This article is about why your purpose in life is not about money, possessions, and fame. Now, don’t get me wrong. Money is a powerful tool. It’s freedom from lack and limitation, it makes living any purpose a whole lot easier, and it can be used in your purpose to do many great things for self and others.
And possessions are lovely. If something makes living your purpose easier, safer, or more comfortable, then by all means, add it to your list of possessions.
And your purpose can often put you in the public eye, and achieve local or global fame, and that can be used to to bring awareness, inspiration, and joy to the greater public.
It only becomes a problem when money, possessions, and fame become the primary goal of your purpose. In other words, you devote your life to being rich, or collecting possessions, playing a role purely for recognition, or trying to be famous.
Because, if that’s your primary focus, you’ll never be happy. True lasting happiness can only come from within. It has to be internally created by the mind thinking-feeling-acting with more Adventure, Prgress, Talent, Joy, Passion, Inspiration, and Understanding, which is the basis of a true purpose.
Money, possessions, and fame on the other hand, are external sources of happiness. They can make you feel happy for a while, but because the happiness is outside of yourself, it will eventually fade away, and when it does, the emotional let down can make you feel quite unhappy; if not miserbale.
Ask any millionaire or lottery winner, or anyone who has a lot of possessions, or any famous rock star. If they are aware enough and honest enough to admit it, they will tell you, no matter how much money they had, no matter how much stuff they bought, and no matter how famous they became, none of it made them happier. In fact, quite the opposite. Most of it made them miserable, and here’s why.
After a while, the initial happiness-high of money, possessions, and fame will fade away. That’s guaranteed, because the happiness is external, not internal. When that happens, people eventually return back to who they were before they had the money, possessions, and fame.
In comparison to the external high of money, possessions, and fame, that’s always a bit of an emotional let down. It’s like coming off a drug, except it’s “happiness cold turkey” and it makes people feel unsatisfied, unfulfilled, bored, disappointed, or depressed - and they often don't even know why!
So what do they do to feel good again? They seek more money, buy more stuff, and chase more fame, which only ends up letting them down again, and again, and again. It’s a never-ending bi-polar cycle of “I’m not happy, I need more, I’m not happy, I need more” … but yet never being permanently happy.
In the process, they may indeed accumulate immense wealth, heaps of stuff, and lots of fame, but they lose more than they gain. They burn up their life trying to get all those things, consequently missing out on so much valuable time with their kids, partner, family and friends.
Their shallow pursuit for more money, possessions, and fame, distracts them away from their true purpose - what they know they probably should be doing in their life – and so they also miss out the true Adventures, Progress, Talents, Happiness, Passion, Inspiration, and Understanding that brings. That only adds more anxiety/boredom, frustration, depression, and confusion into the mix, which just makes them crave money, possessions, and fame ever more.
That can often lead to them hoarding money to the point of self-sacrifice, greed, and selfishness. Their possessions ultimately end up possessing them and cluttering up their life. And their fame can often become an eventual prison, where they can’t leave their home and enjoy the anonymity of life.
Plus, the added pressure of making all that money, maintaining all those possessions, and climbing the greasy pole of fame, usually stresses their bodies into ill-health, so they often don’t have the energy or vitality required to even enjoy the money, possessions, and fame they create.
Therefore, if your life’s primary goal is to be rich, or collect possessions, be recognised or famous, please know, that kind of shallow pursuit is doomed to fail into a path of ever-increasing misery and depression.
If you want to truly be happy in life, live your true purpose. Do what excites you the most (Adventure), do it step by step (Progress), do it the very best of your ability (Talent), in your own unique way (Passion), with your own unique focus and direction (Inspiration), to find your own unique truth (Understanding), so you enjoy it and makes you happy (Happiness).
If that joyful purpose leads to money, possessions, and fame, then great; just don’t make those things the primary goal of your life. If you want to know more about the purpose of life, and what stops most people living it, download a free copy of my eBook. It tells you everything you need to know.
Matt Corcoran is the founder of Find True Purpose. He has studied the purpose and meaning of life for more than 30 years, as a passion, a complimentary therapist and practitioner, and living his own big dreams.
Download our free eBook, "The Biggest Problem Men Don't Even Know They Have", This problem is the cause of all unhappiness and it stops people from finding and living their true purpose in life.
We help people Australian men find their true purpose in life without doubt, live it without limitation, manage it with powerful tools & processes, sync it to create greatness, deepen their understanding of what's behind it all (non-religious). Our website content is generated by a human - not AI