By exploring the things you love to do, your
strengths and skills, and what you'd do even if you weren't paid, you
can discover your purpose in life.
You can begin a process of
discovering your purpose in life, or rediscovering a purpose you
previously held that has become neglected and forgotten, with two
simple techniques. One is recalling times in the past when you had a
strong sense of the direction you should go and followed it. The other
technique is answering several questions you may not have thought to
ask yourself.
Incidentally, you will probably get more from this
process if you don't try to force the memories and answers but allow
your responses to bubble up from your subconscious in whatever way
feels most comfortable. You will gradually get a sense of the direction
in which you want your life to flow, much as a caterpillar needs to go
into a chrysalis before it can emerge as a butterfly.
Your memories can help define the purpose of your life. So recall a time when ...
People
wanted you to do something and you chose very deliberately not to do
it. This may have happened in childhood or later as an adult. As your
memories of this event come back to you, experience as fully as you can
how it felt to stand up for what you believed in, to choose your own
way.
You were very excited about a goal, either large or small,
because it was something you wanted to do very much. Remembering that
event, experience what it is like to move with determination toward
something you want, even if you don't accomplish it as well as you had
hoped.
Fate, luck, God, or whatever you would call it, placed an
opportunity in your path and, because you took that opportunity, the
direction of your life was changed. Experience what it feels like to
take advantage of circumstances and challenges you had not expected,
but which offer you a chance to grow in some way you would not have
been able to grow otherwise.
You were quiet and your mind was not
chattering, as it often does, and out of seemingly nowhere came a flash
of inspiration showing you just what you needed to do to resolve some
problem you were having. Experience as clearly as you can what it feels
like to listen to your intuition, to follow your own inner guide.
You
achieved something important and others praised you for it. Experience
what it felt like to have others acknowledge your achievements.
You
accomplished something you wanted to do, but no one else knew you had
done it. Experience what it is like to do something well, whether or
not others know about it.
Questions can guide you in your quest to discover a deeper purpose in life.
- What do you love?
- What do you like doing so much that it recharges your batteries even when you're too tired to do anything else?
- What are your strengths and skills?
- Was
there ever something in your life that was so important to you that you
felt at the time you absolutely had to accomplish it in order for your
life to have meaning? Did you do it? And if you didn't, what got in the
way?
- Is there something you would like to do if money, time or
energy were not a factor? And when you realize what that is, ask
yourself how you might get the money, time or energy to do it.
One final question deals with the principles and values upon which you have built your life up to this point.
Like
everyone else, you have chosen, out of the many possible religions and
philosophies, one approach, or a combination of several, that resonates
most clearly within you. Even if you follow the faith of your parents
and accept their values, the question to ask yourself, in order to
deepen your understanding of how you make decisions, and thus how you
might discover your purpose, is:
What is it within you that caused you to choose your values, your beliefs and your philosophy of life?
All
of these questions can guide you toward an overarching purpose for your
life. When, in addition, you need to overcome some difficulty, there
are seven questions you can ask every day that will remind you to live
with purpose even when the going gets tough.
