Action Without Purpose

Is it possible to take action without purpose? I didn’t used to think so. Especially since society pushes the idea of career goals so much upon us. I think the answer is yes, but with a BIG but.

This quote sums it up best...
“When I was in high school my math teacher, Mr. Packwood, used to say, ‘If you’re stuck on a problem don’t sit there and think about it, just start working on it. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the simple act of working on it will eventually cause the right ideas to show up in your head.’” -Mark Manson

Although I don’t necessarily believe it is possible to accomplish something major and life altering without the focus of a purpose for why you’re doing it, I do think it is perfectly fine to take steps toward a “calling” until you do know the purpose. So if you feel a calling to switch jobs or to start a new venture, or to pick up and move to Seattle, I’d say do it. You may not know yet why, but eventually the purpose will reveal itself.

The same sort of dynamic exists for relationships too, but I think it is REVERSED. In relationships, when you meet someone, say a coworker, and you immediately hit it off and become friends, there doesn’t have to be a purpose. You can just be, and the friendship just is. A LOT of people struggle with this one... I think it’s why infidelity occurs so much… because people get caught up in the feelings of that new friendship and start thinking that there must be a greater meaning for the encounter to have arisen. But the friendship itself IS the meaning.

(SPOILER ALERT)
If you’ve seen Nick and Norah, at the very end of the movie Norah asks Nick: “Are you sad that we missed it?” and Nick says, “We didn’t miss it. This IS it.” That’s the point of relationships- they are the point. Remember that.

And maybe, since the two examples above are opposites in regard to purpose (yin and yang), maybe the purpose of relationships is actually to help you get through all the times when your current life purpose has not yet been revealed.

So I guess the purpose of this post is... that if you have to trek through the mud for awhile to figure things out, well… bring a friend. (And mud washes off)