What is Life Without Purpose? – Ayoola Oshiyemi

What is Life Without Purpose? – Ayoola Oshiyemi

Do we need a sense of direction to achieve success? Do we need to believe in what we are doing in order to fulfil our full potential? Life is a gift but it can also be a maze; an involuted and intricate maze, in which we are all trying to find our way out. Life is full of barriers, not to frighten, intimidate, nor set us up for failure, but to challenge us, stretch us and make us persevere. In spite of the hurdles that stand in our way, the ability to believe in yourself, pick yourself up and achieve your goal, no matter how long it takes, is what makes YOU a champion! Each of us in this world have different ambitions and motivations, and we therefore create different pathways in terms of our direction in life. This further gives us a sense of meaning, place and embraces our individuality. We therefore have a sense of purpose, right? 

Sometimes our purpose may be obscured or blurred, meaning our direction may be hard to follow or understand. The minor drawbacks however, can set us up for greater success, or overcloud our perception of it, telling us that we aren’t good enough, manipulating our minds and questioning our purpose. Although we all have different perspectives on what we desire in life, what all connects us together is that our main goal or purpose is to live a life of happiness and joy. Like Oprah Winfrey said, ‘Your journey begins with a choice to get up, step out and live fully.’ No matter how we choose to fulfil our lives, everything that we choose to do is to make us feel happy and fulfilled. As a student and as a young individual, you are living your life, nobody else’s and we therefore want different outcomes in life. 

Some philosophical questions revolve around this idea that we as humans don’t know our purpose, and ask why we are we put on this Earth. But, all we know is that our purpose, the purpose of our lives, starts and ends with us. Your life purpose consists of central motivating aims of your life. By giving yourself a sense of direction and an aim allows us to feel fulfilled and to feel of use. Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to be in the future, or what you want to do in the future, because our mindset and our desired destination of fulfilment may change, and as a result, so does our sense of direction in life. 

You are the predictor of your life. Your actions, your mindset and the way in which you behave can impact each and every decision you make, for the best or for the very opposite, and also what we achieve in life. Having a purpose isn’t necessarily just knowing why we exist or, ‘what we were born to achieve’, but it is the way in which we know why we are doing each and every action we choose to pursue. Is it going to have a positive impact on your life in the future and what the outcome of those actions will be. For example, if you want something in life, you will set out to achieve it, no matter how long it takes. Determination, perseverance and hope will be there to point you in the right direction and to land you in your desired destination, (what you want to achieve).

How can we use this in our everyday life at RHS?We as students can weekly, termly and monthly set ourselves a list of targets and goals, which will give us a sense of direction and keep us on track to what we want to achieve in terms of a short term or long term, motivation or goal. It focuses your engagement with learning, shows you how to use your time so that you can consequently achieve maximum fulfilment, and make the most out of the life we have been gifted to live. The method of setting goals helps you to understand where you are going in life and what you should concentrate all your effort in. It motivates and stimulates us to keep away from all the distractions and barriers of procrastination, which try and waste the time we have been given. Setting ourselves goals and being specific with what we want in life, will lead to small components of glory that contribute to a major success in the long run, creating a beautiful, grand picture of success. We all have the potential to create the picture of our dreams. If we can see it, we can achieve it! Just believe in what you are doing, and then your direction will be much clearer and your pathway will become much easier to follow. 

What is a song without lyrics, what is a poem without words and what is a life without a purpose? Like Opah Winfrey said, ‘I believe there’s a calling for all of us. I know that every human being has a value and purpose.’