In a previous article, I wrote about the importance and benefits obtainable if you guide your life, choices and actions based on your life purpose, which can be a single one or many by the way! The problem is that we often don’t know or are not aware of what is our purpose. For this reason, in today’s article, I suggest a few considerations that may help you to become aware of which purposes govern your life.
To start with, I would like to make clear that the reflexions I propose here are just the starting point for you to think about the subject, if you haven’t already done so, but they are in no way the definite solution towards becoming aware of your life purpose.
This is a path that involves a lot of self-knowledge, which is something that only you can decide on and will accompany you throughout your life. Moreover, as you mature, you will notice that awareness, as well as the scope and the strength of your purposes, will change. A purpose that had more importance at a certain stage in your life can matter less at another phase and so on.
As in the previous article, I used the studies of two George Mason University researchers, Patrick E. McKnight and Todd B. Kashdan, as a backdrop to draw up the following questions. Let’s go:
The following exercise is simple. Find a place where you can be alone, with no interruptions and distractions, and answer the following questions. It’s important to write down the answers so that at the end, you can reflect on them and identify patterns, similarities and elaborate better on your life purpose.
Notebook and pen (Photo: Freddy Castro / Unsplash)
Do not, incidentally, go out of your way too much to try to find “the” purpose. It’s not always a single one and don’t be surprised or amazed to find there is more than one, ok? Moving on to the questions:
Reading the answers (Photo: Mariana Vusiastytka / Unsplash)
After you answer these questions, go through your answers and try to identify patterns and similarities. Is anything repeated? Things that make more sense to you? Some that define you as a person and that you would like to accomplish throughout your life?
Based on those considerations, make a draft of your life purpose on a sheet of paper and following that, apply the two tests below to refine your draft.
Remember that purpose must be something that defines your life objectives and provides you with personal meaning. When you read the draft you wrote, can you identify these two elements in it or is something missing? If there is, go back to the previous reflexions/considerations and try to identify what was missing. When your draft on “purpose” has gone through this first test, move on to the second.
Think about your daily life and ask yourself: do I feel that my behaviour and decisions are guided, most of the time, by what I have written here? Think about critical situations, decisive moments in your life and see if the answer is “yes” most of the time.
If this happens in many different areas, such as personal, financial, professional and spiritual, for example, it’s a sign that your purpose has far reach in your life. On the other hand, if you feel that it very frequently guides your behaviour and decisions, it means that it’s a much stronger purpose.
If both happen, there is a great chance that your draft contains a real central and important purpose. If on the other hand you think something is missing, go back to the first answers and try to identify what you think must be added to your definition of purpose, until you feel confident that the definition of your life purpose has passed these two simple tests with flying colours.
As I said before, this is just the beginning of a reflexion about your life purpose. I hope to have helped to open your heart and mind to a theme which I hold very dear. To spend most of your life guided by your purposes is equal to good quality, health, satisfaction, achievement and success. I can honestly no longer see myself living any other way. How about you?
Cover photo credit – Woman thinking (Photo: Monkeybusinessimages / iStock)
