7 Reasons People Don’t Find Purpose in Life

What is the purpose of life? The purpose is the direction of life. Finding purpose in life helps with self-realization. So, without purpose, life can become a rudderless ship. Purpose is one of the 10 drivers for finding fulfillment in life. In this post, I will share 7 reasons people don’t find a purpose in life. Why do most of us don’t find purpose in life? Also, do you know people who find their purpose live longer?

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.”

– Winston S. Churchill

7 Reasons People Don’t Find Purpose in Life

Study Shows People with Purpose in Life Live Longer

According to a report by NHS on May 14, 2014, they found that people with a purpose in life live longer.

Why Do People with a Purpose in Life Live Longer?

A similar study reported by Kashmira Gandar from Newsweek on May 24, 2019, had a similar conclusion of people who have a sense of purpose in life appear to live longer. The report stated scientists are not clear on the mechanistic explanation- “One explanation is that the attitude and overall well-being could prevent genes linked with inflammation from being expressed in the body. Meanwhile, lacking a purpose could dampen a person’s motivation to be healthy, the authors suggested.”

7 Reasons People Don’t Find Purpose in Life?

Ability to Take a Step Back and Think

Most of us are in the rat race to meet our day-to-day commitments. Sometimes it seems we were born only to meet these daily commitments in personal or professional lives. And there is nothing bigger than these chores in the journey of life! Sometimes we miss slowing down and seeing something that we missed seeing during the daily drill. Therefore, this inability to take a step back and think could affect our ability to find the purpose of our life. Does it make sense?

Trapped in Striving for Basic Needs

Following on to not being able to step back and think is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, which underpins spending most of our time meeting daily needs. Refer to the start here page of this website for elaboration. Then it’s like a catch-22 situation where we cannot break the cycle to spend time to find our calling. As a result, it engrosses us to meet our physiological and biological needs and doesn’t find time to move up the hierarchy of needs. And the topmost hierarchy of needs is self actualization and self realization, which means finding the true purpose of our lives.

Rat Race for Materialistic Needs

The incessant materialistic pressures drive our needs more and more until we get deeper entrenched in the rat race. We miss most of the times that simple and frugal living can be virtues. And the need for more and more is never-ending. Is also brings up the question: how much money do we need to live a fulfilled life? Subsequently, analysts have determined the number is around $75,000 in the United States. And also it is different in other countries based on cost of living.

Lack of Gratitude

So trying to move away from the rat race for materialistic needs is also whether we can appreciate what we have in our lives. Inability to realize and experience genuine gratitude for what we have in our lives can be a major impediment to finding our purpose in life.

Inability to Prioritize

It also gets back to not able to find our calling or finding our passion in life. So inability to prioritize what we want from our life could be a major factor for not able to find our purpose in life. And even if we realize what we really enjoy doing most, not prioritizing our time to develop and hone it. Occasionally we can rejuvenate from our day-to-day work by trying to find time for what we love doing most. Does this sound familiar?

Inability to Let Go Our Ego

Our ego could be a major impediment to self-realization. As a result, it could be a major factor for us not to find our purpose in life. One of the best way to let go of our ego is selfless service. This also means our ability to serve various stakeholders and non-stakeholders in our lives expecting nothing in back, just driven by the joy or self satisfaction or serving for the greater good. Giving back to our community in multiple ways.

Lack of Self-realization

Self-realization is the ability to spend time with ourselves and trying to understand ourselves. It includes a transparent assessment of our likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, which direction we want to tread and which not. Achieving self-realization also takes us to the top of the hierarchy of needs and finally helps us attain self-actualization. It is not a simple path; it takes time and lot of self introspections. So in a nutshell, self-realization is probably the ultimate route to finding purpose in life. What do you think?

Conclusion

So let’s summarize the 7 reasons people don’t have a purpose in life. First, the ability to step back and think. Second, trapped in striving for basic needs. Third, rat race for materialistic needs. Fourth, lack of gratitude. Fifth inability to prioritize. Sixth, inability to let go our ego. Seventh, lack of self realization. Again, the purpose is the direction of life. Hence, without purpose, life can become a rudderless ship. To sum up, purpose is one of the most important of the 10 drivers for finding fulfillment in life.