Post-Purpose and BoJack Horseman -- Understanding the Rationale of Discontent

Alex Mos's Synopsis

The author refuses in a state of "Post-Purpose" where previously set goals have been achieved. He chose the solitary path of an ascetic, providing guidance and help to others. He is determined to contribute to humanity using pain and existential suffering as motivation.

To live a successful Post-Purpose life, we must resist the frustrating need for new goals and break the desire and materialistic consumption cycle. Chasing fleeing ambitions repeatedly creates a necessity for new achievements, often leading to addiction and depression, mental illness.

Perfectionism is futile. Embracing flows and striving for higher standards are realistic and desirable. The author illustrates the Post-Purpose approach by comparing the struggle of a fictive character, Bojack Horsman, to his strategy. Bojack is stagnant, obsessively trying to reproduce his past success and looking for external validation.

In contrast, the author also refused his Post-Purpose, but unlike the character, he embraced his discontent, and let go of the past to grow as a human.

True happiness lies in finding and pursuing a long-lasting, realistic goal that leads to personal fulfillment and growth.

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"My purpose has vanished once it has been achieved. Just like a video game that has been finished, it can still be enjoyed without starting a new game, be it a complete or partial reset of its development. A post-purpose life is to be both appreciated and learned by as many people as possible, but only if we ruthlessly refuse to overcome our attachments to our emotions." -- A renovated response of mine to an answer request on Quora.

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Navigating a Post-Purpose Life

As many of you may already know, my journey has been unconventional and full of pain. While other young adults are just embarking on their life's path, I found myself in a state of retirement, never needing to actually work for a living.

Unlike most who seek guidance, I’ve become accustomed to offering it, understanding the importance of helping others. And while many yearn for love, marriage, and family, I chose the solitary path of a the ascetic, rarely even contemplating romantic love as a practical possibility.

Unlike many I have the opportunity to live in a state of "Post-Purpose," where all previously set goals have been achieved. Despite my ability to rest on the laurels of life, I refuse doing so, and I refuse relentlessly. For I understand that as long as I can contribute, I should not waste that potential being idle and succumbing to pure joy.

I don't live to have fun. I haven't felt pure joy since 2008. My existence is fueled with chronic pain, and I use the pain and the emptiness as motivators. Treating them as problems to be solved is an orthodox mistake of logic that does not look both ways.

The question that lingers for myself and others like me is how to navigate a Post-Purpose life. To live such a life, we must resist the frustration that compels us of needing a new purpose, one that throws us back into the common cycle of seemingly-endless desire, capitalized by greedy companies. This cycle thrives on the belief that achieving a specific milestone (finding love, securing a certain career) will unlock permanent satisfaction.

But true fulfillment, I believe, is a conscious choice, not a destination reached by external pressures or fleeting desires. It is mainly done when we gather the strength inside, to make the regular choice to let go.

Choosing Contentment VS Living In Endless Loop

Indeed, a post-purpose life is a conscious decision, often taken after achieving what we once deemed essential. It's a recognition that ceaselessly chasing ambitions only creates an insatiable hunger within. A mind already blissful with satisfaction doesn't need more purpose. The pursuit would only leave a void.

The point of this hunger, just like with the physical hunger for food, is to get something done. To get something done, you must become fit enough for the task which your hunger sets you off to. Therefore, discontent has its own practical functionality. It's there to make you displeased with yourself or with how things currently are, so you'll be willing enough to work towards a change.

When we breed insatiable hunger, we turn ourselves from serene people, to people who are constantly stressed by their own discontent. This discontent fuels the modern materialistic loop – an anxious, short-term cycle that breeds frustration and emptiness. It is, you see, a self-feeding cycle, idea for others to abuse for greater profit.

The consequences of never being truly content slowly become visible: addiction, depression, mental illness. The Post-Purpose approach, when embraced holistically, offers an alternative to this chronic suffering. It not only satiates the mind but also shields us from these pitfalls. In a sense, we better equip ourselves to choose our own hunger. To reduce our suffering, we should choose hunger that can be satiated permanently.

And in here lies the dark side of purpose-seeking. It can devolve into a relentless obsession, particularly when the desired purpose is unrealistic or unsustainable. As such, we may, without sufficient foresight, choose to suffer impractically, believing we're doing enough work to quiet down our thirst towards being content. In reality, why bother investing so much energies and resources towards activities that cannot completely fuel our satisfaction?

This question applies only to those who want to be satisfied, to those who want to feel joy constantly and to those who see discontent a problem for these ends.

For me discontent and even agony are assets, not liabilities to get rid of. Largely, I've no desire to discard assets. Both in resource, and in people. I don't live to be content. I live to work. Work is how I mentally survive in a world whose pleasures I find absurd and exhausting. Why would anyone want to be fatigued?

Perhaps it's time to collectively acknowledge the futility, even the counter-productivity, of the pursuit of perfection. Perfectionism isn't a realistic venture Striving for high standards, is. I prefer to embrace the flaws and live despite the struggle, than delude myself to believe in a painless reality. According to the Paradise Paradox, we are programmed to be displeased. And displeasure/discontent, as explained, has its purpose in our survival and in our success.

Embracing a post-success life, where we savor the fruits of our achievements, may be the key to long-term contentment. However, can we truly live in peace with it? Most of us can have the opportunity to revel in life's pleasures without needing to constantly move on to the next level like in an endless game.

Some of us refuse to, because we choose to care, and thus, suffer willingly under purpose.

BoJack Horseman and Post-Purpose: Two Sides of the Same Coin

BoJack Horseman, the titular character from the acclaimed Netflix series, serves as a counterpoint to the concept of a Post-Purpose life. While I see discontent for its vast industrial potential, BoJack embodies the pitfalls of clinging to the nostalgia of success and to the emptiness and depression that follows.

BoJack's Struggle To Return To Purpose:

• Chasing Past Glory: BoJack's entire existence revolves around recapturing the success of his 90s sitcom, "Horsin' Around." He constantly seeks validation and a return to his perceived "golden age", neglecting opportunities for personal growth and genuine happiness. Instead, he falls to the short-term satisfactions of alcohol, drugs and s*x. In reality these hedonistic pursuits are but excuses to not face his empty life.
  

• Misguided Purpose: BoJack's "purpose" becomes fixated on external validation and replicating a past he fails to recreate. The need of validation is but an escapism from his inability to be able to truly rest on the laurels of a life lived with fame and success. That is even though he wants to be fulfilled. This pursuit ultimately leads to self-destructive behavior – addiction, failed relationships, and a general sense of hopelessness.
  

Mr. Tomasio vs. BoJack:

• Conscious Choice vs. Obsession: My acceptance of Post-Purpose as a counter-intuitive approach highlights a conscious choice to avoid contentment even after achieving one's goals. BoJack, on the other hand, is consumed by an unhealthy obsession with a singular purpose he fails obtaining -- to be happy with life.
  

• Relentlessness vs. Stagnation: I embrace a life of displeasure, seeing discontent as a virtue for more and more success. BoJack remains stagnant, clinging to the past he cannot relive and refusing to define his own path forward. I too hold my past with gratefulness. But I decided to kill the desire to relive it. Tom is dead, as he should.
  

BoJack's Importance:

• A Cautionary Tale: BoJack's story serves as a cautionary tale for those who, like him, might confuse past success with the realistic ability to make it happen once more. However, nostalgia has its own disadvantages.
  

• The Importance of Growth: BoJack's struggles highlight the importance of personal growth and finding meaning beyond external validation. They also show the of being able to let go of the past, and live in peace with its departure from your life. Instead, we can redirect our resources into planning the next stages of our lives, or, again, be strong enough to not need any purpose to cling on, just to mentally survive in this world.

Bojack and I represent opposing ends of the spectrum. The choice of whose example to follow rests on you. The pursuit of happiness lies not in external validation or replicating past successes, but in finding a purpose that actually leads personal fulfillment, with enough effort invested.

"BoJack is a textbook example of the delusion and inefficiency of the American dream. Being successful, rich, or famous will not guarantee you the happiness you were looking for. Why? Because eventually the joy from these achievements will fade like the collective memory of a typical 90s sitcom." -- A comment of mine on BoJack Horseman's credits song.

Only once we're ready enough to see emotions as pawns, rather than goals, we can use ourselves far more industriously, for a much better world. The choice rests on us and on our relationships with our feelings.

Mr. Nathan Lasher's Feedback

You don’t start from nothing to a post purpose life. That is only achieved by living a great life and reaching your potential, something not a lot of people do. We are all familiar with not having a very purpose filled life. Most people are too concerned with the day to day rat race to actually give themselves a purpose other than going to work and taking care of their own personal lives

Discontent should be a sign you are missing something from your life. Don’t mean that in a superficial materialistic kind of way. I’m referring to what the object you want actually gives you. A sense of euphoria as a need or want of yours is being met. Mainly discontent is a sign that you can do better. We should always feel discontent about something. It means we care.