Reasons for purposelessness

What is purposelessness?

When there is a lack of purpose in one’s life, it is called purposelessness. As we have seen in the previous section, it can lead to various difficulties in day to day life. The main issue with purposelessness is that there is a lack of personal meaning or value to life, which can lead to demotivation, dissatisfaction and an overall sadness towards life. This overall sadness can affect the overall physical and mental health of a person and the quality of life of the person.

More dire consequences of purposelessness happen when these feelings of negativity are allowed to persist. The dire consequences include the development of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, burnout and stress, turning to addictions, career stagnation which can lead to financial instability, heart conditions, poor interpersonal relationships, cognitive decline, a constant state of hopelessness, nihilistic and existential thoughts, suicidal thoughts/ attempts.

What can be the possible reasons for purposelessness?

Purposelessness can come from different reasons but a few common ones include:

Obligation: Not being able to follow what is known to be or not being able to go in search of one’s purpose due to prior commitment or expectation that has been placed upon you. This commitment or expectation is not something that fits into your purpose. For example: the only child of a family wishes for a purpose to be a person who impacts by volunteering in third world or war torn countries to help people out of their difficulties. But due to their family being in debt, the person may have to postpone or give up on their purpose and instead choose to work at a desk job to provide a stable income for the family and pay off the debts.

Confusion: When a person hasn’t had enough experiences in different career fields or has not been exposed to the things that inspire them. This usually causes difficulties in 20s-30s. Sometimes, the very things that felt like purpose for years might start feeling more like a chore. This mostly happens after a person’s 40s but can happen at any age and can be due to any reason at all. For example: A 50 year old who has been a doctor all their professional life suddenly starts disliking their role, due to the fact that they have been a doctor and worked hard for so long and want a change. But due to how long being a doctor and helping people has been their purpose, they don’t know what to turn to.

Fear/insecurities or a sense of inadequacy: When a person’s own mind has a distorted view of what they can do or achieve and leaves them not following their purpose. Distancing themself from their purpose due to a fear of failure or a belief that they will never be good enough for that or good enough for that purpose. For example: A person feels led to be a news reporter and give out the truth to the people and have all the capabilities, but because of their own belief that they might not be good enough has them taking on a whole different career option.

Changing situations: when there is a significant life situation that has happened which derails, or brings forth questions in your life purpose or causes the development of a new life purpose. For example: a person who has wanted to be a lawyer and finally gets a job but because their family member had an accident, they have to choose to be a full time caregiver. Another example may be a person who has been a teacher impacting the lives of students for years but now they wish to leave their job and be a stay at home, present grandparent because their daughter just delivered her first baby.

Interpersonal relationships: When the purpose of a person has been decided due to dependency on another person. This can affect the satisfaction with the purpose as the sense of self is lost and can even lead to resentment towards the other person and affect the relationship with the person. For example, choosing to become a lawyer because the whole family is a family of lawyers and wanting to fit in but, if it doesn’t personally fit the person’s purpose, it leads to resentment in the heart towards the family and the family towards the person which can end up affecting their relationship very negatively.

A difficult time or stressful situation: It is when there is a significant stressful situation that is taking place in the life of a person that can make a person question the significance of their life and the purpose they might have adopted over their life until then. For example: A person might have wanted to be the main financial provider and caretaker of their family. They might’ve wanted for their purpose in life to be able to take care of every need of their family because they grew up seeing their family’s sacrifices. But, if there was a loss of job at their workplace, it might make them question what the meaning of their life might amount to since they weren’t able to achieve their purpose.

The impact isn’t as impactful: If a person developed a purpose with a specific impact in mind but that impact isn’t achieved or if they feel that their impact is minimal, it might make them question their purpose. For example, a person who wanted to become a police officer in order to make their city a safer place but, despite making significant changes in the crime rate, if they personally feel like it’s not impactful enough, they might question their purpose.

Uncertainty in plans to achieve purpose: Even if a person has a strong purpose, but their means of achieving their purpose are out of their reach or uncertain, it can lead to questioning their purpose. For example, if a person has a strong purpose of being a lawyer, but they don’t have the financial provisions to take up law school, their purpose being achieved is uncertain and can make them think of things that aren’t their purpose but are a means to end their family difficulties.

Mental health issues: If a person has certain mental health issues which can affect their feelings or purpose or their ability to achieve their purpose. For example, a person with a mood disorder like bipolar disorder might feel demotivated to do work for something that they might have earlier been motivated to do and even question why that was their chosen purpose.

Trauma: If a person who has a set purpose experiences trauma of some sort, it could derail or destroy their purpose. It can even lead to them not wanting any purpose for their lives. For example, a person's purpose of becoming a cardiologist and healing people could get derailed if the person experiences or witnesses a traumatic car accident with blood all around.

Despite the various situations and causes behind purposelessness, there is still hope for change.

While our personal purposes might have gotten derailed, put on pause or completely thrown out due to whatever cause, we have a higher purpose for which there is always hope. A human purpose. We will explore more on combatting purposelessness, developing a purpose and recognising the higher human purpose in the next section.

References:

• Arootah, & Arootah. (2025, December 23). 10 Ways a lack of focus Negatively Impacts your life | Arootah. Arootah.
• EmotionMatters. (2025, August 4). Lack of purpose | EmotionMatters.
• Lcsw, A. M. (2025, November 4). 7 tips for finding your purpose in life. Verywell Mind.
• Maloney, R. (2024, September 11). Do you feel like you’re living a life without purpose and direction? Quality Mind Global.
• MSEd, K. C. (2025, October 29). 'What is the point of life?': why you might feel this way. Verywell Mind.
• Vitozgonik. (2019, July 3). Lack of Purpose | Challenges you face & How to Overcome them. EmotionMatters.