The other day, someone asked me this question on Instagram: 

“How do I find my purpose?”

The answer has deep implications for how we should live and what we should value and pursue in life. With that in mind, let’s think through this question carefully.

First, let’s clarify what we mean by purpose. The “purpose” of anything depends on what it was designed for. For example, the purpose of a water bottle is to hold water. The purpose of a saw is to cut, etc. 

We can think of a thing’s purpose as its nature. The nature of a water bottle is to hold water. The nature of a saw is to cut, and so on. (Shout out to my homie Aristotle for this insight.)

Identifying the purpose of saws and water bottles is fairly straightforward since they’re simple, inanimate objects. But the same logic can be applied to more complex systems, like organisms.

For example, what’s the purpose of an octopus? Again, the answer depends on what it was designed to do—its nature. And indeed, evolution has “designed” octopuses to do certain things, such as live in the water, be solitary, eat crabs, and change shape to hide from predators.

If an octopus decided to try to live on land or eat only seagrass, it would not be doing what it was “designed” to do. It would not be acting in accordance with its nature and, as a result, would suffer.

We know this instinctively. We sense there’s something not quite right when wild animals are held captive and not allowed to engage in the activities that come naturally to them. 

Now let’s apply this same logic to humans.

After all, Homo Sapiens are no less a part of nature than an octopus—or a chimp, jellyfish, or hummingbird for that matter. We are a certain kind of creature with a particular set of needs, which are the product of a lengthy evolutionary process. 

Now, if the purpose of other creatures is to pursue their evolved needs, might the same be true for us?

I would argue, yes. Here’s one example of how this plays out in real life:

One of the defining aspects of human nature is our need for healthy relationships. This need has deep evolutionary origins. The ability to cooperate with others in tight knit groups has been one of our key strategies for survival and reproduction. It’s one of the things we were “designed” to do. It’s part of our nature. 

So, to the extent that human beings have any purpose at all, fostering positive relationships must factor into it somehow.

Healthy relationships are also an essential component of a good life, which suggests that acting in accordance with our nature has the added benefit of promoting well-being.

As I’ve mentioned in previous emails, I think I can make a similar case for at least five other dimensions of human experience, including our need for autonomy, novelty, mastery, pleasure, and meaning.

This suggests that our “purpose” is not singular but multifaceted. It isn’t merely about making the right career choice or following your passion. We don’t “find” our purpose. Rather, we actively engage in it by adopting a holistic mode of being that honors our numerous and competing evolved needs in balanced and adaptive ways.

You might think I’m making an error with this line of reasoning. After all, should we really let traits, needs, and desires that evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago dictate our behavior?

In fact, no we shouldn’t. 

I’m not arguing that all of our evolved needs be expressed in exactly the same way as they were in the ancestral environment. Nor am I arguing that how we are is how we ought to be. I know very well the dangers that await down that road.

However, we also can’t completely ignore human nature if we are interested in promoting well-being. This is for the simple reason that if we don’t meet our needs (psychological, biological, spiritual, etc), then well-being inevitably suffers.

These are two extreme positions, neither of which I am espousing. Rather, I think the path forward is somewhere in the middle: 

We must understand the kind of creatures we are and then use that information to develop ourselves into the kind of creatures we ought to be, given our current social and cultural circumstances. 

It is only with the knowledge of who we are that we can change or improve ourselves in any meaningful or lasting way. 

No doubt, this is an extremely challenging task that will require massive effort on both the individual and collective levels. But it just might be where our purpose lies.

Ruben Chavez is a writer and host of The Think Grow Podcast.