How do you find your purpose in life Top Ten tips
It is unbelievable to realize that…
Only 45% of people say that they are happy or very happy with their work.
Sadly, passionate comes up in only 20% of people describing their job.
Dead end is the sentiment of at least 33% of people.
And oddly enough only 21% are eager to change their careers.
How about you? How would you answer those questions? How do you find your purpose? It doesn’t matter where you are in your career stage we must all evaluate and reevaluate our satisfaction levels. After all we only have one life to live and today is the gift that we are given to make a difference.
How about these?
Do you feel you are making a difference?
Do you feel you are enjoying what you do?
Are you challenged?
If you are wearing shoes that are two sizes too small, how would you feel? Wouldn’t you change your shoes? What is stopping you from changing your job or career if it is painful?
- Jack Canfield writes of a coaching student of his as follows
“”Follow This Example of Finding Purpose”
One of my coaching students, a successful cardiologist, was struggling to identify his purpose. I suggested another exercise, and asked him to look back over his life and answer the question, When have I felt most fulfilled?
He shared three periods in which he felt the happiest and most fulfilled.
First, he told me about a time with his grandfather when he was growing up in India.
The second was his experience of playing with his own grandchildren.
The third was a time he spent vacationing on a sailboat.
When I asked him what was common to all three of these experiences, he told me that it was the sense of freedom that he felt.
Noticing that none of his three experiences related to his profession in medicine, I asked him to tell me about his most fulfilling experiences as a doctor.
The incidences he reported were when he had donated his services for free or for a lesser fee than his partners thought he should have charged. He shared about a time when he took a much longer time than usual during an office visit to support and encourage a family who were in fear of losing their father during an impending heart surgery.”
2. Mark Manson writes in his article 7 Strange questions that help you find your life purpose.
“WHAT IS TRUE ABOUT YOU TODAY THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR 8-YEAR-OLD SELF CRY?”
When I was a child, I used to write stories. I used to sit in my room for hours by myself, writing away, about aliens, about superheroes, about great warriors, about my friends and family. Not because I wanted anyone to read it. Not because I wanted to impress my parents or teachers. But for the sheer joy of it.
And then, for some reason, I stopped. And I don’t remember why.
We all have a tendency to lose touch with what we loved as a child. Something about the social pressures of adolescence and professional pressures of young adulthood squeezes the passion out of us. We’re taught that the only reason to do something is if we’re somehow rewarded for it.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I rediscovered how much I loved writing. And it wasn’t until I started my business that I remembered how much I enjoyed building websites — something I did in my early teens, just for fun.
The funny thing though, is that if my 8-year-old self asked my 20-year-old self, “Why don’t you write anymore?” and I replied, “Because I’m not good at it,” or “Because nobody would read what I write,” or “Because you can’t make money doing that,” not only would I have been completely wrong, but that 8-year-old-boy version of me would have probably started crying.
3. Jeremy Adam Smith in Mind and Body writes, How to Find Your Purpose in Life
Listen to what other people appreciate about you
Giving thanks can help you find your purpose. But you can also find purpose in what people thank you for.
Like Kezia Willingham, Shawn Taylor had a tough childhood—and he was also drawn to working with kids who had severe behavioral problems. Unlike her, however, he often felt like the work was a dead-end. “I thought I sucked at my chosen profession,” he says. Then, one day, a girl he’d worked with five years before contacted him.
“She detailed how I helped to change her life,” says Shawn—and she asked him to walk her down the aisle when she got married. Shawn hadn’t even thought about her, in all that time. “Something clicked and I knew this was my path. No specifics, but youth work was my purpose.”
The artists, writers, and musicians I interviewed often described how appreciation from others fueled their work. Dani Burlison never lacked a sense of purpose, and she toiled for years as a writer and social-justice activist in Santa Rosa, California. But when wildfires swept through her community, Dani discovered that her strengths were needed in a new way: “I’ve found that my networking and emergency response skills have been really helpful to my community, my students, and to firefighters!”
Although there is no research that directly explores how being thanked might fuel a sense of purpose, we do know that gratitude strengthens relationships—and those are often the source of our purpose, as many of these stories suggest.
4. Tchiki Davis in Psychology Today write in her Five Steps to Finding Your Life Purpose
Find out what energizes you
It was a sunny but cool spring morning. I had just started my shift at the addiction rehab center where I worked. As usual, I went to the backyard to make sure none of the teenagers were smoking on the back roof. One of them was, so I told him go back inside. He spent the next eight hours cussing at me, right up until the moment my shift ended.
This was the day I learned that your can burn out your life purpose if you pursue it in the wrong ways — ways that deplete rather than energize you. It is not enough to know the problem you want to solve, you have to think carefully about the way that you want to solve it.
So to find your life purpose, ask yourself: What energizes you?
5. Amy Morin, LCSW, in her article; 7 Tips for Finding Your Purpose in Life in Verywell Mind writes:
Discover What You Love to Do
On the other end of the spectrum, simply thinking about what you truly love to do can help you find your purpose as well.
Do you absolutely love musical theater? Your skills might be best put to use in a way that brings live performances to children who can benefit from exposure to the arts.
Is analyzing data something that you actually find fun? Any number of groups could find that skill to be an invaluable asset.
Consider what type of skills, talents, and passions you bring to the table. Then, brainstorm how you might turn your passion into something meaningful to you
6. 3 Unexpected Ways to Find Your Life Purpose written by Shannon Kaiser shares;
That feeling that something is missing goes away when you lead a passion-filled life. The need to seek our purpose comes from a lack of passion. When you don't feel connected to your life, you lack purpose and passion.
Break Up with The "ONE"
Many of us struggle because we try to find that ONE thing that we are meant to do; but trying to find only one thing is the reason why we feel like something is missing. The notion that we have only one thing we are meant for limits us from fulfilling our greatness. Take me for example; I have six different job titles. I'm a life coach, travel writer, author, speaker, teacher, mentor, designer, and each thing I do brings me joy, but none of these are my purpose, they are my passions. So start getting in touch with your passions! When you lead a passionate life you are living your life on purpose.
Let go of thinking there is only one purpose for you and embrace the idea that our purpose in life is to love life fully by putting ourselves into our life! This means we jump in and try new things; we stop resisting the unknown and we fully engage in what is happening right here, where we are. To lead a purposeful life, follow your passions. When we live a passion-filled life we are living on purpose, and that is the purpose of life.
That feeling that something is missing goes away when you lead a passion-filled life. The need to seek our purpose comes from a lack of passion. When you don't feel connected to your life, you lack purpose and passion. To fix this emptiness simply add more passion. To boil it down, remember this simple equation:
Passion + Daily Action = Purposeful Life
Consider that the real purpose of anyone's life is to be fully involved in living. Try to be present for the journey and fully embrace it. Soon you will be oozing with passion, and you will feel so purposeful and fulfilled you will wonder how you lived life without it. Enjoy the journey into your own awesome life.
7. Success Magazine had What Is My Purpose in Life? By Simon T. Bailey who writes;
Develop High-Impact Habits
One of the most crucial things you can do to live on purpose is to develop high-impact habits. These are the behaviors and actions that move you farthest and fastest in the direction of your heart’s desire. High-impact activities accelerate the process of unleashing your purpose. On the flip side, low-impact habits drain your energy, your enthusiasm and your efforts, and they delay and prevent you from finding your purpose.
Develop a habit of being a steward of your time and energy. What you do with these two resources will determine the outcome of your life. Time is our most precious asset, and yet we tend to let it slip away on activities that don’t move us forward. How much time do you spend watching TV, answering emails and surfing the internet? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve wasted far too much time on those three things, and all it is, is noise.
I remind myself daily that if I’m going to live my purpose and reach my goals, I can’t let these low-impact activities consume my day. This habit has transformed my life, and I want you to try it: Guard your energy and protect your spirit during what I call the “hour of power.” Every morning, devote 20 minutes to meditation, 20 minutes to exercise and 20 minutes to reading aloud.
We live in an electronic world that moves at the speed of light, and we’ve forgotten how to focus. This morning ritual will open your mind, heart and spirit to your purpose like no other. Meditating centers your energy and intention on how your day will unfold. Exercising invigorates your body and creates momentum. Reading focuses your mind, and reading aloud expands your vocabulary and increases your confidence.
8. MeiMei Fox writes in Forbes Six Ways To Discover Your Life Purpose;
Treat Your Life as a Daring Adventure
There is no substitute for living your life with curiosity. Get out there and see the world. Visit other countries if you can. Ask your friends to have you over to their offices for lunch so that you can look around the place, discuss with people what they’re up to, and see their company in action. Observe. Inquire. Take notes.
Always be asking yourself, “What inspires me? What makes my heart sing?” If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice a trill of hope, a shiver up your spine, a way your eyes light up, a quickening of breath and energy that signifies when you discover something that aligns with your purpose.
I feel strongly that each of us is born into this life with several potential paths to personal and career fulfillment. There may not be any “one” job that is just perfect for you. But there are probably many careers in several different areas of interest that will make you feel like you’re on fire. Like you want to get up and race out the door to work in the morning (or, in my case, stay at home in your PJs and snuggle up to the computer keyboard).
You can find work that has meaning to you. And figuring out your purpose is the first step.
9. World famous coach, author and motivational speaker Brian Tracy in his Top 11 Essential Tips for Living a Successful Life pens this;
Take responsibility for your life.
“The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life.”
“The more you like yourself, the better you perform in everything that you do.”
“Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the high road to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.”
A lot of the tips in this article are based in taking full responsibility for your own life. When you do that you will start doing many of these things naturally like making decisions, putting in hard work and really trying to keep your focus in the right place.
When you decide to take responsibility for your life and doing what you know deep down is right – for example, going to gym instead of lying on the couch eating potato chips – you increase your esteem of yourself. You like yourself more and more as your self-esteem goes up.
When your self-esteem goes up you feel more worthy of any success and you are less likely to self-sabotage in subtle and not so subtle ways. This is crucial and ties back to tip # 1. You tend to behave in alignment with your own self-image.
Taking responsibility for your own life and doing the right thing are not the only things you can do to increase your self-esteem and success. Another powerful tip is to like/love other people. Why? Because how you view, judge and think about people is usually how you view, judge and think about yourself.
This may sound a bit weird. But try it out for a week or two and see how it affects your view of yourself and your life. You may be surprised.
- Entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker Jim Rohn sums up for us in his ; The Result of Your Life Is Determined by a Few Simple Disciplines
Being Successful Is a Personal Choice
It is easy to achieve success and happiness. And it is easy not to achieve them.
The final result of your life will be determined by whether you made too many errors in judgment, repeated every day, or whether you dedicated your life to a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
The discipline of strengthening and broadening your philosophy.
The discipline of developing a better attitude.
The discipline of engaging in more intense and consistent activity that will lead to the achievement of greater results.
The discipline of studying your results in order to anticipate the future more objectively. The discipline of living life more fully and investing all of your experiences in your better future.
These are the challenges to which you must apply your talent and your intensity with a sense of urgency and unshakeable resolve.
May the pieces to your life puzzle come together smoothly, and may you enjoy the picture of that finished masterpiece as a result of your unwavering commitment to mastering the basics.
There is no excuse not to live your life to the fullest and get the most out of it – you are in charge!
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