There are benefits of articulating your purpose. However, how a purpose is articulated determines how it is pursued and acted upon.
There are two ways of articulating purpose:
- end state
- repeating state
If, for example, you stated that your purpose is to become a dad, and by that you mean someone who has a child, you have articulated a final end state. When your wife bears a child, you have achieved the end state.
- Bad example. Replace.
On the other hand, if you said that your purpose is to be happy, you have articulated a repeating state whose repetition only ends when you are dead. This is because pursuing a mental state as a purpose requires reconstruction.
When articulating purpose, it might be useful to remember the following guidelines:
- a purpose is not always a core desired mental state.
- There is a difference between primary vs secondary purposes.
- we create our individual purpose.
Here are ways to create our individual purpose.
Note: I wrote this note in 2021, and I need to review it closer to see where I still agree on it. My gut tells me this is too mechanical a way of thinking about purpose.