How To Find Your Life's Purpose

Our social and economic climates are going through great states of change these days. When such huge shifts happen, especially when they seem to be happening globally, we as a society can feel a strong and collective sense of unease. Most human beings tend to resist change, but we live in a world where everything does change constantly, so this creates a lot of conflict. The trick, of course, is to make sure we as individuals are not going through constant inner conflict, so we don't project this feeling onto the people around us; our feelings are contagious, no matter what they are. So let's start by asking the big question: What is Your Life's Purpose?

This is an extremely profound question. We're not just talking about your career or your goals for marriage and children, but about the reason why you're on this earth, and what your part is in contributing to it positively. Perhaps you don't believe life is about individual contributions to the greater good, or perhaps this concept is completely obvious to you. Either way, if you've ever had a sense of dissatisfaction that you're not doing what you were meant to do, or that you're not as happy in your life as you feel you should be, you can benefit from these exercises.

How To Find Your Life's Purpose

A Systematic Approach

1. Make a list of people you admire and the reasons you admire them. These could be people like John Lennon, for having spoken his mind politically, or people like Mother Theresa, for her great compassion and kindness towards others. Write down as many names and reasons you can think of, and then look at your list. Those reasons you chose are things that resonate with you - things you either identify within your personality or things you'd like to be able to incorporate in your own life. Recognizing these things in others will remind you what actions help you in achieving your purpose.

2. Make a list of things you like to do for fun - things you love to do, which cause you no stress and only bring you enjoyment and fulfillment. Do you volunteer for things? Sports or hobbies would also be on this list. Imagine you never had to worry about money - what would you do with your time? What are your passions in life?

3. Make a list of your natural talents - things that are part of your make-up that you don't have to think about to achieve. This could be something like having a natural talent for drawing, being able to easily teach others, being very organized, being a nurturer, or being great with groups of people. These natural talents play a large part in your life's purpose - using our inherent abilities, allows us to direct our energies to our purpose instead of using them up on the process.

4. Look at these 3 lists, and spend 10 minutes doing something from one of them. Help someone, spend 10 minutes singing, or organize your closet. How did you feel during and afterward? Knowing and being able to feel a sense of purpose in what you do is a wonderful feeling. If you choose to do something a little scary that's on your list - even better! Feel the fear and do it anyway - the sense of accomplishment you'll experience will do wonders for your sense of self and your mood. You'll then be able to spread these positive emotions to others. See how it works?

5. Refer back to these lists daily. Do the decisions and choices you make daily fit in with your lists of people, passions, and natural talents? When you're doing something that doesn't fit, make a note of how this makes you feel - this is where inner conflict is born.

6. Don't get overwhelmed by not being where you want to be in the future. The key is to start right now and incorporate these qualities into your daily life. The future will take care of itself, your job is to be active in the present, and to live as you want to be!