What is the meaning of "an executed purpose"

What does it mean by "an executed purpose" in this context?

So far as you are wholly concentrated on bringing about a certain result, clearly the quicker and easier it is brought about the better. Your resolve to secure a sufficiency of food for yourself and your family will induce you to spend weary days in tilling the ground and tending livestock; but if Nature provided food and meat in abundance ready for the table, you would thank Nature for sparing you much labor and consider yourself so much the better off. An executed purpose, in short, is a transaction in which the time and energy spent on the execution are balanced against the resulting assets, and the ideal case is one in which the former approximates to zero and the latter to infinity. Purpose, then, justifies the efforts it exacts only conditionally, by their fruits.

Questions) An executed purpose, in short, is a transaction in which the time and energy spent on the execution are balanced against the resulting assets.

What does it mean by "an executed purpose?" My first guess is the purpose of an execution is a transaction. That is, the aim of an execution is a transaction.

The second guess is the execution of a purpose is a transaction. That is, That people execute a purpose is a transaction is a transaction.

Plus, is "an executed purpose" ambiguous, awkward or not clear to even native speakers?

Solution 1:

An "executed purpose" refers to a task you do to accomplish a certain goal.

"..you are wholly concentrated on bringing about a certain result, clearly the quicker and easier it is brought about the better.."

This part not only describes the "executed purpose" at its core, but also explains the concept of the "transaction" mentioned in the text.

You essentially weigh the time and energy spent on accomplishing a task against the potential rewards of said task. A perfect/ideal "executed purpose" would bring about 100% of the "purpose" or "reward" with 0% of the work and energy spent to get it.

Example:

"Your resolve to secure a sufficiency of food for yourself and your family will induce you to spend weary days in tilling the ground and tending livestock.."

• The "purpose" is the food to feed yourself/your family.

• The "execution" of it is the work spent on getting the food ("weary days in tilling the ground and tending livestock").

For reference:

"executed" from the Cambridge Dictionary

• to do or perform something, especially in a planned way

"purpose" from the Cambridge Dictionary

• an intention or aim; a reason for doing something or for allowing something to happen: