Everyone wants to live a purpose driven life and many entrepreneurs and corporations know it. There are countless self-help books providing you guidance to unlocking your purpose.
People spend their entire lives trying to answer this question, which made me wonder if it’s possible to find? I wrote an article providing advice on pursuing your passion. While it’s important to pursue your passion, you can’t pursue your passion until you know your purpose. The difference between passion and purpose is that passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion but purpose is the reason for which something exists or is done. Your passion can inform your purpose and be the driving force for what you do, but they are two different things.
If purpose is the reason for which something exist or is done, you must determine how broad or specific you want to be in defining your purpose. Do you want to know the purpose of your life or your career, do both correlate or is it two separate entities, or is finding your purpose a one time thing or is it continual/never-ending?
I am not going to belabor whether or not you can find your purpose. The answer is no. No you cannot find your purpose. Your purpose is divinely created before you were conceived; it is something innate. People devote their entire lives to causes and initiatives because it’s the core of who they are, why they exist.
You do not find your purpose, your purpose finds you.
Although your purpose finds you, it is trapped. It is up to you to unleash it. Our purpose is trapped for many reasons: fear, doubt, uncertainty, expectations, complacency, comfort, routine, customs, etc. Another barrier is that your purpose may be unconventional and it goes against the norms or your upbringing. I can go on and on about the things that causes us not to unleash our purpose, but the purpose of this article is to tell you how to unleash it.
The first step to unleashing your purpose is to identify it. What is that feeling you get when you wake up each morning or what is that lingering thought that you can’t get out of your mind throughout the day or the thing that keeps you up at night? What is the thing that you are most afraid to do or that ignites passion in your voice and eyes? Whatever causes these things is your purpose. Your purpose does not have to be specific and it does not have to look a certain way. It can be as simple as making the world a better place. Once you’ve identified your purpose, your passion will guide you in owning it.
The next step is to own it. Once you know what your purpose is, own it. Owning your purpose is having it be the core of your life. Everything you do and say should exude your purpose. It should not be hidden or put on the backburner. If you are feeling aimless, miserable, empty, indecisive, anxious, or dissatisfied, chances are you are not owning it. Many people know what their purpose is but ignore it. You cannot ignore your purpose, you must own it. Owning your purpose is putting everything your have into it. If your purpose is to make the world a better place, then your job is going to reflect that, your extracurricular will reflect, and your time, energy and efforts will be consumed by it. One simple way to own it is to actively pursue your passion. When you pursue your passion, you are living out your purpose.
Ask yourself if you are living your truth. The core of everyone’s purpose is to live their truth.
The last step is to maintain it. There are people who’ve identified their purpose and have taken ownership of their purpose, but lost it along the way. Your purpose can be lost in the everyday routine of life and in the important responsibilities that comes with life because purpose is ongoing. This means that it must be maintained as it evolves and grow overtime.
There is a formality that comes with purpose that can make us lose sight of our purpose. Living our purpose driven life is a huge responsibility and sometimes it can become overwhelming. Part of maintaining your purpose is taking care of yourself. We’ve heard of the golden term, self-care. Self-care is an important term that we must implement in our everyday life. It will help us maintain our purpose.
Every person knows what their purpose is. For some, it is being a parent. For others, it’s being a devoted Believer in a higher being/power. There will be many circumstances that try to deter you from living your purpose driven life, but if you do not live it, then it will not be a life worth living. I encourage you to live the life you believe or your will believe the life you live.
Whatever your purpose is, you have to identify it, own it and maintain it.