How To Find Purpose In Your Life

To find purpose in your life is to be able to answer the question, 'what's the point?' This is one of the most important questions that your psyche needs a good answer for. Without one it can lead one to a life of feeling lost and directionless and ultimately depressed. The good news is that there are many ways to find your purpose in life. All you have to do is take the time to understand what you're living for.

Transcript

To find purpose in life is to be able to answer the question,

What's the point?

This is one of the most important questions that your psyche needs a good answer for.

Without one,

It can lead to a life of feeling lost and directionless and ultimately depressed.

The good news is that there are many ways to find your purpose in life.

All you have to do is take the time to understand what you're living for.

As a former career coach,

I've worked with so many clients who have wasted their time searching for their purpose out there in the world.

As long as they're looking out there,

They'll never find it.

And that's because the answer lies within.

Following a process of self-discovery,

I would lead them to understand who they are at their core.

Their talents,

Their interests,

Their values,

Their ideal workplace environment,

And so on.

Because really what it comes down to is this idea that we all have a purpose in life.

We all have a dharma.

This is the bigger picture umbrella version of our purpose which filters down into a career,

Into a job,

And then ultimately into a way of life that supports this purpose.

And ultimately it becomes about how to live a happy and healthy life because that will ultimately help one fulfill their purpose.

So let me give you a few examples based on some of the people that I've worked with so far.

Most recently I was working with a teacher who was very unhappy as a teacher.

He wasn't designed for this role.

This wasn't what he felt like he was born to do.

It just was not aligned with who he was at his core.

And as a result he was miserable.

He dreaded going into work and it had been like this for years.

He was lost.

He was directionless.

He picked up a lot of unhealthy habits.

He wasn't sleeping well,

Wasn't eating well,

Wasn't just taking care of himself.

Because he couldn't answer that question what's the point?

And I'm sure you've been there at some point in your life and maybe you're there right now.

I know that I've been there.

So I took him through this self-discovery process including a questionnaire designed to understand what is he like,

What is he interested in,

What is he good at,

What is he disliked,

What is he not like to do,

What is draining,

What is stressful,

And so on and so forth to start to get a picture for who this person is.

And the funny thing is,

Is that these are really difficult questions for any adult to answer.

If you grew up in Western society,

The US or Europe,

These are common occurrences,

You end up losing track and losing sight of who you are.

Once you've been in this corporate environment,

This matrix reality,

Whatever you want to call it,

The societal conditioning that gets us all,

We start to forget who we are.

The questions just aren't being asked of us during school,

During college,

During the jobs that we get.

It's not about that.

This world came came of age through the Industrial Revolution where everything became standardized and it was not about the individual,

It was not about personalizing a life for this person.

No,

It was about pegging people into jobs,

Roles,

Standardized roles,

Originally in manufacturing plants where they were making shoes and glassware and whatever else was necessary for society at that stage.

And we continued on with our schooling modeling this process that also became very standardized and on into college and on into choosing a job,

Choosing one of these jobs,

One of these set number of commonly available jobs that you can make a living at.

And so this is this is how it happens.

And in this process of self-discovery,

This client started to understand who he is through some additional exercises to get clear on who he is and what his accomplishments were,

We started to round out a picture and I started to understand that he had some patterns here that I was able to reflect back to him.

Patterns of creativity,

Of being interested in cultural stories and dynamics and the history of a culture.

In addition to wanting to think strategically and work in a way that would be flexible.

So over time we started working with all the different clues that were emerging and we came up with this picture of someone who could fit well into a copywriting role.

And so that's the direction that we took and he's now in the process of becoming a copywriter.

But guys this isn't what's important.

It's not important that we were able to help this person understand how to switch from being a teacher to something else.

It wasn't about that.

This was about a transformational journey that he got to go on.

A transformational journey to understand who he is and what his life is supposed to be about.

And in the process rekindling his passion and enthusiasm for life because he's now starting to understand that his life has meaning as an individual.

He's starting to to understand that he's here for a particular reason and that is to express his unique talents and gifts and to channel his passions and his enthusiasm for these different domains in life.

Writing was really big for for my client.

He used to work in Hollywood as an actor for about 20 years having some success.

One of the pinnacles was writing a screenplay.

They got the attention of an an Oscar-winning director.

So there have been signs throughout his life of what his passions and his talents are.

We just had to put them together and find a pattern.

And guys that was it.

That's that's what it took.

He's still in the process of landing a job as a copywriter and yet his life is transformed forever.

He is gone from feeling miserable,

Low energy,

Anxious,

Depressed,

Stressed,

All the common ailments that people suffer from when they lack this sense of direction.

And now he's filled with enthusiasm,

With excitement,

With an interest in healthy habits to pick up,

Of taking care of his family,

Taking care of himself,

Finding balance in his schedule,

And ultimately living the good life.

He's got dreams to live abroad in Brazil and it's it's really beautiful.

This passion,

This fire,

This life and liveliness it didn't exist when we started this whole thing.

It just wasn't there because of the question,

What's the point?

When you can't answer that question you're dead in the water.

The engine is not running.

And guys I've been there.

I used to work in a couple different corporate careers that were so misaligned that I was miserable.

I couldn't answer the question what's the point.

So I picked up bad habits.

I would drink too much,

Smoke too much,

Party too much,

Whatever it was I was just looking for an outlet.

I just needed a way to escape the misery of living this life that didn't make sense to me.

It wasn't aligned with who I am and what I am here to offer the world.

It wasn't making my heart sing.

And so I didn't care about anything else.

I didn't care to take care of myself.

It wasn't important because I was unhappy.

And so this was the journey that I took as well to understand who I am at my core and to make life work for me.

So that's it.

That's the secret to finding your purpose in life.

It is to understand who you are at your core and then starting to move in the direction of a life that is in alignment with that.

You don't need to find your dream career to find your purpose,

To find your enthusiasm,

To find your passion which will then lead to the wellness and happiness that will support that.

It's not important.

Like I said,

My client is not a copywriter yet.

But if you were to talk to him today,

He might as well be because he's already on the path to living a life of purpose.

Purpose meaning that he knows why he's here.

He knows what he is meant to do and how to live and how to express himself.

He is here to express his creativity.

He is here to use his talent for writing.

He is here to live a dynamic life abroad.

He's here to create so many beautiful things and live a beautiful life because he now understands that that's possible.

So guys,

That's really what finding purpose is all about is to answer the question what's the point.

Now he knows what's the point.

It's to live this life that he was designed for.

To fulfill his Dharma in life.

Dharma being this idea again that we're all born,

Our soul is incarnated with some sort of overarching purpose and it has to do with who we are.

It's not easy to discover our Dharma.

It's sort of a mysterious thing but the clues are all over the place.

The clues are found in our talents,

In our interests,

In our values,

In our inclinations to go in this direction or that direction.

Our intuition is guiding us the entire time to discover and find and fulfill our Dharma.

So guys,

Finding your purpose in life is much easier than you think.

It's not out there.

You will not find it out there in a book.

You will not find it by looking over pages of different career choices.

You're not gonna find it in talking to a bunch of different companies that you want to interview for.

It's not out there.

It's within you.

And yes it does help to work with somebody that can help draw it out of you because it's not easy to do on your own.

I got lucky.

I had a strong intuition since I was 21 years old about wanting to become a coach.

There was something about guiding people,

Facilitating transformation,

Helping people achieve their goals and overcome their obstacles that really spoke to me.

Except I didn't believe that that was actually possible.

So it took 13 years of banging my head against the wall doing work that was not expressing these traits for me to finally circle back to that original knowing,

That intuition,

Which many of us have.

It's there.

It's just often buried.

And yes I was lucky to have an awareness of this intuition.

Some people may have that,

Some people may not.

So if you can,

Find somebody to work with that will help draw this out of you.

Because this is why we find ourselves so stuck.

We're going around in life and we're just not getting reflected back to us the key elements that will help us find our way.

Our society is not designed to help us answer the question,

What's the point largely society says that's not important what the point of your life is.

You need to get a job,

Make a living,

Start a family,

Settle down and so on.

Be a good member of society.

And of course this is why so many people are unhappy in the Western world.

So it's not difficult to find your purpose.

It just requires a process of self-discovery to understand who you are,

What you're all about so you can understand how to live your life,

What will give your life meaning and purpose.

If you love nature and you're living in a big city you are not living in alignment with your nature.

If you're a very creative person and you're working as an accountant and you're not painting on the side or playing guitar or whatever you're not living in alignment with your purpose.

And if you are not living in alignment with your purpose you're probably sleeping in too much,

Drinking too much,

Smoking too much,

Doing all these different things too much.

Your life's not going to be in perfect harmony or balance.

Why?

Because you don't care.

What's the point?

So I would like you to sit with this and contemplate.

Who are you?

What are you all about?

What are your talents?

What are your interests?

What are your values?

Where do you want to live?

How do you want to live?

What would make your heart sing?

And then start moving in that direction.

And that's it.

That's the secret to the good life.

You figure out what your direction is by understanding what's a good life for you and then you start taking steps each day to move in that direction.

You move out of the city into a beautiful naturey location.

You start painting.

You start playing guitar.

You change your career to something that is going to leverage your God-given talents and skills so that you can just be who you are,

Who you are always meant to be.

You can live in harmony and peace with this sense of purpose.

You do this and you will notice your happiness and well-being just going up and up and up.

Any sadness and depression starts to vanish.

Any stress,

Fear,

Anxiety,

Worry will start to decrease.

You'll be at peace.

This is what happens when you're here doing what you're supposed to do.

So I wish you the best of luck on this journey.

It is a very special and sacred journey and let it begin today.