What is a purpose?

Everyone in life has a purpose, right? But of course, we don't know our purpose, we just know we have one. So, logically, if you have talents, it probably means you're supposed to use them for whatever your purpose might be, right? I mean, what would be the point of having talents in the first place? If G-d gave me a talent for writing, I'm supposed to utilize that talent in a purposeful way, aren't I? But how do I know? How do I know I'm not wasting it? How do I know what I'm supposed to be spending my time doing? How can I sit at my computer writing little stories for fun when I should be focusing on writing stories with greater meaning? And can a person have more than one purpose? Does everyone have a distinct purpose just for them, or are most people meant to be part of a larger crowd? Is that satisfying? Does everything we do need to be done with a higher purpose in mind? Is there a place for frivolity in this world? And what if I think I'm supposed to be doing one thing, when really it's another? What then? What happens if you fail?

Whenever someone passes away, other people always comment on how that person must have fulfilled his or her purpose. So wouldn't that deter people from wanting to fulfill their own purpose in life? I've always wondered about that. Why would I want to fulfill my purpose if that is the reason for my being on this earth? Why wouldn't I want to push it off as far as possible? Unless that isn't the only point of life. Is there really such a thing as one purpose or are there many reasons for us being here? Is fulfilling your purpose part of tikun olam?

Are there any answers to these questions or are they all just things to wonder about?

Purpose

I have recently been thinking about, and become bothered by, the concept of fulfilling one's purpose. Or rather, the idea that people so often say that when someone dies, it means that person has fulfilled his/her purpose.

What about little babies or kids who die for whatever reason? Can their purpose have been so small that they needed so short a time to do it? What about people who live long lives - did they only fulfill their purpose at the end or was their whole life one big purpose? Why did they die after so much time? Why not earlier? Were they granted extra time just for kicks? Why not other people, then? Should we shy away from fulfilling any purposes so that we'll live longer?

What about purpose vs. potential. Purpose sounds like we live to accomplish something for the world. Potential seems more selfish. We're working on ourselves to develop who we are and what we're capable of. Do we use this potential to then fulfill our purpose? Can we fulfill our purpose without developing our full potential? Does a person have only one purpose in life? There are SO many people - are there that many purposes that need to be fulfilled? What about little kids who never had the chance to find out their potential? Does everyone have a potential? Do baby's who die or who are stillborn have potential?

I realize that none of you can answer these questions. Nobody can. We can speculate, yes, but we can never really know. It's just been bothering me.