The purpose of consciousness is to optimize the fulfillment of all our drives.
The drives are all over the place. E.g., there is a drive to just lie down flat “and enjoy life” (pure nothing to do), and there is another which want us to do “great deeds” “and thereby enjoy life”. We want to make others happy, but we want to win. Consciousness is there to organize these various drives in a whole. So, e.g., “do good work” and then just loll around (“rest”, “recreation”) — this makes both the drives satisfied with your leadership.
Adventures 