Can we have More Than One Purpose in Life?

Can we have more that one purpose, dream or goal?

Increasingly, there seems to be this narrative insisting that we need to find our purpose in life. And, while that’s great, there seems to be this idea that we all only have one. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot, recently. For me, purpose, dreams, and goals are intertwined. Finding our purpose in life is important in giving us a goal or direction. It’s derived from what we enjoy, what we are good at, and what we are not so good at. For example, a purpose in life, for me, is helping people through writing. It allows me to use my experiences, my brain and perception — but at the same time, a purpose that involves a lot of physical activity is in a way cancelled out because of my physical disability. That’s why I feel it’s important to focus on our strengths. You may have noticed that I said that writing and helping people was one purpose in my life. There’s a very poignant point to that. Writing and wanting to help people can be a conjoined purpose, but they can also be two separate purposes. Writing can take me in one direction, and helping people could take me in another. That doesn’t mean they can’t run along side each other. Do you see what I mean? I am just at the start of my writing career and, at the age of 19, I (hopefully) have a long life ahead of me. However, I am also aware that my priorities or circumstances could change, meaning then that my direction in life changes also (though they are not directly bound). Whilst I’m fairly certain that writing is something I’ll always do in whatever capacity, change is inevitable. So, it begs the question: can we have more that one purpose, dream or goal? Of course we can! For many people my age, a big goal is buying a place of their own, or going to university (as you’d naturally expect). But once someone has reached that goal or dream, it no longer serves it’s purpose because — well — they’ve achieved it. That doesn’t mean to say that they just stop there, though. As we go through life, we progress. A dream of mine was to write and publish a book. I’ve done that. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to write more (keep your eyes peeled in April 2022), or change what I write. Just because my dream was to become an author at some point in life, it doesn’t mean I don’t dream of owning a place of my own at the same time. Do you see the logic? I feel like there’s a pressure to find something we are good at, and stick to all our lives. Can we not explore? Can we not explore different aspects of ourselves and grow as people? Of course we can.