Life keeps moving the goal posts on you so changing your purpose as you get older is something most will have to deal with.
Rarely will you ever find two people in life that have the same concept of what their purpose is at that point in their life.
Your idea of life’s purpose is far different than mine. What blows your hair back may be of no interest to the person sitting next to you. And even when you think you have figured it out all, your sense of purpose changes over night as life shapes your interests.
In your 20’s you may be on a mission to help the world. When we interview those right out of college and ask them what kind of business they would start, most of them note some kind of non-profit. They have a desire to help others and would like to have an impact on other people and/or the environmental through different means of social entrepreneurship.
But we rarely hear that from people in their 30’s and 40’s. At that point, you hear about them being there for their kids and raising a family with great core values. Their purpose and passions fade away for a while as all their energy and focus is on the family.
When you speak with people in their 50’s and 60’s, you’ll notice that, again, the goal posts have been moved. Now their passion for grandkids is in full force. They are trying to figure out their usefulness as age begins to limit them, and they enjoy the feeling of giving along with a whole new focus of living a healthy life.
From gaining wisdom to helping others, your purpose will change throughout life. Something that was a driving passion for you 20 years ago may come back to you or you may seek out something new that gives you new meaning in life.
The one thing you don’t want to do is get to the point of waking up in the morning and not having a purpose.
Something has to make you tick. Whether it’s something simple, petty, or profound, you need a reason to wake up in the morning and get moving. You need something to go to bed at night and dream about. There has to be something to look forward to — that next step or that next feeling that gives you a sense of purpose.
And that will change as you change. Spend some time thinking about what really makes you tick today, what made you tick 10 years ago, and what you think your purpose will be 10 years from now. We don’t spend much time thinking about our purpose since we are so caught up in life. Thinking about it may lead you down a path of discovering where you need to focus your energy and effort, which could lead to happiness.
I always try to remind myself of this: Figure out what it is that makes you happy, and do more of it. Don’t worry about doing the things that makes everyone else happy all the time. You know the things that truly make you happy, so do those things as much as you can.
Originally published at journal.thriveglobal.com