I think we have inborn traits that make us more suited to certain kinds of work. We also have loves that we have acquired that work the same way. That is one of the things that David Seabury talks about in The Art Of Selfishness. To be happy we must discover our own nature and be true to it. I'm pretty sure that will also extend your life.

Beyond biological imperatives, no.
But we create and indulge in purposes we create for ourselves....even if there is no grand purpose. Your wants, needs, desires, abilities, drive, and a whole other host of factors determine what it is you will personally pursue as purpose.

Thank you for the reading suggestions, sounds really interesting.

The meaning (purpose) of life isTO LIVE. There's an excellent 'proverb' in Terry Lane's little book 'God, The Interveiw' which deals with this thought nicely.

Purpose is the only thing what you give to your life... Otherwise your life is a result of someone's love or lust whichever you feel. You had absolutely no control over your birth.

I feel that as atheists we probably have greater purpose in life than most believers because we tend to live each day for itself while many religious folk live for an afterlife and miss out on each glorious day we have. They also tend to have hangups about sex and everyday life that doesn't bother us. My purpose is to do everything I can to leave my home, the earth, as a place fit for my child and future generations. I don't give a crap about floating around on a cloud with some bastard wanting my adoration.

Taking it one step further, why does any life exist? What's the importance of life? Why does life long for itself? What's the purpose? Are we all here to accomplish something? Learn something? It's all magnificent, but baffling E O Wilson remarkef if all humans were to Die Tomorrow the Earth would revert back to a state of abundance. If all insects were to die tomorrow the entire Ecology of the planet would collapse into chaos

Of course, I could say that the purpose of life is to live a life of purpose. The great motivators out there will have their say no doubt as to what constitutes a purpose in life. It can simply be reduced to what interests and pared down from there.
To the best of my knowledge I am living on a little backwater planet that revolves at approximately 1,000MPH in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is said that the galaxies are flying apart at 270 miles per second and there is no discernible direction in all of this....LOL

I recall some years ago when I was only my way to work one morning I was listening to the car radio. The oldest woman in the country was being interviewed and the interviewer asked her what she had for breakfast: "Well, for the past 90 years I've had nothing but brandy and eggs for me breakfast. I gave up smoking two years ago when I realized it was bad for me."

I know what is gratifying to me. What position, place in society fits my skills and therefore satisfies me? Do I make that? Or do I find it? ("Find a need and fulfill it!" ) I don't know.

Unfortunately, most people do not have a sound purpose in life. Most people do not even like their work. The greatest waste if time in life. That is when Religion and Nationaism creeps into our lives like body snatchers.

On the upside people are basically good and will find a better way than our existing abuse, right now. Just after world war 3.

Only in a very generic personal sense. My purpose is that which I create for myself. I think we discover things in life and pick and choose from those things that we want to include in our feeling of purpose. So depending on how you view it, we could say purpose finds us but I think it's more accurate to say we discover those things we value and that becomes a part of our purpose.

It implies that there is something above what we have dictating what we should do to feel happy. It's a comforting thought but it's just not that simple. Happiness isn't a state of being, it's a feeling we chase. Find something that you enjoy doing, do it until you hate it, then find something else.

My purpose would be to be the best, kindest person I can be. Help others when and how I can. Be a better mother to my girls.

Ants are ten times humans weight mass on earth. Why can't humans instinctually work together like ants . All animals love.

Humans are capable of taking work and love ethics and making them into a better planet for all earthlings. Yet, they allow just a few elite to hypnotised the people's brains and backbones into a synthetic world.

I can not change the world, it will change itself. I can change myself, if that makes a few happier, my purpose will expand and so do I with a purpose greater than an ant. By
gathering more Joy's in life rather than toys in the end, you win. Their are many other better ways of thinking. Better than our present destructive synthetics greedy bastards.

Death and taxes.

My dogs know my purpose in life.

No, we don't.

But, if you're into Japanese culture (and origami) have a look at this. Give you something to do which works,

In the Steve Martin movie, "The Jerk" Steve is born as a poor black child in rural somewhere and his mother tells him he has a special purpose. Later, Steve discovers that is just another name for his penis. Your genes, ala Richard Dawkins, insist that you transfer their important messages to future generations. Silent genes don't get passed on, only selfish ones.....

You make your own purpose. And if you don't go out of bounds with the society you live in, you don't get thrown in jail or killed. OH ... and 42.

Question = answered.

Yes, to serve somebody, even keeping your mouth shut when your religious mother wants you to go to a Rosary. Serve. People who don't serve anyone or anything are usually not worth a damn.

I don't think there is a collective -'we' some of us just float around willy-nilly doing the best we can to be human - very many of us are damaged by our experiences that we cannot understand. Some know that here is a god - some don't, we are a strange collective of individuals and I like that idea everyone is different we meet learning opportunities all the time

I don't believe there is a purpose. But there are conditions that make a person better for a certain job or career.

It is not magical, it is logical. You take a hundred people, most of them would be different, you would find the perfect person for a specific job or rather, you'll find out what these people are good at.

Yes....I found mine, humanism!!!

I think our purpose is to fit into the entire circle of life harmoniously on this planet. Everything living thing is connected in an intricate dance of life. When that is out of balance I think that turns into pathology - the overgrowth of humans. Maybe our purpose is to fit into that delicate and beautiful balance to make it all work efficiently. Maybe I am here to learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life, its source, substance and beauty. I will use my senses fully in daily appreciation until I am dead, disintegrated into basic elements and start that journey in the circle once again, in thousands of mycelia that feed the trees etc. Asking for any more than that would feel greedy to me.