What it Really Means to Live With Purpose
This is a baby sea turtle moments after it hatched.
Once it hatches, it’s in a sprint for its life to get to the ocean before one of dozens of predators eats it up.
They told us not to touch him, because if he’s touched it could throw off his sensing organ which tells him the way to get to the ocean.
See, nature made him with everything he needs to know the way.
He doesn’t struggle or wonder to know his direction like many humans do. He simply knows — instinctively, irrationally, which way he’s supposed to go.
And it’s not like he can justify why he’s moving there. He has no concept of water, or ocean, or safety, or survival. He just knows “now is my time to move.” And he knows the way.
He doesn’t imagine a future in which he’ll be happier in the water.
He doesn’t have to force himself to do something that goes against his nature. He simply senses for what’s right, knows what he’s supposed to do, and he does it. No confusion necessary.
You can do that too. You can be like the turtle: knowing which way is right for you and going that way with every ounce of drive in your body.
This is what it means to know your purpose — an instinctual knowing of what is right for you, what is the right direction, what is your destiny.
It’s not about the rewards of getting to the water. It’s not about a calculated decision of what’s going to provide the most happiness in the future. It’s a simple, quiet, inner sensing of what direction to move. A sense of rightness, wholeness, satisfaction, and peace comes with it.
You have a sensing organ too. You always know which way is right for you in any given moment.
Just like nature programmed the sea turtle to find the ocean, nature programmed you with a purpose and a sense of direction to live that purpose.
The problem is, you’ve probably been “picked up” by someone early in life and it threw off your sensing organ.
Parents, teachers, society at large — everyone has a different idea of who you should be. It takes a toll on a developing mind. You might go through life longing to find the ocea but never even knowing what that dissatisfied feeling means.
You may have been taught that the dissatisfied feeling is just a feature of normal, modern life. But it doesn’t have to be. The dissatisfaction goes away once you start using your sensing organ to live on purpose.
And just like the sea turtle, the journey doesn’t end once you get to the water. There’s always another skill to learn, another challenge to overcome, another thing to build, another adventure to embark upon. It never ends, as long as you’re alive.
Your purpose is never filled, it’s never over, it’s never done. But it’s the path, the signal, the sensation that tells you where to go.
Do you know your purpose? Can you sense which way to the ocean?
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