You don't. Let it find you. In time it will, but it requires patience.

"This above all, too thine own self be true."

Just repeat to yourself, 'It is what it is' and your current life with gain meaning.

You could start by looking at yourself critically.
What am I good at?
What am I good for?
What pleases me?
What would I like to end my life as?
What do I want to avoid?

Questioning yourself will help more than questioning others.

Once upon a time, there was a silly young girl who didn't know what the purpose of her life was. She thought about it all the time, but nothing occurred to her. She was, you see, very empty headed and there was little between her ears.

One day a mysterious stranger walked past the dreary little trailer park where the silly young girl lived. The foolish young thing happened to be standing by the pothole-filled road, waiting for the postman to deliver her mother's welfare check. The mysterious stranger looked her in the eye and said, "You, stupid girl, don't have the vaguest notion of what your purpose in life is, do you."

The silly, foolish, stupid, young girl opened her mouth and said, "Golly, gee, mister. I sure don't. I don't know shit from shine ola, as a matter of fact. Everybody says so."

"Just as I suspected." the slightly menacing mysterious male stranger said. "I will give you the means for you to discover what your purposes in life is," he said. With that, he whipped out a box that was 8 1/2 inches wide and 11 inches long. He thrust the box into her hands (she was quite taken aback by this sudden action) and said, "Follow the directions inside and you shall find your purpose in life."

And then he disappeared into thin air.

Eventually the postman finally arrived with her mother's welfare check--quite a bit later than usual. She asked him, "Where have you been, Mr. Postman; you were supposed to be here an hour and a half ago." He narrowed his eyes at her and said, "You wouldn't believe the weather I've been through today -- howling winds, darkness of night, hail, snow, rain. It's a miracle I got here at all, you little twit." He handed her a letter which had WELFARE DEPARTMENT printed on it. She took the letter to her mother dear who opened it, read it, read it again, read it a third time, then fainted. The silly, foolish, stupid, young twit of a girl picked up the letter and was sore distressed to read: "You are cut off welfare forever. Donald Trump needs the cash."

While she was waiting for her mother to recover from the shock of being kicked off the dole, it occurred to her that her mother dear had been on welfare for a long time. So had her grandmother, great grandmother, and great great grandmother. "Hmmm," she thought, "looks like the culture of poverty is going to get more interesting pretty quick."

Then she remembered the box the slightly menacing mysterious male disappearing stranger had given her. She went to her depressing little bedroom in the squalid trailer and closed the door. In the box she discovered some blank paper and several cheap ink pens. A small pieces of paper was on top of the paper. "DIRECTIONS" It said.

"Write down everything that you think could be a purpose for your life. Keep doing this. someday I'll return for you."

So she did.

The End.

The moral of the story is that it's up to you to decide what your purpose in life is.

How do I find my purpose for life? — TheMagicSchool

Estsblish relationships with others and find one that you are willing to live and die for. Then procreate with them, creating more that you would live and die for. When you understand that your greatest legacy you could ever leave behind is your children, then you have found your purpose in life.

Reproduction is the purpose of life?

Did I stutter?

Did I stutter? — Harry Hindu

Nah. Just ridiculously antigay and advice that is useless to anyone who cannot have or decided not to have children. Come to think of it, probably everyone can ignore this utterly vapid advice.

How do I find my purpose for life? — TheMagicSchool

The purpose of life may be found at many levels:

1. At the level of the self - to flourish (to acquire wisdom)
2. At the level of family - to nourish and nurture your family
3. At the level of community - to contribute to the betterment of your town
4. At the national level - to contribute to your country's progress
5. At the global level - to contribute to the environment, to knowledge, etc

I'm guessing this is not what you mean and that you're looking for some, what I call, higher purpose; something that transcends the worldly and this because all the purposes I described above are temporary, not everlasting, doomed to fade and disappear with the passage of time.

If I'm correct about this then you're not looking for purpose. You're seeking immortality. Answer a simple question: If you're immortal would purpose be of any value to you? Would you seek purpose?

If "yes" then you'll have to fall back on the purposes I described above.

If "no" then you'll have to admit that it wasn't purpose you were looking for in the first place.

Nah. Just ridiculously antigay — Rich

I didn't take it as anti-gay, particularly, but I find the idea of people having children in order to find a purpose in life a little disturbing. It's asking a lot of one's children to make your (parental) life purposeful.

Did I stutter? — Harry Hindu

Come again? What do you mean, "did i stutter?"????

I didn't take it as anti-gay, particularly, but I find the idea of people having children in order to find a purpose in life a little disturbing. It's asking a lot of one's children to make your (parental) life purposeful. — Bitter Crank

To promote the idea that humans only purpose is to procreate falls in line with any anti-gay agenda. Beyond this, it is so hopelessly empty that is certainly can be quickly dismissed by anyone who doesn't intend to spend their life in bed and then ending it quickly once their procreation powers have dwindled. Ugh. I remember actually hearing this stuff in public school.

You have no purpose, you are purely decorative.

I didn't take it as anti-gay, particularly, but I find the idea of people having children in order to find a purpose in life a little disturbing. It's asking a lot of one's children to make your (parental) life purposeful.

I know this is not quite what you are saying here but I've known several people for whom family is their life, and their purpose in life.

I didn't take it as anti-gay, particularly, but I find the idea of people having children in order to find a purpose in life a little disturbing. It's asking a lot of one's children to make your (parental) life purposeful. — Bitter Crank

I don't see it as asking much of anything of one's children. The way I see it, the burden is all in the parents. They are the one's that must produce the genetic material and the environment in which a child can become a viable adult and contributor to society. It is the parents that determine what kind a person that the child becomes as an adult. That is the problem with most people today - that their parents didn't devote as much time and energy in raising them properly and they end up becoming self-centered or not having any self-worth. Most of society's problems, if not all of them, are a result of improper, or a lack of, parenting. The first years of life are crucial in designing a proper human being.

Nah. Just ridiculously antigay and advice that is useless to anyone who cannot have or decided not to have children. Come to think of it, probably everyone can ignore this utterly vapid advice. — Rich

To promote the idea that humans only purpose is to procreate falls in line with any anti-gay agenda. Beyond this, it is so hopelessly empty that is certainly can be quickly dismissed by anyone who doesn't intend to spend their life in bed and then ending it quickly once their procreation powers have dwindled. Ugh. I remember actually hearing this stuff in public school. — Rich

It seems that it is only you that took it that way. Even the gay person didn't take it that way. But then what do you expect from someone who takes offense with anything they disagree with - even when they aren't really disagreeing with the reasoning behind what was said because either they are too dense, or intellectually dishonest.

I have said these things numerous times on this forum, including to you directly. Ignoring it doesn't mean that I never said it.

Gays can procreate and have procreated. You can pass down your genetic material using some other method other than heterosexual sex, and gays are perfectly capable of raising children into viable and useful adults.

There is also the fact that we all share genes and are part of a gene pool. Our individual genes are only a fraction of the gene pool. So even adopting unwanted children (who are part of the same pool) and raising them as your own would be equivalent to procreating.

Procreation doesn't end when you can no longer get an erection. Sex and the subsequent birth are not the end of the procreating act. Raising the children into adults is the most time-consuming and the most difficult part of procreation.

Establish relationships with others and find one that you are willing to live and die for. Then procreate with them, creating more that you would live and die for. When you understand that your greatest legacy you could ever leave behind is your children, then you have found your purpose in life. — Harry Hindu

I'm with you on this one, Harry. There is no grand purpose to life, or at least none that will ever be proven. Unless you are one of the great influences in the world (like Ghandi or Taylor Swift), your life will be mostly mediocre, sprinkled with periods of joy and despair.

Your best bet is to focus on satisfying your basic instincts to survive (eat well, sleep well, find a decent place to live) and thrive (exercise, contribute to society via some form of work, build close relationships with family and friends, and raise children).

Add in a few hobbies to keep things interesting, and you've got a formula for the grandest purpose you're likely to find.

Nobody on this forum knows what the "real" purpose of their life is so it is very unlikely that they would be to tell you what the real purpose of what your life is. As far as anyone can tell there may not be a purpose for anything so it isn't a given that your life or anyone else's has a purpose, although it isn't a given that there is no purpose to anything either. In a nutshell, we really just do not know even if we sometimes either assume or pretend that we do.

The only thing one can do is make a best guess as to what the purpose of their life is and go from there, or at least that is until they find the need to reevaluate their circumstances.

Right, I need to clarify.

Billions of people have found fulfillment in not just reproducing, but nurturing their children and bringing them up to become happy successful adults. That's all to the good, and when taken seriously is a fine purpose for any life. I think most people in the world approach marriage and family in that way, if they have a choice (some don't have much choice in the matter).

What isn't so fine is casual reproduction where someone thinks having a baby will make their life better (the baby becomes a means to an end) or where someone has a baby they don't want, and resents it.

Purposes seem like a lot of work... I'm pretty lazy...

Suppose someone actually arrived at the purpose of life and typed it right here for all to see. I'd have a whole new respect for this forum. We'd have actually accomplished something here today.

I'm always doing that! I'm just sneaking it past the conscious mind is all, to influence you on a deeply spiritual level, see?

Billions of people have found fulfillment in not just reproducing, but nurturing their children and bringing them up to become happy successful adults. That's all to the good, and when taken seriously is a fine purpose for any life. I think most people in the world approach marriage and family in that way, if they have a choice (some don't have much choice in the matter).

What isn't so fine is casual reproduction where someone thinks having a baby will make their life better (the baby becomes a means to an end) or where someone has a baby they don't want, and resents it. — Bitter Crank

Like I said, nurturing your children is part of the procreation process. You children need to develop into viable and social offspring in order to say that you have procreated. Procreation doesn't end with sex and the subsequent birth.

We weren't talking about what makes one's life better. We're talking about what one's purpose in life is. Does having a purpose necessarily correlate to making one's life better? Can we have a purpose in life that doesn't make one's life better, or what you want, or like, it to be?

We often correlate the purpose of things with their design. Does one's purpose correlate with one's design - or one's natural tendency to behave in certain ways? If so, then one's purpose is what one is naturally inclined to do.

Purposes seem like a lot of work... I'm pretty lazy... — Wosret

That's another thing: Why does seeking a purpose seem like a chore to so many? Why do so many people look to others for their purpose (like God)? Why do so many people give other's the power to determine their purpose in life? Is it weakness? Is that why so many turn to religion for purpose?

Gays can procreate and have procreated. — Harry Hindu

So .... oh, well.

You actually have someone agreeing with you which is more astonishing than your statement itself.