Why life purpose doesn't work. - A critique of life purpose:

[Majed]

My main point is that to have a life purpose you need capital first, which is a paradox because you're relying on life purpose to make money, yet to make your life purpose work you need money in the first place. Also if you take life purpose seriously you're taught that to succeed, you need to work on something you're passionate about. However here's the catch 22, which is that to work on something you're passionate about you need capital. And to get that capital, you need to work with whatever makes money, however if you listen to life purpose, it says to only work on what you're passionate about otherwise you'll fail, so you cannot set a career with something you don't like, hence you can't get that capital to make life purpose work. 

[LordFall]

You don’t need capital for your life purpose, you need a skillset and a direction. I would highly recommend this book, it covers specifically how to teach freedom and purpose in your career and life.

 

[Realms of Wonder]

@Majed  What is your definition of Life Purpose?

[Puer Aeternus]

On 6/11/2025 at 0:42 PM, Majed said:

My main point is that to have a life purpose you need capital first, which is a paradox because you're relying on life purpose to make money, yet to make your life purpose work you need money in the first place. Also if you take life purpose seriously you're taught that to succeed, you need to work on something you're passionate about. However here's the catch 22, which is that to work on something you're passionate about you need capital. And to get that capital, you need to work with whatever makes money, however if you listen to life purpose, it says to only work on what you're passionate about otherwise you'll fail, so you cannot set a career with something you don't like, hence you can't get that capital to make life purpose work. 

Don't think the understanding you have of LP matches what it is. You're right though, if you were only allowed to do work you were passionate about. Not gonna work for most. Too impractical.

 

Rather, I think the realistic version is. Full time work/school/stay in mommy's basement for more free time, part time life purpose. And to keep doing that until you've accumulated enough experience to turn life purpose full time- maybe even for a while keeping part time some throwaway job.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

Well, I would say the main point of contention is that most people don't really have a passion for their work and aren't really capable of it, I don't mean the fake kind of passion or a half passion, but PASSION passion, neither do they have a proper drive/ambition, vision and talents. I would say I belong to that category, and in that case you just can't know what to aim for other than the generic "the best possible career prospect" or "where and how can I make the most money" type of thing. I would say for most people, the more realistic question tends to be be "how can I find a job that doesn't suck" or "how to exploit a system a little bit to make a boatload of money" rather than "what is the thing I am passionate about and how to actualize it".

[Verg0]

Nobody said it was gonna be easy to make money with your life purpose. 

That's why it's so fun! 

[BlueOak]

11 hours ago, Verg0 said:

Nobody said it was gonna be easy to make money with your life purpose. 

That's why it's so fun! 

From a pure meta perspective. It seems incredibly stupid that the basics can't be met more easily though for most.

I am of the opinion we don't do enough consciously to enable this. In any country, from education through to implementation. Everyone should be able to do what they are naturally skilled at and find some fulfillment in for the betterment of everyone they interact with and the economy as a whole. That should be the goal, that they can feed themselves and pay their bills off some fulfilling job for which they have aptitude, a job that benefits the community(s) they are a part of.

Edited Sunday at 08:45 PM by BlueOak

[MutedMiles]

On 6/11/2025 at 9:42 PM, Majed said:

My main point is that to have a life purpose you need capital first, which is a paradox because you're relying on life purpose to make money, yet to make your life purpose work you need money in the first place. Also if you take life purpose seriously you're taught that to succeed, you need to work on something you're passionate about. However here's the catch 22, which is that to work on something you're passionate about you need capital. And to get that capital, you need to work with whatever makes money, however if you listen to life purpose, it says to only work on what you're passionate about otherwise you'll fail, so you cannot set a career with something you don't like, hence you can't get that capital to make life purpose work. 

"Life purpose" is an assumption and an Idea, which gained momentum in last 40ish years. It's not hard science, not even a soft science. It's just got popularized by Guru culture. I won't take it so seriously, you got to do what you got to do, it's life.

What one can choose in life is the combination of three things, your interests, your capacity and what's available in your current circumstances. Nothing is fixed in life it's a dynamic thing and you can keep evaluating and making the choices and risks that work for you. Don't underestimate the options that are available outside, I mean if there are no practical options available for what you are thinking to do, what's the use of that Idea?