How to Find Purpose — Wise Words from Hunter S. Thompson
When you find yourself at a crossroads of chasing a paycheck or chasing a dream, what’s your choice?
A perplexing question, to say the least. In 1958, legendary journalist Hunter S Thompson responded to this very question with a compelling answer. This letter has always offered me inspiration when I most needed it. It’s always been an important reminder that I had settled for calculated mediocrity. When asked for life advice from a friend, Thompson responded with the following:
“To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles … ” (Shakespeare)
And indeed, that IS the question: whether to float with the tide, or to swim for a goal. It is a choice we must all make consciously or unconsciously at one time in our lives. So few people understand this! Think of any decision you’ve ever made which had a bearing on your future: I may be wrong, but I don’t see how it could have been anything but a choice however indirect — between the two things I’ve mentioned: the floating or the swimming.
But why not float if you have no goal? That is another question. It is unquestionably better to enjoy the floating than to swim in uncertainty. So how does a man find a goal? Not a castle in the stars, but a real and tangible thing. How can a man be sure he’s not after the “big rock candy mountain,” the enticing sugar-candy goal that has little taste and no substance?” — Thompson
Finding Purpose — Float or Swim?
I’ve been floating most of my life. Do I regret it? Sure. But I don’t regret the friends and memories made along the way. I lived as a ski bum living in some of the most desired areas in the world. My days spent chasing powder, women, and nature’s wonders. I enjoyed the floating. No, I loved it. Moving through many menial jobs with no thought given to a career or a paycheck. If rent was paid and groceries bought, I was satisfied.
A lift ticket was the pass to a good life. A snowboard the vehicle to joy. A powder day the only goal worth chasing. And I got plenty of them. Titty deep in powder with good friends, hoots and hollers, cheap beer, and medicinal marijuana. I can’t say it was a bad way to live. I’d recommend it to anyone.
But as the wave of my 20s crashes to the shore, I find myself staring out to the water. Should I now swim for that goal? To be or not? There’s a comfort in the floating, no doubt. A lack of fear, of unknowns. A steady paycheck. But some fires never burn out. They may simmer down to a light ember, but they’re always there. Waiting.
Writing these words is me starting to swim, that fire starting to burn again. It’s me pursuing a dream that I, for so long, thought had faded. I’ve never felt so alive as I do in these moments. Not even dropping into that first cliff drop can compare to the fear I feel now. The fear of failure. The fear that I’m not good enough to do this. The fear that I missed my window.
“As I see it then, the formula runs something like this: a man must choose a path which will let his ABILITIES function at maximum efficiency toward the gratification of his DESIRES. In doing this, he is fulfilling a need (giving himself identity by functioning in a set pattern toward a set goal), he avoids frustrating his potential (choosing a path which puts no limit on his self-development), and he avoids the terror of seeing his goal wilt or lose its charm as he draws closer to it (rather than bending himself to meet the demands of that which he seeks, he has bent his goal to conform to his own abilities and desires).
In short, he has not dedicated his life to reaching a pre-defined goal, but he has rather chosen a way of life he KNOWS he will enjoy. The goal is absolutely secondary: it is the functioning toward the goal which is important. And it seems almost ridiculous to say that a man MUST function in a pattern of his own choosing; for to let another man define your own goals is to give up one of the most meaningful aspects of life — the definitive act of will which makes a man an individual.” — Thompson
Swim for the goal
I once thought of writing as homework. Something that I had to do, but never took the time to enjoy. But in college, I had a professor who drove into my mind that I might have what it takes to write. She challenged a drifting kid and awoke something he didn’t even know was there. I’m always amazed at how such a small moment in your life can become such a significant memory, such a driving force.
After that semester I declared my major as Creative Writing. I was determined to make writing my life. I can still feel how giddy I was in those moments.
Then my father passed away. This led me to switch my major to something that I thought would make me more money. I took the set pattern toward a set goal. I stopped writing. I floated. While grief may have been a factor, I look back now and think that decision was based on fear. But I could always hear that professor’s words in my head as a distant whisper.
And if you’re reading this, you’re witnessing me begin to paddle. I’ve left the shore. I’m swimming against the current. In the words of Mr. Thompson, this is my attempt to bend my goal to conform to my own desires. And I hope you enjoy it.
“So if you now number yourself among the disenchanted, then you have no choice but to accept things as they are, or to seriously seek something else. But beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.” — Thompson
Conclusion
A young Hunter S. Thompson understood the challenges of finding your purpose. I pray that I’ve found mine. So here I am. Defining how I want to live. This is only the beginning of the journey, and I hope that you will follow along with me. The shore is behind me, but the current is strong. I’m determined to push through. And from now you can be sure I’ll be swimming.
