Purpose
Core theme: Becoming
Tone: Reflective
Purpose is something I’ve struggled to understand for a long time.
In most systems—especially the workforce—you are paid for how well you execute what you already know how to do. Performance is rewarded. Output is measured.
But purpose seems to ask for something deeper than awareness.
So the question becomes:
If purpose isn’t just knowing what you’re here to do, what lies beyond awareness?
Beyond Awareness
I’ve come to believe that what separates the purposeful from the rest is application.
Purpose is not found in knowing alone.
It is found in becoming what you know.
This is why purpose feels elusive when it’s reduced to activity. Doing the thing is not the same as understanding why the thing is done.
And that’s where the tension lives—between the act of doing and the art of being.
When Fruit Loses Meaning
When someone operates in cognitive dissonance, the difference between meaningful action and mechanical effort becomes hard to see.
The fruit of the work stops mattering.
What matters instead is the reward attached to it.
It’s like a painter who doesn’t value the painting itself—only the price someone assigns to it. The act has no internal grounding. Value is outsourced.
The Problem Beneath the Problem
So why don’t people value what they do beyond how society values it?
Perhaps it’s because value is misunderstood.
Maybe what I produce feels worthless because I don’t understand it.
Maybe I don’t value myself enough to believe what I produce carries meaning.
Maybe I’ve accepted external evaluation because I’ve never learned how value is formed internally.
A person without understanding will always struggle to walk in purpose.
Light and Understanding
Imagine being in a dark room with a light switch—but never having experienced artificial light.
You wouldn’t think to turn the switch on.
You’d rely on the sun, because that’s the only source of light you know.
In the same way, when we only understand light from one source, we never imagine that it can pass through a prism—splitting into many expressions while remaining singular.
The source stays the same.
The expressions multiply.
And those expressions—including us—become resources for understanding the source.
Becoming Through Knowledge
Self-discovery is part of the art of becoming.
To discover, knowledge must be present.
And when knowledge is applied, understanding solidifies.
This is how purpose moves from abstraction to embodiment.
The Lingering Question
But even then, a tension remains.
Why does existential dread persist—even when we know what to do?
Why does knowledge sometimes feel like a burden rather than a solution?
To be continued.