A man wakes up and doesn’t know what he’s waking up for. He feels lost as a man. He doesn’t have a territory to defend, no enemy to fight, or brothers fighting besides him. He scrolls, waits, and ultimately he dies. He doesn’t know he’s at war.
There’s a pervasive lie digging its claws into men today. The lie is “finding purpose.” I myself use the language of finding purpose all the time, and I didn’t realize the danger of it until this week.
Any Christian man already knows what his purpose is: union with God. So why do we still struggle? Because purpose is built towards, not found. Aristotle called it eudaimonia, flourishing through action. It’s a habit. It has to be.
To get out of the purposelessness hole, you need to conquer territory. Pick an area. Your body, your marriage, your craft. Just one, and start fighting to gain territory for 90 days. My favorite way to do this is training. Building your body, your capacity to suffer and endure teaches you everything you need to know about conquering territory.
A man without a map is one who accepts whatever life gives him. Neuroscience confirms it: the brain rewards progress. If you want to “achieve your purpose,” you need to move. Progress lies in daily action.
Start moving, and the story writes itself.
You don’t need to find yourself. You need to pick a hill and hold it. Everything else comes after.