If you’re wondering ‘What’s my life purpose?’, ‘How do I find my life purpose?’, ‘What’s my mission in this life?’, ‘What am I meant to be doing?’, know that you are not alone investigating your life purpose. It can be very frustrating, discouraging and overwhelming not knowing how to go about it. Finding your life purpose takes patience, self-knowledge and awareness, and commitment to your self-inquiry journey.
What is a life purpose anyway?
The purpose of life is to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
So many people think that their career IS their purpose and get lost in the fact that their career is simply another accomplishment, title or piece of their identity. Purpose is separate from your career, it is separate from how much money you make, whether you climb Mt Everest or not and separate from how many businesses you own or run.
Other people think “Life Purpose” is some higher calling, some divine purpose which they need to seek and figure out and can only be told to us by some ethereal being, or by holding a crystal while dancing naked in the forest high on D.M.T (although that could be a blast). While our purpose may be a form of higher calling, and I’m not here to discuss religious beliefs, few people today find their life purpose by going on a pilgrimage.
Here is our reality: life is finite, not infinite. We have a certain amount of time here which is completely undetermined to us. No one knows for certain how much time we have or what we are ultimately supposed to do with it. It’s like being given the world’s best and most intricate game without instructions. This does make it challenging to know where to begin, how long you have or who you should invest your limited time and energy with.
We are all born with a purpose. It is the reason why we are on this Earth. It is the thing we are meant to be doing, to accomplish; it is the gift we bring to the world, it is the light, the love and kindness we share with others. It is who we are at our core, deep inside.
Our purpose is to be our authentic self and shine our light and gifts with the world.
You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.”
Steve Maraboli
Exploring your life purpose is about finding meaning in what you do. It is that deep, true, raw passion that nothing can buy and that you could do all day long, with or without being paid for it.
It may not be one thing that once achieved, that’s it, you have ‘reached’ your purpose. It is not a one-off thing but a continuous expression of who we truly are, of our soul yearning. Being and living on purpose takes serious profound inner work, inquiry, daily practice and soulful aligned action towards what you really, really want.
When you are ‘on purpose’, you feel fulfilled, alive, connected and happy. When you are not on purpose, you feel disconnected, dissatisfied, unhappy and longing for something else.
A research study published in Psychological Science Survey found that ‘Having a purpose in life has been consistently cited as an indicator of healthy aging […] including its potential for reducing mortality risk’.
It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.”
Amit Ray
Here are 10 questions to help you investigate and find your life purpose
Meditate or center yourself by taking a few deep breaths before answering the following questions. You can meditate on each questions or you can use them as journaling prompts. Set a timer for at least 10 minutes for each question and write everything that comes up for you, without any censorship or judgement. Let it all come out.
At the end, read your answers again and you will be able to start identifying patterns, common traits or experiences, key words…Make a list of those as they are the road map to your soul purpose.
Drop from your head to your heart
Meditate, walk in nature, smell flowers, listen to the ocean, practise yoga, tai chi or other moving meditations, and cultivate a spiritual practice. It will help you quiet your mind, develop self-awareness and allow the whispers of your soul to talk to you, through your heart.
2. What brings you great joy?
3. What makes you lose track of time?
4. What do people always ask you advice about?
5. If money was no obstacle, how would you spend your time?
6. What did you like doing, as a child? Is there any connection with what you do or long for doing now?
7. If you had only 6 months left to live, what would you want to accomplish during this time?
8. What do you want your legacy to be?
9. What would your ideal day look like? What are you doing? Who are you interacting with? Where are you? How are you feeling? What are you seeing/hearing/saying? Give a lot of details.
10. What recurring ideas, thoughts and key words do often pop up in your mind?
Those are signposts along the road pointing towards your purpose. They are calling you to explore deeper, do something or go somewhere. Dig further into the concept or idea that reoccurs.
But beware of this about callings: they may not lead us where we intended to go or even where we want to go. If we choose to follow, we may have to be willing to let go of the life we already planned and accept whatever is waiting for us. And if the calling is true, though we may not have gone where we intended, we will surely end up where we need to be.”
Steve Goodier
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ReplyDeleteHii Pallavi, If you can not bear a rejection and can not accept that somebody did not reply you, you have to work on yourself before writing this stuff, because you have a great infirority complex and fear of rejection in your mind. You don't know yourself much if you get enraged and lose patience because of people around you. All this blogs are merely a collection of theories and words if you don't have all this in you.
ReplyDeleteSincerely
Your well wisher.
Anurag (the guy whom you blocked on insta and facebook because he did not reply you instantly)