Purpose Built Through Meaningful Struggle | Generated by AI
You’re touching on something profound here. I think you’re right that there’s a meaningful distinction between finding and creating purpose, and that the creation often involves struggle.
The “fighting for” happiness part resonates with the idea that deep satisfaction rarely just appears—it emerges through engagement with difficulty. When you create something meaningful, whether that’s art, a relationship, a skill, or a contribution to others, you’re often choosing to embrace challenges rather than avoid them. The fulfillment comes partly from having wrestled with something hard, not despite it.
This feels different from hedonic pleasure, which is more about comfort and enjoyment. What you’re describing sounds more like eudaimonic wellbeing—the sense that your life has meaning and direction because you’re actively building it, not passively receiving it.
There’s something psychologically true here too: we tend to value what costs us effort. The pain isn’t the point in itself, but it signals genuine investment. It separates what matters from what’s merely pleasant.
That said, I think there’s nuance around what kind of hardship. Meaningful struggle that aligns with your values and capacities is very different from pointless suffering or grinding yourself down. The question might be: does this difficulty lead somewhere, or is it just damage?
Does this match what you were getting at, or are you thinking about it differently?