How to Find Your Purpose

Living lives that have purpose, passion, and legacy give guidance and meaning to the path that we travel. All human beings at one time or another will ask themselves what their purpose is and more importantly, are they living it?

Naturally for all of us traveling this life path will encounter struggles, challenges, or even burn out which can create the stress and soul searching of does my life matter? Am I contributing value to others and to the planet? What is my purpose? And how can I live it more fully?

You’re not alone. This is a common path and natural questions.

To help you find or rediscover your purpose, here are a few considerations:

1. What is my purpose? To discover what your life purpose is, consider these two questions:

a. What brings me joy?

b. When do I feel the most alive?

Your purpose will be rooted in what brings you joy, passion, love, and aliveness.

“Do not ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive and do that. What the world needs are people who have come alive.” – Unknown.

Purpose is unique to the person. For some it may mean painting or drawing or gardening and for others it may mean soup kitchens or trips to Africa to build water wells. One is not better than the other – just unique to what one’s soul feels drawn to do.

2. “Your purpose will be found in service.” – Wayne Dyer. For all of us, our purpose and passion will be rooted in some form of service. That may be with the children in your home, your clients, animals, building homes, etc. As Parker Palmer teaches, “Where your joy meets the need of humanity is where your calling is found.” Where your joy and service intersect or meet is a key to living your purpose. You will know it based on how you feel in your heart.

3. Purpose will be based on your values and values can be lived everyday. Oftentimes when we feel that we’re not in alignment with our purpose we either may have too grand of expectations of what purpose means or simply too busy with “stuff” that doesn’t align with our heart, soul, and joy. Examples of governing values would be: service, kindness, laughter, joy, art, growth, learning, fun, etc. When we realize that our purpose is really anchored to certain values, we realize those values can be lived and expressed everyday and in every situation. For instance, no matter where you go or who you’re with, you could always be focused on service or kindness or learning to see the art/beauty in everything or always choosing to learn something.

4. Give yourself time to hear your heart’s voice. Taking time to read, meditate, journal, or walk in nature are all sure bets to creating the quiet time to hear your heart. Ask of it, what is my purpose? What brings me joy? We likely already know that doing these activities will bring us insight, direction, and peace – it’s just taking time to do them. To apply this knowledge so we will receive what we’re seeking.

5. Live your legacy NOW. Oftentimes we may think that living our purpose or living our legacy is in some future time, some grand act, or “later” when we have more time, make more money, or reach a certain age. I invite you to challenge that thinking and to see more of your purpose, your key values, your unique desires as your gifts to share now in the present.