The Purpose Effect – Part 2
Greetings and good day to you all and welcome to the mind for life podcast. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Jeff Bogaczyk and I will be your host here where we talk about all things related to how we think because our thoughts are the way we experience the world and better thoughts lead to a better life. Today, our topic is part 2 of the purpose effect a continuation from last week so if you didn’t get a chance to listen to that episode, go ahead and check it out.
Last week, we got a little side tracked looking at the idea of having a purpose in life and we explored Absurdist philosophy for a bit as a worldview that doesn’t accept the idea that we have a purpose in life. I also talked about Viktor Frankle, and existentialist philosopher who survived the German concentration camp Auschwitz and found meaning and purpose in the midst of some of the most horrific circumstances. In light of his situation in life, Viktor Frankle said this:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
This idea of choice also relates to our podcast the power of choice and how we have the freedom, no matter what our circumstances, to choose how we are going to think and in turn, how we are going to act. Let me say it like this: No matter what you’re going through in life, and it can be difficult and extremely challenging for you, you can choose how you are going to think, you can choose your attitude, you can choose, as Frankle said, your own way.
So, what about purpose? The title of the podcast kind of gives an idea of what we want to discuss and that is what effect does having a purpose in life have on our lives? Because, really, isn’t having a purpose in life just a way of thinking about life? Isn’t that what we really mean when we say that we have a purpose? It means we are thinking in a particular way about our life or our future. Maybe we have been taught this – that God has a purpose for us, or maybe we’ve just decided based on experience or knowledge or some other information, we’ve decided with our power of choice to believe that – that we have a purpose.
We mentioned last week that absurdist philosophy basically is a choice to believe that there is no purpose in life and one should just accept that. But here’s the question – what effect does having a purpose – of thinking about life in a particular way – purposeful – have on us and on our lives?
Before we answer that, we might ask another question first – what effect does not having a purpose have on our lives? What happens to an individual when they go through life without an ultimate meaning or purpose? Frankl – also a neurologist and a psychiatrist concluded that the lack of meaning or purpose in life is what he calls the paramount existential stress. He called it Noogenic neurosis a mental disorder stemming from an “existential frustration” or a crisis of meaninglessness”.
Frankle believed that when we go through life without any meaning, it creates a subconscious stress and translates into a neurological disorder. He is thought to have coined the term, Sunday neurosis which refers to a form of anxiety resulting from an awareness in some people of the emptiness of their lives once the working week is over. People complain of a void and a vague discontent that arises from an existential vacuum, or feeling of meaninglessness, which is a common phenomenon characterized by symptoms of boredom, apathy, and emptiness. One feels cynical, lacks direction, and questions the point of most of life’s activities.
Beyond Frankle’s research, other studies show that meaninglessness can lead to symptoms of anxiety, depression, hopelessness or even physical decline. On the other side, having a meaning and purpose in life are associated with positive feelings of mental and physical health, a lack of the development of anxiety and less emotional stress. Another interesting study found that having a purpose in life made one less susceptible to self-esteem issues brought about by likes on Facebook. I think it’s pretty well documented the relationship between getting likes on Facebook or social media posts and one’s sense of self-esteem and self worth. Let me read a quote from the study regarding the issue of purpose:
The Facebook users who reported getting more likes on average also reported greater self-esteem. But those with a high level of purpose showed no change in self-esteem, no matter how many likes they got. “That is, receiving more likes only corresponded with greater self-esteem for those who had lower levels of purpose”
So, what does this mean? Basically, if you live life without some sense of meaning or purpose, you have potentially greater anxiety, depression, physical and mental health problems and more emotional stress. On the contrary, if you can find some sense of purpose in life, if you can find some sense of transcendent meaning, you will have potentially less anxiety, greater physical and mental health and less emotional stress. You find your life is happier when you find a purpose or meaning.
I believe that deep down, we all, if we ever get the chance to think about these things we find ourselves searching for an ultimate purpose. When we don’t have one, we enter this existential vacuum, we have these feelings of meaninglessness and the symptoms that we already discussed. Today, we have many distractions to cope with these feelings and we never really encounter a silence or reflection that would reveal them. Smart phones, media and entertainment are at our beck and call and whenever boredom begins to set it, rather than understand it as a sign of the existential vacuum and a call for a deeper meaning and purpose in life, rather than allowing the symptoms to draw us toward a purpose that is beyond ourselves, it’s so easy and convenient to check out the Facebook feed and find some distractions.
Blaise Pascal, a 17th century mathematician and philosopher said this in his Pensees:
“All of man’s misfortune comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room.” “Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”
So what does this all mean? Purpose is important. In other words, the way in which you think about your life and the point of your existence here on this earth has incredible consequences for how you experience life. Why are you here? What is your purpose? What is the meaning to this existence? These are questions that haunt us at the deepest spiritual levels when we choose to listen, and I believe that these are questions to which people are looking for answers. Rick Warren’s book the purpose driven life sold over 60 million copies as of 2013, and in it, he showed that God has a purpose for each of our lives. If you’re looking for answers to this question, this is one option you might want to look at.
The Bible also tells us in Jeremiah 29:11:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Remember the belief in a purpose has an effect on the quality of our lives. And that belief is something we can choose to accept or choose to deny. You may find yourself believing that there is no meaning to this existence, that this is all the result of a vast cosmic chance, that you are the result of an intergalactic accident and there’s no purpose to life. That is a choice you can make. Or you can choose to believe that there is a meaning, that there is something greater and beyond ourselves, that there is a reason why you are on this planet, that there is a hope and a future. This choice makes all the difference.
Thanks for listening. This has been the mind for life podcast. Links to the books and studies I mentioned are in the transcript that you can access through the web page mindforlife.org. If you’re interested in purchasing those you can click on the links on the website and I want to note that we get some affiliate profits from those Amazon links so if you’re interested in reading them you can help us out. Please give us a visit when you’re online. I have listed other resources on the website – the books I’m currently reading as well as the transcripts and links to all of the podcasts. If you would consider recommending our podcast to your friends or sharing it on social media that would also help us with promotion. Also if you’re listening through iTunes, please give a review and tell us what you think. You can sign up to our email list on the website for critical updates and news (we don’t spam)
Thanks again and let me leave you with a final thought – what is your purpose here? That fact that you have one is something you can choose to believe and it can make all the difference so – live this week with purpose.
Have a great week!
Studies Referenced:
Riichiro Ishida and Masahiko Okada, “Effects of a Firm Purpose in Life on Anxiety and Sympathetic Nervous Activity Caused by Emotional Stress: Assessment by Psycho-Physiological Method,” Stress and Health 22, no. 4 (2006): 275–281; Gary T. Reker, Edward J. Peacock, and Paul TP Wong, “Meaning and Purpose in Life and Well-Being: A Life-Span Perspective,” Journal of Gerontology 42, no. 1 (1987): 44–49.
Anthony L. Burrow and Nicolette Rainone, “How Many Likes Did I Get?: Purpose Moderates Links between Positive Social Media Feedback and Self-Esteem.,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 69 (March 2017): 232–36, doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2016.09.005.
Frankl – Man’s search for Meaning:
Warren – The Purpose Driven Life
