base your life purpose upon?

Photo by gaab22

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