“The purpose of life is finding the largest burden that you can bear and bearing it.” – Jordan Peterson
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was forced to push a boulder up a hill over and over again for eternity.
Any rational person would dread the thought of receiving this punishment, as his assigned task is not only extremely boring, but it’s also trivial.
Thus, it’s reasonable to assume that it’s impossible for Sisyphus to be fulfilled with his life: that he’s doomed to suffer for the rest of his existence.
Well, what if I told you that this assumption is false?
What if I told you that Sisyphus has the same chance of living a meaningful life as the rest of us?
In “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays”, Albert Camus, a distinguished philosopher and existentialist, presents the notion that Sisyphus actually can derive meaning from his situation by first acknowledging the fact that life is absurd:
“Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”
Like Sisyphus, we’re all pushing boulders up hills in our own lives.
From studying for an exam to paying taxes, our lives are filled with designated tasks that are considered trivial in the grand scheme of things.
Nonetheless, we continue to fulfill these tasks to the best of our abilities. From the beginning to the end of the day, our point of focus shifts from assignment to assignment without question.
Why?
Because these duties give us purpose.
Although turning in homework seems pointless from a bird’s-eye view, we feel good about ourselves once we finish it. Throughout our lives, we repeat this process of struggling and then feeling good after the struggle until our time is up.
In “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, explains how he was still able to be fulfilled despite the living hell that he was in:
“Everything can be taken from somebody but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Despite having literally everything stripped from him, he recognized that there was still one thing that he had total control over: his mindset.
I would always think that meaning came from achieving goals I set for myself, but the elated feelings I got after each goal wouldn’t last that long.
It was only recently for when I realized that meaning is found within the climb rather than at the top of the mountain: that the meaning of life is to create your own meaning.
By accepting the absurdity of the universe and completing the meaningless task with honor, Sisyphus makes his tragic life meaningful, and we all can do the same.
The obstacle is the way forward, and knowing this will set you free.
“The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill one’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” – Albert Camus
JL