I’m often on the search for the thoughts of others on self-reliance. One time the search engine showed me an article by Darius Foroux. I’ll probably get to that one at a later date, but in the process I ended up reading another of his articles which I also found quite interesting. In it he proposes that the purpose of life is not happiness, but usefulness. This may sound familiar; it was posited by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

Foroux expands on this:

Most things we do in life are just activities and experiences.

You go on holiday.
You go to work.
You go shopping.
You have drinks.
You have dinner.
You buy a car.

Those things should make you happy, right? But they are not useful. You’re not creating anything. You’re just consuming or doing something. And that’s great.

Don’t get me wrong. I love to go on holiday or go shopping sometimes. But to be honest, it’s not what gives meaning to life.

What really makes me happy is when I’m useful. When I create something that others can use. Or even when I create something I can use.

He goes on to explain that it’s what we are doing each day, in large or small ways, to make a difference is what life is all about. Whether it’s taking on a little extra work, unasked, for your boss, writing an article sharing something important you’ve learned, or building a piece of furniture, it’s all useful in some way to someone. It’s nothing big, necessarily, but a life built out of these small things adds up to a what we could consider “a good life.” Or, as Thoroux puts it:

The last thing I want is to be on my deathbed and realize there’s zero evidence that I ever existed.

He’s not advocating changing the world in any big way, necessarily. Just do something a little outside yourself, a little more permanent:

One day I woke up and thought to myself: What am I doing for this world? The answer was nothing.

And that same day I started writing. For you, it can be painting, creating a product, helping the elderly, or anything you feel like doing.

I think his last piece of advice must have been aimed directly at me:

Don’t take it too seriously. Don’t overthink it. Just DO something that’s useful. Anything.