Find Purpose by Eliminating What Isn't
Chip away everything that doesn't look like David
Michelangelo famously said, “the sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
When asked about the difficulties of creating the statue of David, he answered, “chip away everything that doesn't look like David.”
Purpose — the question of what am I here for, existentially? — is a lot like a marble sculpture. It already exists, it is up to us, the sculptor, to release it from the unseen.
Meaning vs. Purpose
There are two big questions in life, about life:
1) What is the meaning of my life? If I were a word in a dictionary of universal matter, what is my definition? What does it mean to live? To laugh, to suffer, to cry, to love, to do anything that is within my nature as a human?
Meaning is concerned with Being.
2) What is the purpose of my life? If I were a product, what did my product designer intend me for? What am I meant to do? What is my function in this universe?
Purpose is conc…