How to find your purpose in life

We’ve seen how knowing our life purpose helps us to succeed in a changing world. And we also know that living in line with our purpose will bring us extra focus and energy, make us more adaptable, and even make us healthier by changing our genes.

So how do we find out what our life purpose is?

Some people just seem to know what their purpose is. But for the rest of us, the best way to find it is by following these four steps. This will bring you a ‘first pass’ description: something that you can start to implement, see how it fits, and then refine, adapt, and improve as you move forward.

To begin, answer these three questions:

1. What are your two best qualities?
   What are the two best qualities you bring to the world? Not skills or knowledge but qualities you have.
   (If you find it difficult to pick just two, ask some trusted friends. Listen to their answers, keep what you like, ignore what you don’t. And then pick out the two qualities you think best describe you: qualities you love about yourself, that summarise the essence of who you are.)
   .
2. How do you love to express these qualities?
   Next, describe how you most love putting these qualities into practice.
   (You might define this in terms of how you love to apply your best qualities, the way you like to use them. Or you might define it in terms of the outcomes you love to create. Use whichever approach works best for you.)
   How do you most love to express your two best qualities?
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3. Describe your ideal world
   Finally, describe what a perfect world looks like to you.
   What would you see, hear, feel, taste, or smell if the world were perfect, according to you?
   What kind of a world is that?
   What does a perfect world look like to you?

Of course, you can’t learn to swim just by reading about swimming — you need to do the practice.

So if you really want to know what your life’s purpose is then answer these three questions before you read any further.

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Once you know your answers to these questions then finding your life’s purpose becomes easy.

Because your purpose in life is to become the best version of yourself: to express your best qualities, in the ways you most love doing, to create your ideal world.

So take your answers to the three questions and use them to form a sentence:

The purpose of my life is to express my [best qualities], by [doing whatever it is that is the way I most love to express my best qualities], in order to create [whatever an ideal world looks like to me].

How does that sit with you?

If you like, you can change the order. You might prefer to say:

“My purpose is to create [my ideal world], by using my [best qualities], [in the way I most love using them].”

Play with the wording until you find something that feels right for now. And remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect: you can always adapt or improve the wording as you move forward and understand yourself more deeply.

The purpose of your life is to express the unique person you are as fully as you can, in the ways you most love doing, to create your ideal world.

There might be a thousand ways you could put this into practice. You might find that even actions as simple as buying toothpaste or food can be done in ways that either align with your purpose or go against it.

So your purpose doesn’t necessarily involve just one thing. And the way you describe it is just a tool, a reminder: something that enables you to begin, then stay on track while you adapt to a changing world, learning and growing as you go.

Find a way to express that is good enough for now and begin, then learn as you go. What are your two best qualities? How do you most love to express them? What does an ideal world look like to you? Would you like to spend more of your time each day, using your best qualities in the ways you most love, to create your ideal world? 

(The book contains other tools that will bring you deeper insights into your Purpose, but this post is a good starting point.)

Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.

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You can also buy the book here and the workbook here.

(And remember: you can’t learn to swim just by reading about swimming, you also need to do the practice.)

Photo By Emilio Küffer via StockPholio.net