Have you found your purpose?
 

Maybe finding a purpose keeps us sober?

There is no purpose in getting alienated..and being shut up in a house or a room.

I'm feeling poetic tonight...my creativity side...lol..

There is not purpose in going to the packy.
There is not purpose in drinking 5 shots of Vodka and having some beers ...other than getting to drunk
No purpose in lying to those that say...your 'OFF" and insisting your NOT.
No purpose in waking up at 3am sweating from alcohol withdrawal.


i found a purpose besides alcohol....it gives me something else to focus on...because if my mind and body are not busy in early sobriety....than my mind will BE otherwise obsessed with alcohol...and what a terrible person, weak person I am. (no alcoholic is weak..its just a lie of the mind).

I would rather think and focus and strive for THE purpose...which is not to be numb...but to feel...give...and focus on a better life to me and all that are involved in my cycle of life.

One Day at a Time...

Hi Missy,
My purpose is fairly simple and includes a few things. No one knows why we are here. But while I’m here, my purpose is to inspire and help other people every day, even if in a small way, to be the best version of myself as possible, to be the best parent I can be and to be creative. For all of this to happen effectively, I am staying on the sober path :)

I was thinking about my purpose several months ago and posted here. I received so many good responses. I can’t find that post though. Otherwise I’d send you the link. I’m not very good at navigating this site :(

Having a purpose has certainly helped me stay sober :)

D

This one?

https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...e-purpose.html

The last line of Dante's Paradiso described God as "the Love that moved the sun and the other stars." (you started it with being poetic :))

I'm working on a more specific purpose for myself, too, and I notice the common themes of service, love, movement, life, giving, others always come up. There's something deep, deep within us that wants to be useful. Useful for what? To whom? It's hard to say, exactly.

I read an info page for an aikido dojo that described transforming our very selves and our lives into a work of art. The sense of "good" that flowed through me reading that was inspiring. Similarly, St Therese of Lisieux found purpose "doing little things with great love." It's helped me view my job, for example, not as a chunk of time I have to spend somewhere, but a series of activities that allow me to move, think, meditate if it gets boring, convert some of the labor to money for charity, etc.

I never realized until I stopped looking for "a purpose" that much of what we do already has purpose, it's just that we're not aware of it. The more aware we become of it, the more fully we live each moment, and those mindful moments, strung together, weave a tapestry of a purposeful life.

Lovely post, thank you. Very relevant for me today I've been struggling with this recently.

Or maybe getting sober helps us find our purpose. Question: Do you believe goals are the same as purpose? I don't think they are. Was my goal to sail across an ocean by myself my purpose? No, I don't think that is my purpose, although it was a top priority goal. Getting sober was a goal. These were achieved goals but don't seem like purpose. Purpose means something greater than a goal to me, but I don't know what that would be. When I think about my purpose, what I arrive at is the question; "Why should I assume I have some kind of purpose?" I can think of reasons why people want a purpose, but it does not follow that a purpose therefore exists.

I can answer the following questions in the affirmative, however.
Am I happy?
Do I enjoy my life?
Am I satisfied?

And for now, I'm willing to settle for that.

I think it was TomSteve who said he could decide to be happy scrubbing a floor. To me, that ties in with finding purpose in doing small things with love. Sometimes that can be enough. My purpose at present seems to be supporting an elderly declining parent. Is it the purpose I would have wished for? No, but I am sure there are many lessons to be learned from this process.

I do not have a Grand purpose that I follow, other than to try to be as good as I can at what I do and to try to be more real than I once was when I was wrapped up in my ego and drinking.

I need things to be simple for me early in recovery.

Agree with you 100 percent Missy! Thank you for your post!

Omg, doggone! Thank you so much as I really wanted to read that again last night :)

I always love these threads. They are deep and philosophical :)
Yes, we do need purpose in sobriety!

"Purpose" is too esoteric for me. However I do have an ultimate goal which I call my Mission along with smaller goals which I've identified to get me there along my life journey.

When I drag my ass out of bed each morning it is with the knowledge of what my Mission is and what I need to do to get closer to fulfilling it. Getting drunk does not help me advance my Mission so it definitely plays a huge role in my sobriety.

I find purpose in caring for my dog and cats, and also the stray cats in the neighborhood. :)

Missy , I think you will enjoy the book "Everything is f*cked" (excuse the title) by Mark Manson.

I started reading it a while ago - because of this very question you asked.

He speaks a lot about hopelessness - how that is the evil emotion that leads us to destruction - if you don't have a purpose/aim/goal you become and feel hopeless.

for me- it is art

great share

I think if one finds a purpose that is great.

I know I circled the drain for a long time because I compared my seeming lack of purpose to what I perceived were the great purposes that others had. And that perception could have been completely wrong. Who knows.

My purpose now is simply to be content with whatever 'is'. And having the courage to change if I'm not content. If I'm sober, healthy and functioning....that is my purpose.

I think when it comes down to the very basics our purpose is to help others - in whatever shape or function this would be is rather irrelevant. I know of nothing that gives longer lasting satisfaction.

But it is up to you to find something that feels worth the while doing for you as an individual.