Confused About What To Do In Terms Of Life Purpose

[Sharpadox]

Hello, I hope that you are having a great day.

Ever since a child I love video games. Art has been always one of my strengths and when I discovered that a person could draw for video games as a profession I felt like something clicked and I knew that was what I wanted to do.

I started going to therapy around grade 10 for personal issues (around the time I chose this dream). My main problem was that I couldn't bring myself to do anything (like doing homework, etc.) I spend years wasting time without being able to make myself do anything productive and sometimes nothing at all (only laying in bed for hours). I never took action on my goals and dreams.

I finished school and went to art university (with a degree in becoming a teacher) for a year after which I quit (that was a couple of weeks ago). I wanted to switch to a painting degree but that didn't work out. I feel like I'm pushing myself to draw and I know that if I don't love it, I won't succeed and also there is no point in chasing it.

It seems that I want to become a concept artist not because I love art, but because I love video games. I never ever considered myself to be an artist. I always saw being an artist as a non-productive profession even though it's one of my strengths (I have that first push that people call talent). I see it as meaningless and with me starting to see video games as a waste of time I don't know what to do.

The thing is, I want to love art, I want to see it as something meaningful. Leo, in his latest video said that art raises people's quality of consciousness and that is exactly what I want to be doing in my life, raising people's level of consciousness. But doesn't art do that for a very short time, and isn't it very little contribution in comparison on other jobs like becoming a doctor, a psychologist? 

Whenever I imagine someone getting another person an art gift I imagine that the recieving end experiences a sense of joy and hightened consciousness, but doesn't the feeling fade and become very small?

For quite some time I imagine myself becoming in love with art, I want that to happen.

I think that I love my dream so much, because emotional needs (like significance, certainty, uncertainty and others) are associated to it. I learned (as far as I know from Tony Robbins if 3 needs are associated to an idea it becomes addicting). Subconsciously I feel like this profession will give me a lot, when in reality it won't meet my needs if it happens. I think that my number 1 value is contribution, yet I see art and video games as meaningless (mostly). 

I feel like eithter I need to change and see the value in drawing and video games for others and myself or give up and choose something else. My numer 1 value seems to be contribution, yet I feel that artist don't contribute. Could you please share your views on art?

Edited August 4, 2017 by Sharpadox

[TJ Reeves]

@Sharpadox

What you're looking for is Grit.

Walt Disney, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Salvador Dalî, Leonardo Da Vinci, and @Leo Gura all have Grit in common - hence, they're all successful in their Life Purpose.

What is Grit? From Wikipedia:

Grit in psychology is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual's passion for a particular long-term goal or end state, coupled with a powerful motivation to achieve their respective objective. This perseverance of effort promotes the overcoming of obstacles or challenges that lie within a gritty individual's path to accomplishment, and serves as a driving force in achievement realization. Commonly associated concepts within the field of psychology include "perseverance", "hardiness", "resilience", "ambition", "need for achievement" and "conscientiousness". These constructs can be conceptualized as individual differences related to the accomplishment of work rather than talent or ability. 

To put it simply, Grit is: Perseverance and Passion for a long-term Personal Value. 

How do you Develop Grit? 4 steps.

(1) identify a burning interest;

(2) practice it a lot;

(3) develop a sense of higher purpose, by which Duckworth means I must believe that my passion will improve the world.

(4) do it

To sum it up, here's the number one determinant of Grit:

Your story for your life. In particular, having a story that you are destined to do a certain activity or bring about some creation, no matter what happens.

What is the most powerful version of such a story?

The story that God has created you to recreate God either through art, business, discussion, or some other endeavor. 

The other thing that Walt Disney, Elon Musk, Kanye West, Salvador Dalî, Leonardo Da Vinci and Leo all have in common is that they're each trying to bring about their perspective of what God means to them. The word changes due to their personal context growing up, but it's the same shit:

- "Pure Imagination" (Disney)

- "Universal Recursive Super-Simulation" (Musk)

- "The Self" (West, although the dude's a Zen Devil)

- "The Completed view of the conscious + subconscious" (Dalî)

- "The spirit that moves life" (Da Vinci)

- "Absolute Infinity" (Gura)

The connection to pure intuition allows a human to move mountains. Just look up the biographies of any of those people listed: It's unbelievable what a person can do when they genuinely listen to deep intuition.

What in particular helps them to listen to deep intuition? 

They have all developed a strong connection to that which is greater than regular life through intentional practice. 

- Disney did it through his time spent researching other artists and developing his story telling

- Musk did it through learning the ins and outs of topics from tech, sci-fi, and physics.

(Side note: Musk did this after getting through a deep depression in college wherein he then decided subserve his ego to a greater purpose involving bringing to life the vision of Isaac Asimov - yet another artist who described God, this time using science fiction. ((Side note within a side note: Leo and I disagree on this - He thinks Musk is better off quitting his plans to become a sage; I think Musk simply has a different view of absolute infinity and acts as a great help to humanity so he might as well keep on keeping on. ((Side note within a side note within another side note: I'm sure if we asked Ken Wilber - aka "Leo before there was Leo" - aka yet another person who's life purpose involves spent describing God according to his own vision - He'd say that the truth is somewhere in the middle.)))

- Dali did it by cataloguing his dreams with the fervor of a mad man 

- West did it by pursuing his musical visions (He literally sees music as colors, by the way)

- Da Vinci did it by constantly studying the nature of the world around him

- Gura did it by spending over a hundred of thousand of dollars going to seminars and courses. 

So what does that mean for you?

If you're struggling so much, perhaps focus on getting a view of the Absolute. 

Enlightenment is only the beginning. Once you see "it", all else will become bullshit and you'll have the necessary laser focus to dominate life as you spend your time trying to describe or recreate "it" for others to become inspired enough to see "it" for themselves.

Once you get the joke, you too will want to become a comedian. And good luck trying to get everyone to understand the joke - that's what will take your entire lifetime for you to ultimately fail trying. At least, you'll have more Grit. 

Edited August 4, 2017 by TJ Reeves

[Saarah]

@Sharpadox Ask yourself "In what ways do/have artists contributed to people's lives?" 

"In what way have artists contributed to my life?"

"Can I discover artists who have a positive impact on my/others' lives and contribute to it?" 

"What does contribution/impact look like?"

"What ways have I been impacted by others' without even realising it was an impact/contribution" 

"What kind of contribution do I enjoy giving?" 

"Is it possible to combine that with art?" 

"Is my enjoyment not contributing to anything... could it not lead to more expansive ways of being that end up with me being a better contributor?" 

"Why would I be inspired to be an artist if it was meaningless?" 

"Why are so many compelled to express themselves in that way?"

"Do we only need, what I feel are lasting impact professions, or do humans have a variety of ways of interacting, and meeting their needs?" 

"What would the world look like without artists, compared to now would something be missing?" 

"Who taught me x,y,z was a waste of time, why?"

and you can add your own questions too and keep going just to open up your mind so you don't keep pushing down on the right brain side of yourself 

you don't even have to answer the questions, just asking them and coming up with them helps and becomes the answer in and of itself 

[Nahm]

@Sharpadox Go to a park. Observe the kids playing.

Focus on your breathing. Allow thoughts to float away, one after another.

Until, the thoughts that are showing you that you are The One who will make games for kids which are not a waste of time. The thoughts about the games that develop creativity, talent, expression, liberation, connection, love. When those thoughts arise, write them down.

Stop reciting your past as if it is real. It's not real. It's thoughts.

Now is real.

Start reciting your future. Start creating, Now. 

 

 

[Moreira]

Think about this question: Do you love playing video games, or do you love making them, because there's a huge difference.

I love sport, and love to train, I decided to study to be a personal trainer. But in the end I hated having to convince people to train, having to motivate lazy people, dealing with undisciplined people, clients that rely more on TV and magazines than what I say.

fancy and appealing professions arent as shiny as they seem.