This isn’t a ‘find your life purpose in 20 minutes’ article. I just don’t believe that’s possible.
While I personally know that your life purpose can occur to you in a divine instant, I don’t believe that there is any set formula that will be sufficient in taking you through such an important discovery, step by step, with a guaranteed flashing ‘this is your life purpose’ neon sign result at the end.
And this article is no different.
I can’t make your life purpose obvious to you with a set of written instructions but with the following tips I can help you expand your thinking and open your heart and mind so you have a better chance of discovering the warm safe, place where your true passion has been waiting for you all along.
Have fun with this. Don’t get caught up with having to find your purpose while doing these exercises. It’s easy to feel disheartened and ‘purposeless’ when you don’t get the flash of inspiration you were hoping for and assume that there is going to be nothing for you (it’s definitely there, I promise) but as long as you are willing to be a little vulnerable, play a little and open up to new possibilities there is every chance that you will experience a similar ‘out of the blue’ discovery to the one I had when I found my life purpose.
Your life’s purpose will present to you when you are ready for it so just enjoy making the space for it with these simple tips:
Being Versus Doing
Who do you want to be when you are living your life purpose?
Instead of focusing on the ‘doing’, consider who it is most important for you to ‘be’ in your heart and soul.
What about the goals you have in life? Do they align with who you want to be?
Are you chasing goals that are inconsistent with your core values? Is there a passion or purpose that would inspire you to set goals that fully align with your values and support you in being exactly who you want to be?
Regress
What did you love to do as a child?
Think about the years between 5 and 12 years old and try to remember what games you most enjoyed, what hobbies you had and what you would do on your own in your room to pass the time.
I used to love to create and file paper work and pretend I had my own business. It doesn’t surprise me at all to find myself doing it for real 25 years later, although it took me some soul searching to get here.
Get Feedback
Talk to the people close to you and find out what they see you doing.
Keep an open mind and don’t be too quick to dismiss the ideas your family and friends offer. Notice if there is a common theme running through their suggestions and ask questions about why they see you doing certain things.
Another way of getting feedback indirectly is to notice what people compliment you on. Do your friends think you’re a great cook? Do you always manage to make the rooms in your house look like they’re straight out of a Home and Garden magazine?
Your life purpose might be in some of those skills that you take for granted but others notice.
Remove Your Limits
Don’t discount anything at this point.
Forget the practicalities, the logistics or what you think your family and friends will think. Just let everything come through because when you discover exactly what your true purpose is none of that will matter and nothing will stop you following your heart.
For each idea that comes to you, imagine how it will feel to follow that passion and purpose. If it feels good, keep it, no matter how irrational it might seem on first thought.
What Would You Do
If you were given a full week off work, along with every resource you needed to keep your life running (house cleaner, nanny, gardener, driver, personal assistant), what would you spend your week doing? What, without all the ‘other stuff’ to do, would you then consider the best use of your time?
Would you volunteer somewhere, get started on writing that book you have in your head or spend every day enjoying getting your hands dirty in the garden?
Whatever it is that you would use the luxury of excess time to do, it might just be part of your life purpose.
Experience
What have you experienced or endured that you feel passionate or incensed about?
Look at the unique course of your life and see if there is anything in there that might have been a clue towards finding your life purpose.
Is there a message you want to share with others? Is there something that you want to empower others in or a cause you feel passionate about fighting for?
For me, my passion for coaching came from wanting to support and empower others after discovering first hand how incredibly fulfilling life can be once we realise our own power and the choices we can make which we so often default on.
Lose Yourself
What do you love to do?
What activities do you find yourself participating in and completely losing track of time? What hobbies do you make time for? What do you tend to busy yourself with when you are actively relaxing?
Losing yourself in something means that it engages you completely both in heart and mind. Consider whether you can take this passion into the wide world as part of your life purpose.
What Does Your Mind Notice
When you are dealing with people, watching TV, reading books, listening to music, what do you notice that other people might miss?
Do you always notice the grammar or spelling errors in the books your read? Are you a stickler for correct language? Do you notice when people could do with some help styling themselves or choosing the right colours to wear?
The little things you notice in every day life can give you ideas about what’s interesting and important to you.
Avoid Desperation
If you’ve just lost your job, have no money and are about to get kicked out of your home it’s probably not the time to explore what your passion in life is.
While some people have found their life purpose in times of desperation almost anything would seem appealing at this point and you could end up chasing something that is more tuned to fixing your monetary and status problems rather than engaging your true life passion.
By all means explore and use the time to soul search but wait until you get your feet back on the ground before making any major decisions that might be influenced by scarcity rather than genuine passion.
Mind Map
While I developed a slight aversion to mind maps as a result of over use in the corporate arena I do think they are an excellent tool for encouraging wider thinking about a topic.
Take a piece of paper and start in the middle with ‘Life Purpose’ as your first point. Then begin to create branches off the central point with ideas you’ve already had about your passions and purpose. Add skills, resources, experiences and so forth.
As you do this, you will come up with other ideas that branch off one point, into other points. Again, go with what comes to you and don’t hold back anything that seems silly, illogical, or even pointless at first glance. You might just land upon the one point that strikes an excitement in you that’s so compelling that you just have to follow that feeling.
One Line Life Mission
Now, taking everything you discovered with the 10 tips above, try and write your one line life mission. Keep playing with it until it feels absolutely perfect and feels strong enough to encapsulate a personal mission statement that communicates exactly what your life purpose is about and how you will execute it in your unique way.
Once you have something that feels right, true and inspirational write, paint or print it out so you can frame it and hang it somewhere that you will see it each day and be constantly reminded of what it is you most want to pursue.
One thing to be aware of is that your personal mission statement will likely change over the years as you get clearer on your life purpose based on new experiences, information and discoveries so review it every year (a better idea than setting New Years resolutions) and re write your one line life mission if any of the core elements have changed.
Join the Conversation