None of them are wrong. In fact, what they say is 100% true. But it’s not the easiest when you’re struggling to find the motivation that you need to find a purpose. It takes a lot to take a step out of your life without purpose to change the way you live and think.
What bigger motivation can there be than to tell you all the reasons why a life without purpose is hurting you?
Here are 7 fundamental reasons that will give you just enough motivation to get on with the search of your life’s purpose because living without one is affecting you beyond your imagination!
1. A Life Without Purpose Has No Meaning
Have you ever dreaded living a lifeless life? If not, you probably don’t know how excruciating such an existence is.
Imagine not wanting to wake up every morning but also not wanting to go to sleep at night. No will to work, no excitement to spend, no friends’ company to enjoy, and no reason to continue living. A blank mind with nothing to think about. The lack of emotions—negative and positive. Nothing to look forward to.
Yes, it’s clearly a depressing life. That’s exactly what you end up feeling without a purpose in life.
A lack of purpose means a lack of goals. This means nothing is leading you to an imaginary final destination. You literally have nowhere to go, you find it absolutely torturous to be on the way, and you don’t even like the route.
Why even would you want to go on such a journey?
Even if you have goals, they are very haphazard. One goal contradicts the other. You’re all over the place with no sense of direction at all. A life without purpose is as meaningless as this.
However, once you have a clear idea of why you’re living, you get an idea of the bigger outcome that you can look forward to. Every step of the way is meaningful. Your journey is not just a wander around without an aim. Instead, even the strolls become enjoyable because you know they’re leading you to where you’re supposed to be.
2. You’re Full of Anxiety
Do you find yourself stuck in a cycle of an anxious life? Well, there’s a high chance it’s because of your lack of purpose.
A life without purpose is senseless. Nothing you do in life is connected. Since nothing seems to be coherent, your mind is unable to comprehend why everything is happening.
Anxiety is triggered when a person’s mind thinks their life is in danger. So, in the case of a purposeless life, your brain translates the lack of connection to be a threat to your life. Anything that doesn’t seem to be a fit is automatically a danger as per your brain.
On the contrary, if your mind can link your doings with a coherent purpose, everything tends to make more sense. Hence, you feel more at peace and less anxious. Your mind is at ease because the path to the final purpose isn’t pointless anymore.
3. Motivation Is a Long-Lost Dream
One thing that pretty much every human who wants to be successful needs is a lot of motivation.
For a clearer picture, look at it from the perspective that you do have a defined purpose in life. You trust in every way that life leads you to. What does that do? It boosts your brain to work harder. Every step of the way makes you feel closer to your final destination. This automatically encourages you to perform better.
Without a purpose, you can never scale your achievements. Since you don’t know what it’s leading you to, you consider it to be meaningless. But when you’re well-aware of the expected results, the smallest progress is a motivation booster too.
You can try out all the motivation boosting tips but the one that will work the best is to find your life’s purpose and live by it.
4. Lack of Focus Keeps You From Growing
Every field, career, part of life, and relationship requires growth. Human life is ultimately the name of progress—if nothing else, at least your mental capacity and knowledge grow.
Where does this growth come from? You could have access to the best knowledge sources. Yet, you won’t learn a word unless your mind is in a state to absorb that information. Similarly, if you’re focused, you can learn something valuable even from the most non-happening events.
Basically, the way this works is that a life purpose keeps you working in one direction. You may take a few turns here and there, but the ultimate output is known. So, all the hard work you’re putting in is intended for your life’s purpose in the bigger picture.
This focus is unachievable any other way. With a purpose, you’ll choose a career path, people around you, relationships, friends, living space, and even your daily commute accordingly. So everywhere you go, your focus remains undisturbed. The end goal in mind is consistent.
With a clear focus on the right things, you can easily get past the minor inconveniences. The important things are always in your focus no matter how small they are. So, overall, it gets way easier for a person with a defined life purpose to work well, harder, and more effectively.
5. Success Seems Unachievable in a Life Without Purpose
Everything that you’ve read so far directly contributes to your success or failure. So, mental peace, motivation, and focus are all important to be successful in any part of your life. But there’s more to the picture.
You may have a vision in mind even if you don’t have a life purpose. You might even push yourself to the maximum to stay focused in the direction that you think is right for you.
Look at it this way:
You head out for New York but you got on the wrong road. You’re welcomed with a narrow road that is too dark to even see around—but you keep going. Your car breaks down and there’s no workshop nearby. Yet, you push the car as far as possible. You can go for as long you want but you’ll never reach New York.
So, without even knowing what your life’s purpose is—no matter how hard you work—it will be useless. If you know the right path for you, you might not even have to work half as hard to get to your desired results.
6. Affects Physical Health
A life without purpose affects more than just your mental health. It can impact your physical wellbeing too.((University of Minnesota: Why is Life Purpose Important?))
First of all, the strain on your mind automatically translates to your physical body. Continuous stress is likely to cause hair loss, acne, weight loss, weight gain, etc. But there can be more serious consequences as well.
Studies have proven that people with a clear sense of purpose in life live longer than those who continue with a life without purpose. People with their life purpose well-defined were able to tolerate more pain and also had a lesser risk of heart diseases.
What’s more astonishing is that people without a purpose in life are 2.4 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, too.
The reason may possibly be that people who don’t have a life purpose lose hope and don’t have anything to look forward to. So, the psychological effect gets to their physical wellbeing. Whatever the case, if a defined life purpose can save you from all this hassle, why wouldn’t want to have one?
7. Nothing in Life Is Enjoyable
Social inclusion is a huge part of one’s purpose in life.((NCBI: Alone and Without Purpose)) People who are living a purposeless life tend to be more lonely. Even if they join social gatherings, they are lesser likely to enjoy it.
Since such people do not have mental clarity, they just cannot enjoy the fun things around them. Their brain is unable to comprehend emotions. This doesn’t necessarily mean that their circumstances aren’t good enough. The same environment and people can be enjoyable for a person who feels content mentally.
Conclusion
Every single one of these reasons is proven to be a result of a purposeless life. Every single reason leads to a chaotic lifestyle. Nobody would purposely want to live a life like that.
We’ve been given a very short time to live in this world. So instead of wasting it living a life without purpose, it’s time you start making an effort to improve it.
Getting out of this hurtful life is right within your hands. Go through the hassle and short-term struggle to live a worthy life till eternity!
More Tips on Living a Life With Purpose
- How to Live a Meaningful Life: 10 Inspiring Ideas to Find Meaning
- 13 Ways Living with Purpose Makes You Happier and More Fulfilled
- 10 Reasons Why You’re Demotivated and How to Overcome It