What do you want from life?

Recently I had a conversation with a friend who said he didn't know what he wants to do with his life. I asked him what he is passionate about. "That's the thing, I don't know", he answered.

"What do you like doing? I asked. "I'm not sure about that either, depends on the day I guess", he answered.

"What if anything was possible, what would you like to do with your life? I asked my friend.

"Hmm....like what? he answered.

"Would it be helpful if we approached this from another angle perhaps", I asked then continued "perhaps it can be helpful to use your imagination?"  “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” (Albert Einstein)

Increasing/stimulating our imagination often helps us discover possibilities we may not even have considered previously. (Imagination, some suggest, is a part of our mind that includes both the learning and creative spheres.)

To stimulate our imagination, at times it can be helpful to "open" our mind for new ideas, new approaches, new information, and exploration of previously "unchartered" paths.

Create new neural pathways so to speak. (New thoughts, new neural pathways)

My friend looked at me and asked: "So, how do I do that?"

So I suggested: read more, be curious, find different ways to look at things, try new things, if you feel you have a talent in a specific area perhaps try to find ways develop it,  speak with people who you consider "imaginative". At times it may be helpful to make some space in our minds for "possibility thinking" by removing our "impossibility thinking".

Example: "I am not good enough to.....xxx...." exchange for "what do I have to do to be good enough at...xxx?"  "I will never be able to....xxx exchange for what do I have to do to be able to..xxx?"

Perhaps it could also be helpful to take a piece of paper and write down what we would like to do if anything was possible: "If anything was possible I would: move, travel, study, learn a new language, learn to play an instrument, read more, socialise more, and so on."

When we ask ourselves what we want from life, we have an opportunity to discover what is important to us, and discovering what is important to us we may inadvertently discover what our passions are...

For some of us living in societies with much unrest, poverty and suffering, and with threats to our lives an ongoing issue, perhaps staying alive may be our primary purpose, for others of us fortunate enough to not have to deal with such issues, perhaps finding a purpose may be our main purpose?

 When asked what we want most from life, many of us answer: happiness.

Regardless of country and or culture, seemingly "happiness" is what most of us desire from life. But what constitutes "happiness"? And can "life" give us happiness? What do we mean with "happiness"?

Perhaps there are as many definition's for happiness as there are people, but for the moment may I suggest this: A comprehensive term for a state of mind that is usually/commonly a mix of feelings of fulfilment, contentment, satisfaction, a sense of achievement, feeling safe, a sense of well-being, and peace of mind. How to arrive at this state of mind, that, perhaps is a helpful question, but one that we must each answer for ourselves.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.
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"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it was not balanced by sadness." (Carl Jung)
What do you want from life? Perhaps it can be helpful to ask ourselves a few questions to narrow down the scope by asking ourselves what is most important to us; family, friends, career, money, things, a loving relationship, being successful, and so on?
Do we get most satisfaction from/through: achieving goals, living up to our principles/values, being held in high esteem by our peers, being regarded by others as "likeable", etc. ?
Do we regard ourselves as being adaptive; able to roll with the punches, open to change, interested/curious about new things, willing to entertain different possibilities?
Do we feel and or think that life "owes" us something; by being born do we have a sense of entitlement? Can we separate ourselves from "life" so that it becomes "life" that owes us?
Do we want to live an "unexamined" or "examined" life?  ("The unexamined life" refers to a life lived by rote under the rules of others without the subject ever examining whether or not he truly wants to live with those routines or rules. According to Socrates, this type of life was not worth living." Ask.com)  "Each man (human) is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." (Viktor Frankl)