“What we lack most in the modern world is a sense of a larger purpose to our lives.”
Mastery, Chapter 1, The Life’s Task
Quote
“What we lack most in the modern world is a sense of a larger purpose to our lives.” — Robert Greene
Explanation
In the 21st Century, most of our lives lack true meaning—no mission to achieve, no adversity to overcome, no moral compass to guide us, no dream to chase, no craft to master, nothing more than day-to-day existence.
Example
The last Century has seen more progress than any period in human history. Despite this growth and advancement, we have forced ourselves into an existence of meaninglessness.
We have lost our faith in religions, giving us no moral compass or external guidance. We have become obsessed with social media, making us incredibly jealous and distracted. We prioritise instant gratification and short-term thinking over patiently achieving our long-term goals. We no longer care for mastering a craft that we love, instead trending to what is most popular at the time. We have become mindless consumers, resulting in hollow materialism. We prioritise fun, leisure and pleasure over discipline and hard-work.
This state of meaninglessness has caused enormous rates of depression and anxiety—we are pushed and pulled from one advert, fun event, irrational decision and pointless purchase to the next, none of it truly filling our deep void of purposelessness.
However, there is a solution.
What you must do to find purpose and cure this internal void, is to obsess over your deep passions. You must find what it is you love—what you enjoyed most as a child, what you could spend all day doing—and become fully immersed in it, learning everything you can, striving to fully master this area of expertise.
This, and only this, will save you from the nihilism of modern-day meaninglessness—you will no longer care about pointless leisure or fun; you won’t concern yourself with the pettiness of popular culture or consumerism; you will become patient, interested only in the long-term gratification of overcoming difficult challenges.
By following what you love, overcoming anything that stands in your way through sheer grit and determination, and eventually mastering your craft, you will find true direction and meaning, saving yourself from the belly of the purposelessness beast in the process.
“Find what you love and let it kill you.” ― Charles Bukowski