I was talking with someone and something interesting she said: "Cause if there was no reason, there'd be no point in living. I could still be out there drinking and doing drugs and partying the hell out of life." It was interesting in a way because for her that meaning, reason meant Christianity. But isn't it true for everybody, There really isn't a point until there is a point. We need to justificate somehow, cause really without it we'd be as good as not being. For someone else it was humour, "life=nothing and if you can't find the humour it's meaningless".
We can find meaning and perceive in many different forms. We can give the power to other people, circumstances, situations, whatever basically
Purpose? Give the power to ourselves and remove it from any external. Create the purpose.
I completely agree.
The goal is happiness, happiness derives from the subjective, subjectivity can be different for all and can even change by definition.
edit: happiness can also come from objective things built into us by nature. Like feeling satisfied from eating, love from connecting with people physically or mentally, or self accomplishment. These are often the root sources of our happiness as people can take different paths to reach these goals.
edit2: I just find it really funny. At the root it comes down to animalistic basic needs.
Our purpose can be chosen, but it's root is happiness, and the source of our happiness are survivalistic and reproductional needs
food - survival
self improvement - survival
social connection - survival/reproduction
We're no different than any other social animal.
The only difference I see is that self improvement can be fulfilled by improved intelligence.
edit3(I promise I'm done now): I had to add in security (or reduction of fear) as another basic source of happiness - also a survival instinct
Meaning gives me a calm satisfaction as opposed to the glorious pleasure that so many other things could bring me.
Why do you choose calm satisfaction over glorious pleasure?
It's just one form of happiness over another