The other day, I was watching a YouTube video about finding one's purpose in life whose primary message was to find your "magnum opus". Find the one big thing that you can label as your life's purpose and work towards it relentlessly.
However, I take exception with that characterization for the reason that, what happens after attain your magnum opus? What happens if you don't attain it? Stop living? I doubt that. I doubt that you will jump off the next bridge you come across after achieving your magnum opus -- after all, you have achieved your life's purpose. NO! You continue to live
Here's my take on finding one's purpose in life. Magnum opus is, in my view, a grand goal in one's lifetime. And there's nothing wrong with that. You can plan and execute towards that goal BUT the key is to remember that life is happening in the space called NOW. And if life happens in that space, it follows that your purpose in life is what you're doing at that very moment. There isn't another life -- not yesterday (memory), not tomorrow (anticipation). Whatever happened in the past, happened in the NOW; whatever happens tomorrow, will happen in the NOW.
Therefore, your life's purpose is what you do in the space called NOW, right this moment. As you read this passage, that's your life's purpose. When you're done and rise up to go make a meal, that's your life's purpose. If you're working towards your magnum opus, planning or executing at this moment, that is your life's purpose. The key, just like with breathing, is you have to remind yourself over and over that "this is my life's purpose" no matter what you're doing until it becomes normal. And as you go through that journey, notice how everything you do becomes imbued with a new vitality, a certain richness, calm and focus; a realization that this is life!
