MagsJy,
I love the blues in your avatar.
I don’t think that there could ever be ONLY one answer to your question as we are individuals with our own particular lives. There cannot either be ONLY one goal.
I’ve read some school of thought which says that our goal is to become like gods.
Some might say, to which I agree, that it is to guard and perpetuate our own species along with that of all other species. We haven’t been doing the greatest job here - sometimes we fail and sometimes we are continuing to exceed.
Some might say that it is to grow and to learn everything there is to learn about our universe, both the universe within and the outer universe. (I think that goes towards “to become like gods”.) That is not really speaking heresy ~~ for those who are religious. That may simply mean coming to full total consciousness ~~ not that that is totally possible ~~ like the pure light energy (for lack of a better expression) which created the universe.
Then there is the goal in which we seek to discover what our goal[s] are and which ones make sense and are capable of furthering all species.
…et cetera… There are as many different goals to reach for as there are different fish in the sea.
The so-called meaning of life is like the goal perception. One size DOES NOT FIT ALL.
Could there actually BE meaning to life without the observer who ponders it, interprets it, and experiences it?
Sometimes our lives, our existences ~ which IS life flowing through us ~ make great sense. When it does not, it is only because, obviously, we cannot make sense of it and we struggle to. The more we struggle, the less it makes sense.
I once wrote a poem when a part of my life was not making sense. The clarify only came to me as I watched a little seagull body surf. The ocean was pushing him into these rocks. Back and forth, flowing and ebbing he went. Did it bother him at all? No, he seemed to be so in tune with it all. Flowing and ebbing, flowing and ebbing, he rode those waves. I wonder what it feels like to a seagull who rides the waves? lol I watched him and by the time he flew away, I understood.
Life made sense to him.