What Should You Know about Finding Life Purpose?
Are you clear about why you’re here? Finding life purpose and direction can help you to live with greater focus and clarity. What’s more, success and happiness flow easier when you know your purpose in life!
If you experienced having woken up one day feeling that there is something missing in your life, then you are at the start of your journey to finding life purpose.
You’ll recognize this search: it always begins with a faint longing and then steadily grows to a larger dissatisfaction.
If you are like most people, you externalize this and start thinking about changing jobs, homes or life-partners.
Society conventionally labels this as a midlife crisis, but it really reaches much more deeply within you.
Identifying the meaning of your life can seem difficult, but it’s actually not. There are precise steps to take and specific tools to use; we’ll talk about these in a moment.
Finding Life Purpose: Beyond Physical & Emotional Survival
When you are younger, you tend to concentrate on physical survival and security such as building a career to provide for you and your family.Emotional survival (or emotional health) is maintained through social connections, a committed relationship and building a family.
But finding purpose in life is beyond physical and emotional survival. It is finding that special “something” that fires you from the inside out with passion!
When passion drives you, you become BIG on the inside. You are driven by a sense of self-worth and self-fulfillment and you inspire others with your enthusiasm and energy! Whatever you are doing becomes your personal legacy to the world, to better the lives of others and to feel that your life truly makes a difference.
You find work that is a direct expression of your purpose, and start to experience the success, fulfillment, and power of doing precisely what you’ve been meant to do. You lead a meaningful, purpose-driven life.
Finding Life Purpose: How do You Go about Discovering It?
Have you ever asked yourself before, “Who am I?”, “What am I meant to do with my life?”, “What is my life purpose?”
You are not alone!
More and more people from all walks of life feel that something important is missing from their life, regardless of how many possessions they have accumulated or how “successful” they are. Believe it or not, each of us has a life purpose. We are all born with specific gifts and meant to do the most of them.
Unfortunately, most people have lost touch with the part of themselves that knows all these. They have forgotten this fundamental knowledge of themselves. In the absence of purpose, life becomes a roundabout path of frustration, trial and error.
But since this knowledge is buried deep within you, it can be discovered and reclaimed! Once you find it, you can start to create a life of joy, fulfillment, and meaning – all keys to happiness.
The steps to finding life purpose are simple, but not always easy. You may need to overcome your own reluctance to learn your purpose. You may need to overcome your fears and your skepticism. But if you stay engaged in the process, you will find your purpose.
There are various exercises to help you in finding purpose in life, most of which require a piece of paper, a pen and time when you can be alone. Below is a short exercise for you.
Finding Life Purpose Exercise
Before you begin, meditate or relax 10-15 minutes or, at the very least, do several rounds of deep breathing. This reduces your mind chatter and allows you to access the deep, knowing parts of yourself.
Here are five questions to answer:
- Use five adjectives to define success in life. Why are these important to you?
- If you could relive your life as another person, who would it be and why?
- You are at the end of your life. Looking back, list three things you wished you had accomplished. Is there a common thread running through these things?
- From the same perspective, what are three things you are glad you had accomplished and are proud of?
- Someone has written a book on you. What would be the title of this book? How would they describe your life, in five sentences or less, for the blurb on the back cover of the book?
Finding Life Purpose Requires…
Emotional intelligence: be kind to yourself. Do not expect to find your life purpose the first time you attempt this exercise. Your initial answers may be general and may not make much sense to you at first. Avoid judging or editing your answers. Write down whatever it is that comes to your mind.
You will know when you are on the right track when the answers feel emotionally right to you, as if something has landed inside your body. When you finally remember your life purpose, tears may fill up your eyes – that’s how you’ll know that you that you are on the right track!
The next steps are about defining your personal legacy, then setting the right goals and actions to bring it to life.
Download My Personal Legacy, then print it out and take your time to fill in this finding life purpose tool. You will be amazed at the tremendous power and clarity you will feel!
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Deborah
