The purpose of life

If you don’t have a destination you will wonder aimlessly without achieving anything. Life is a really complex phenomena from the time one is born to the day that a person goes to meet his maker. One would question their very existence, why should they have to bear all the tribulations that life brings? Why […]

If you don’t have a destination you will wonder aimlessly without achieving anything.

Life is a really complex phenomena from the time one is born to the day that a person goes to meet his maker. One would question their very existence, why should they have to bear all the tribulations that life brings? Why should one endure all the suffering that is here on earth? Life is hard more so to others who are born in less privileged homes they have to endure a miserable and merger existence. What then is the purpose of life? Shakespeare tried in his own wisdom to define life in his book Macbeth he wrote, “…life is but a walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is herd of no more. It is a tale told by an idiot fool of sound and fury signifying nothing.

By Malvern Marufu

The struggle for existence is always a bittersweet relationship. God made each and every one us to perform a specific purpose under the sun. In Zimbabwe the majority of people if you observe carefully the way a person talks and the things that they do on a daily basis you will discover that they really don’t know their purpose in life. Knowing your purpose in life is no easy task and at the same time no one can tell you your purpose in life. It a journey that each and every one of us has to walk alone. It is evident in some instances where children for example when they go to school their parents want what’s best for them and force them to go through certain education up to college but you can discover that their talent is not education but their talent could be in sport. Their parents only want what’s best for their children but the children could have a different destiny. Bishop TD Jakes in one of his sermon asked the all-important question where does your dream come from, was it borrowed from your parents and if so it is a burden to you which will make your life miserable even if you have wealth? The path to discovering your own purpose in life is a complicated one but there are some guidelines to how you can discover your purpose in life.

The first guideline will be to do what you are passionate about and nothing else. “if you do the things that you love you will never work again” this mantra is so powerful because it summarizes the whole idea. If you love doing your job that job will cease to be work but will be entertaining and fulfilling to you. It won’t be difficult for you to do your job. The challenge is to find something you’re passionate about and also that you are also very talented in doing that which you are passionate about. Lebo Gunguluza a millionaire featured in dragons den in a speech he delivered at a university in South Africa he highlighted that passion is a very difficult thing in that one could be passionate about singing but if that person doesn’t have the talent to sing it will be very difficult for the person to excel. As a result you have to be passionate about something that you want to dedicate your life to and also you also have to be talented as well so that you can then fulfil your purpose in life.

The second and most important aspect in determining your purpose in life is simply doing something that will put a smile on people’s faces. Your purpose in life have to better the lives of other people. Your life purpose should be bigger than you in that you should make the world a better place than it is right now. Jack Ma the founder Alibaba once said that when they were starting Alibaba they had no revenue coming into the company for the first few years but they still operated the company because they believed in their dream. They continued because they put so many smiles on people’s faces up to this day Alibaba’s purpose is to empower the small businesses in world. If they achieved their mission they would have successfully made the world a better place to live in. Every great person or company that has achieved unbelievable success all have a purpose that is bigger than them look at organisations such as Google their purpose is simply “to provide access to the world’s information in one click”. Imagine the success that google has in the world even in Zimbabwe almost everyone uses google. That is how powerful a purpose can be it makes the difference. Napoleon Hill in his book the Law of Success gave an example, “a person without a purpose is a like a ship without a steering or radar even though it has enough fuel to reach the shore it will wonder in circles in the sea and will use all its fuel but still it will not reach land.

Once you have a purpose that you want to achieve you can direct all your energy into achieving that set target let us say you are in form 3 and you want to get 8 “A”s when you finish form 4. So what this means is that you will have more than a year to prepare so you will utilise that time in studying so that you can achieve those 8 “A”s. It’s the same in life let us say you want to earn more money so that you can be able to carter for your extended family you have to set the time frame that you want to achieve this and then put all your effort into earning that money for instance you can start buy increasing your qualifications or start a small project that will generate some extra cash for you. It sounds very simple doesn’t it but it takes so much effort and determination to be able to increase your earnings especially in an economy such as ours.

The Japanese have developed a culture where from a tender age a person will be focusing on the career path they want to do and they dedicate all their life into it making it happen. This drive to achieve ones true purpose is the ultimate differentiation in performance and ultimately success. If you look at athletes that have dedicated their lives to their respective sporting discipline you will discover that their performance even and effort that they put into their training and game time will make a huge difference on the performance and success of the whole team.

Christiano Ronaldo his dedicated his life to one purpose and look at his performance it is reported that he is the first person to arrive at the training field and he is the last person to live the training grounds. How can someone have so much determination? That is a result of having a purpose in life it will bring so much joy to you and it will bring you fulfilment and in turn that joy will act as fuel to your determination.

Our parents came from the rural areas to the big cities such as Harare. They had nothing when they started but look at them now they have built houses and those fortunate enough are now well established and wealthy. This is a result of dedicating themselves to the fulfilment of their dreams. They just had to move from the rural areas they knew they will not be able earn much in the rural areas. They had a purpose especially the first born who know that he has left siblings back at home and they need to be looked after. This drive led them into towns and they found their way in life. The young generation now has lost that drive that purpose in life to venture into the unknown territory, so that they can at least pull their own weight.

Musicians such as the late Bob Marley dedicated his life to achieving a goal which was bigger than him as an individual. His purpose was simply to emancipate black people from the clutches of mental slavery through music. The message in his songs passionately held this goal. What made his songs so amusing and so beautiful was that they answered so many questions which were never asked but yet still required an answer. He took it upon himself to show the masses that it is important to open their eyes to the harsh realities that exist in the world. In one of his songs titled “war” he clearly indicated that we as the human race should get to a point where the colour of a person’s skin is of no significance like the colour of his eyes. He clearly sung about a racism free world free for all.

Your goal in life will be the differentiating factor in your success in life. It is directly responsible for your success and as such not having a life’s goal is detrimental to your success. Napoleon Hill the author of the book “The Law of Success” dedicated 25 years of his life to perfecting the laws which he wrote about in his book. The book is his life’s work and it was so successful that it sold millions of copies and up to this day the book is so informative and educative that you will find it hard to believe that the book was published in 1928 nearly 90 years ago. The issues discussed in the book are truly timeless just as the music sung by Bob Marley. The great people in history all had a destiny to fulfil and they have been recorded in the history books never to be forgotten. You as an individual if you want to be remembered by history you have to have a purpose in life even dictators like Hitler had a purpose in life his was regrettably to conquer the world. In the end, you will fulfil your destiny if you have a purpose or dream in life. It is mandatory for you to have a purpose in life that is if you want to achieve noteworthy success.