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Why do we live?

There is no reason for life. However, the human mind is biased towards constantly seeking a purpose for things, understanding the world by inventing chains of consequences. It is mentally uncomfortable to admit there is no reason for life, but that is no reason to invent one.

On the contrary, there is freedom, and therefore responsibility, in how one leads one's life—especially when one is privileged by providence in terms of personal gifts and favorable social circumstances.

The right question to ask is therefore not why I live, but what I am doing with my life?
In Stoic terms, this can be expressed as: one does not choose one's fate, but one chooses how to face it.

Social ambition is not a satisfying answer

The most common error is to neglect the question of what to do with one's life, and to answer it by simply following our instinct for social ambition (see the question 'What is a human being?'). The manifestation of social success generally takes the form of one or more of the three vain desires mentioned by Epicurus: money, power, and honors.
This actually works quite poorly, first because, as Epicurus noted, these pleasures can never be satisfied: one always needs more. Second, the pursuit of them leads to a failure to master the two negative instincts inherited from our genetics.
First, social ambition leads to the intense practice of generalized nepotism, which induces social violence. Even an individual who succeeds then lives in an environment of stress and frustration due to the permanent threat inherent in the volatility of alliance games. This is what Buddhists warn against when they invite us to seek liberation from the ego.
Second, social ambition associated with Epicurus's vain desires leads to an intensification of cognitive dissonance resolution through self-deception, and the uncritical adoption of beliefs from the social groups one seeks to belong to. The result is a distancing from reality, and glaring contradictions that gradually trap the individual in denial and discomfort.

Deepen

Refer to the questions 'What is a human being?', then 'How to succeed in life?' and 'What must one do to be a good person?'