Fulfilling one's purpose

One of my activities is to participate in a special government process. This is a CISM debriefing of National Guardsman who have returned from a deployment.
I once worked with a unit that had been deployed for a year in a "quieter" part of the world. They were still active duty, mind you, just not in the heat of things like they would be in Iraq or Afghanistan. Initially I thought this would indicate a "cakewalk". "Great, no big issues to work through." I thought this would indicate we would just have to go through our process and go home with no worries. However, the day proved me wrong. Many of these guardsman were furious. The reason was simple, they didn't feel they had fulfilled their purpose.
They felt their first duty was to their state. In the previous year their state had been hit over and over with natural disasters. They felt they should be home to take care of their state but instead they were abroad, "wasting time". As a second consideration they realize their training as soldiers and as such felt that if they had to be deployed then their duty was with their comrades in Iraq or Afghanistan. However, they were sent to a "quiet" place where they felt they were wasting their abilities, training and talents.
I realized the brunt of a lesson I thought I had already learned that day. We are designed for a purpose. When God created us and placed us in our mother's womb he had a plan for our life that would give us a future and a hope. When we operate in contrast to that plan we find ourselves miserable and wasted.

Hey maybe I should get paid the big bucks. I have the answer to the problems of every unhappy person in the world. It is quite simple really. It is this, "Contentment=following God's plan."