Your life purpose is more than how you earn a living. It’s fairly common to change jobs and careers several times in life. Your life purpose is connected to your fundamental sense of identity. Knowing what you most want to do and accomplish helps you feel fulfilled even if you’re not currently living your ideal life. Here are some guidelines for finding your life purpose.
1. Identify Your Natural Talents
Everyone has certain natural aptitudes. These are skills and activities that come naturally to you. Make a list and include everything you’ve ever been really good at even if you have to go back to your childhood. It doesn’t matter how trivial or impractical it may seem. You might recall that you were good at rollerskating, math, dancing, or climbing trees. Don’t overlook social skills such as making people laugh or motivating a team. Making an unfiltered and honest list of your talents often reminds you of underutilized abilities that could be helping you reach your true potential.
2. Pay Attention to Your Interests and Hobbies
Very often, what people do in their spare time is closer to their hearts than what they do during work hours. Make a list of activities you do simply because you want to. If you can’t come up with many extracurricular interests, think back to a time when you passionately pursued certain activities. You may be able to turn a hobby into a career or business. Short of that, you can still find fulfillment by pursuing a strong interest. Don’t discount something simply because it’s not currently profitable in a tangible way. Pay particular attention to interests or hobbies that also appear on your list of natural talents. Such activities are good candidates for a business or career path.
3. Take Personality Tests
Personality tests can help you learn more about your interests and aptitudes. Many people find it fun to take such tests online. However, if you want to learn more about your self, however, you need to be careful about which tests you take. Many quizzes and personality tests on Facebook, for example, are more for entertainment than real self-knowledge. Some well-known tests include the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI), The Winslow Personality Profile, and the Hexaco Personality Inventory. If you want to be sure you’re taking a legitimate test, consult with a psychologist or an organization that administers such tests to corporations or universities.
4. Notice Who Inspires You
The people you look up to provide helpful clues about your life purpose. Even fictional characters such as heroes from books and movies give you insights into the qualities you most admire. Do you look up to action heroes, intellectuals, leaders of political movements, or great scientists? Were you particularly inspired by one or both of your parents or another family member? When you have well-known heroes, make it a point to study them in depth. Read their books, attend their lectures, follow their blogs and social media pages. If they are no longer living, read their biographies.
5. Explore New Ideas and Activities
Whether you’re a teenager, a college student, a mid-life professional, or a retiree, you have a certain concept of yourself based on your accumulated knowledge and experiences. If you want to expand your possibilities, you need to explore new ideas and be open to new experiences. There are many ways to do this.
• Read books on topics you’ve never studied. Check out classical literature, poetry, history, science, or something that’s outside your usual field of inquiry.
• Try your hand at a new skill such as playing a musical instrument, cooking, gardening, learning a foreign language, or playing a new sport.
• Take a class in something you’ve never studied. Try a non-credit class given at the nearest college. There are also thousands of free and low-cost online courses.
• Travel as much as possible. If it’s not practical for you to take long trips, study about other cultures online and through books and documentaries.
• Expand your social circle beyond your comfort zone. Meeting people from different walks of life can open you up to new possibilities.
6. Volunteer
Volunteering in your community can help you learn more about yourself. You might work with the elderly, homeless people, or those suffering from addiction. You could become a literacy volunteer or help out at an animal shelter. One paradox about finding your life purpose is that overthinking can get in your way. When you’re helping others, you refocus and gain a new perspective.
7. Start a Journal
Journaling is an effective tool for self-discovery. Spending a few minutes every day reflecting on your impressions, feelings, and aspirations can help you identify your life purpose. While journaling can have a profound effect on your life, don’t think about this when you’re doing it. If you’re self-consciously trying to find great insights, it will defeat the purpose. Let your subconscious come through as you write in your journal. Don’t try to accomplish anything in particular. Use the format that feels most natural to you whether this is writing longhand, typing, or even speaking into a recording device. It’s also helpful to revisit your journal entries every so often. You may find some recurring themes that give you clues on what you really want.
Finding your life purpose isn’t something you can do in an hour or two, nor is it something you simply figure out one day and never think about again. Rather, it’s something that’s constantly evolving as you learn more about yourself and change over the years.
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