4 Ways to Finding Purpose in Life

Finding purpose in life gives you direction and guidance.  It channels inner forces and energy to overcome outer circumstances and conditions.  It’s at the crux of leading your life, instead of having life lead you.

Are you doing what you love?  Are you living on purpose?

Here are 4 ways to finding purpose in life:

1. Finding Purpose in Life with Introspection

Spend some time with yourself.  Examine your life and get in touch with those thoughts and feelings that are important to you.  Reflect on past experiences and ask yourself:

• When do I feel that my life is most meaningful?
• What do I enjoy doing the most?
• What activities bring me the most passion and energy?
• What are my true priorities?
• What is the deepest purpose I would like to express in my life?

Write down the answers to these questions.  Just reading this is not going to cut it.

Find a quiet space and take 15-20 minutes to really answer these questions.  Spend some time and really think about what brings you joy and happiness in your life.  Reflect back on your life and write down the answers that come to you.

2. Finding Purpose in Life with Environment

You see, you occur to people a certain way.  The way you see yourself may be different than the way others see you.  The way you occur to others is a reflection of your inner self.

The people in your life are reflective of your way of being.  They see things that you don’t.  The clues to finding purpose in life can be found in the people that are closest to you.

Consider 5 people in your life that are close to you: your spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or other important friends or family members in your life.  Sit down with them and ask them these questions:

• What do you think comes most naturally to me?
• What do you think are my special talents and gifts?
• What do you think I am really good at?
• What do you think is really important to me?
• When do you find that I’m the happiest and what am I doing?

Again, just reading this is not going to cut it.  Write out the answers and review them.  Compare the answers you received from the introspection method to the environment method, then look for patterns.

• What are the similarities?
• What patterns do you see?
• What qualities, character traits and values seem to be repeated over and over again?

This is a clue. Your patterns are an indication of what is unique and special about you.  This uniqueness is what sets you apart from everyone else when finding purpose in life. 

3. Finding Purpose in Life with Natural Ability

When looking for answers, consider natural ability and not skills.  Skills are those actions that you’ve perfected over time; they’re external and not necessarily unique to you. Skills are important to executing a well crafted life purpose but are secondary to natural ability.

Look for natural ability; this comes from the inside.  Everyone’s got it – you’ve got it.  Your natural ability is an act of creative contribution that ignites you.  It’s natural to you because it’s part of who you really are.  Look for natural ability when examining your life with the questions above.

4. Finding Purpose in Life with Inspiration

When you’re inspired, your “in spirit,” and spirit is who you really are.  Inspiration is the act of expressing that which is within you.

Again, your environment is a reflection of who you are.  Consider the people, mentors, heroes and superstars in your life that are an inspiration.  The reason they are inspiring to you is because you see some of yourself in these other people.

When I watched Rocky II recently it really touched me.  It really stirred some strong emotions in me; emotions of love, passion and purpose.  I love the Rocky movies because they demonstrate the power of the human spirit and the human heart.  And that’s what I’m all about.  My purpose is to teach and inspire others to love and live life by following their hearts desires.

When finding purpose in life, consider these questions:

• Who are some of your heroes and what is inspiring about them?
• Who are the teachers, coaches or mentors that inspire you the most?
• Which movie stars, musicians or performers are inspiring to you?

Again, it’s all about recognizing the patterns.  Look for those areas in your life where you see a common thread. 

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