We’ve seen how knowing our life purpose helps us to succeed in a changing world.
We also know that by choosing to live in line with our purpose we bring ourselves extra focus and energy, we increase our adaptability, and we even change our genes to make ourselves healthier.
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 out is by following these four steps. These will bring you a ‘first pass’ description of your purpose that you can start to implement, see how it fits, and then refine, adapt, and improve as you move forward.
Start by answering these three questions:
- 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 the two qualities you think best describe you: qualities you love to express, which summarise the essence of who you are.)
. - How do you love to express these qualities?
Next, describe how you most love putting these qualities into practice.
(You might like to define this in terms of the way you love to apply your best qualities, the way you like to use them. Or you might prefer to define it in terms of the outcomes you love to create. Use whatever approach works for you.)
How do you most love to express your two best qualities?
. - Describe your ideal world
Finally, describe what the world would be like if it were perfect, according to you.
What would you see, hear, feel, taste, or smell?
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 also have to practice.
So if you want to know what your life’s purpose is, answer these three questions before you read further.
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Once you know your answers to these three questions then finding your life’s purpose is easy.
Because the purpose of your life is to express your best qualities, in the ways you most love doing, to create your ideal world.
So take your three answers to the questions and put them in order:
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 feel to you?
Your answers to the three questions are just building blocks. So if you prefer, you can change the order. For example, 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 as you move forward and gain deeper understanding, you can always adapt or improve the wording, next week, next month, or next year.
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 the kind of world you most want to live in. It’s that simple. So find a way to express that which is good enough for now (even though it might not seem ‘perfect’).
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Once you know your life purpose there might then be a thousand different ways that you could put it into practice. You might even find that you can do daily chores like buying food or toothpaste, or putting out the garbage, in ways that are more aligned or less aligned with your purpose.
So the description of your purpose is not necessarily just one thing. It’s a tool, a reminder. It’s something that enables you to stay on track with what matters most to you and at the same time adapt to a changing world, learning and growing as you go.
Once you can do that then you have become antifragile.
What matters now is to begin, from where you are today. Then learn, adapt, and improve as you go forward: using your experiences as opportunities to become clearer about what matters to you and more able to achieve that.
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 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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(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
Hi, that’s a great way to find the purpose of life, this has always pinched me when others would mention their purpose and passion I was left blank, as I didn’t particularly was good at one thing but there are things like photography that I love to do and consider that as my quality I think now I would be able to speak in front of them of what I am capable of and the quality I like to be always be growing at.
Thanks Sakshi — I’m so glad you found it useful 🙂 🙂