Purpose and Means

Purpose is what we find through our meaning in life. Means is the way we choose to work, most likely resting on our brains natural architecture for its rules. Together these two form part of our identity. The work we choose and the way we choose to do it comes from this combination and is selected out of the options that have been shown to us throughout our lives and fit the closest to these two items.

Often times, if people haven’t been exposed to enough of the world, they make bad choices about what they should be doing. It doesn’t fit their purpose and it’s not suited to the means that they were born with. Here are two examples:

Someone has the purpose, but doesn’t have the means. This is the person who wants to help climate change, but doesn’t have any invention ideas, doesn’t have the presence to be a political activist, and is lost in how to go about accomplishing their purpose.

Other times, people are highly capable. They have diverse skillsets. They have been developing means, but they aren’t sure where to apply them because they don’t have a purpose. Ambitious people without a particular purpose often find themselves in this “trap.” Not knowing what they are trying to achieve, they seek out more and more abilities until they can hone in on their purpose.

If you are standing outside, recognizing either one of these people, you can create value by giving one the means, or the other their purpose. Seeing people and what they are lacking is an undervalued part of creating a better world. Almost no one can build a computer mouse alone, yet we can do it together.

Re-evaluating your purpose and means from time to time would do yourself good as well.