How To Find Your Purpose In Life

How to find your purpose in life? At a certain stage of life, we all find ourselves in a situation when we are stuck. We feel frustrated and overwhelmed and we ask ourselves: why am I doing what I’m doing? Is this my passion? Is it something that fulfills my inner self? We feel that something is wrong. The job we have, or the lifestyle we lead, – it seems like it’s not what we want and need.

Some of us put up with this feeling and change nothing. Some of us get too impulsive and make a 180-degree change overnight. But it doesn’t get better. Why? Well, finding your purpose in life is a process. It can’t be done overnight nor can it be ignored.

 

WAIT! If you’re more of a visual learner, check out my new YouTube video below where I detail everything in this post.

 

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Today, I’ll share my story of how I’ve found my purpose. And give you tools and practice advice on how to find yours. Let's start with the most popular method out there:

Remember your childhood

That’s the most common thing psychologists and personal couches suggest a person should do when finding a purpose in life. And there’s some sense to it, indeed. The technique suggests you remember what activity you enjoyed the most in your childhood. Did you enjoy dancing or drawing, or maybe building sand castles? Or maybe sewing clothes for your favorite doll?

Or, you may remember what you wanted to become? A fire-fighter or an actress? Or maybe an architect? When I remember my childhood, I surely can tell I enjoyed painting and learning English. But when my brother was born, I decided to become a nanny in a hospital when I grow up. And later, I decided to become a translator to translate fiction books.

Though remembering my childhood helped me to pin-point my path, I still didn’t rely on it when making my final decision. I also took advantage of other techniques. So, the next one is: imagine your last day on Earth.

Imagine your last day on Earth

This technique requires a little bit of imagination and a skill of listening to your intuition. So, imagine your last day on Earth. You’ve spent some time with the people you love, you prepared to leave. What would you be doing then? What is it that has been giving you energy and joy and the feeling of fulfillment all these years?

Will you be writing in your blog or journal? Or maybe you will be putting on your favorite outfit and accessories? Or maybe you go to your garden to water some plants you’re growing? Or take care of your pets?

Whatever comes to your mind may be a good hint to finding your path. In the examples above, you might consider becoming a writer oк a blogger, a fashion stylist, a gardener or a pet shelter assistant. You may not get the answer right away, but you’ll definitely get a hint.

Ok, let's move to the next technique.

 

Imagine you need no money

At a glance, this technique is somewhat similar to the previous one. Yet it’s not that extreme. But it also requires imagination and intuition. So, imagine you have lots of money in your bank account. And you never have to work in your life anymore. The first idea that will come to your mind is that you’ll be lounging and doing nothing then. But think of it again. The chances are, you’ll get bored. And what then? Then you’ll have enough time and desire to do something, to create something or to take care of someone. And this is it!

How will you spend your days? Maybe you’ll be baking something delicious every day? Or traveling around the world, sharing your experience with others? Or writing your autobiography? Or maybe you’ll sign up for some courses to learn a new skill? Think of it carefully.

The good thing about this technique is that it makes you think in terms of how you can be helpful to society and at the same time express yourself.

Ok, and I want to share with you two more techniques, one of which helped me to find my path (along with the first one).

 

What drives you mad?

This is my favorite technique, to tell the truth. The idea behind it is thinking of the situations or states that drive you mad. Just to give you an example how it worked for me: I know that I get frustrated when I see poorly executed interior design. The same goes for beauty, fashion and even food serving. Moreover, I get really upset when I see not at all user-friendly sites or apps, or awkward offline billboards and ads.

So what is it, after all? Aesthetics! This word came to me instantly along with the word ‘harmony’. This is it! I love to find harmony and aesthetics in everything I come across in life. What’s more, I feel satisfaction when creating such aesthetics and harmony myself.

This is just my example of how you one can find positivity in negativity. So, for the most part, this technique has led me to the things I enjoy to create and projects I like to work on and, to finding my purpose in life as a result.

But there’s one more technique I’d like to share.

 

What people think you are good at?

And it’s called ‘What people think you are good at?’ Sometimes we can’t look at ourselves, our lives from a distance. To look at things from a different perspective. So if it’s hard for you to use the three previous techniques, as they require this skill to some extent, you can make use of this one.

Ask people you communicate the most, those who know you for quite some time and you share some moments together, in different aspects of life. These can be your friends or relatives, your partner and kids, and even your co-workers. Ask for their feedback. The idea is to look at your strengths from the other people’s perspective. I’m sure you’ll be surprised!

When I asked for feedback, surprisingly, my social circle agreed on one and the same point, that is, I’m a great negotiator. And suddenly I thought that, wow, at some stage of my life, I thought of becoming a negotiator, or to be precise, a diplomat. Though I carried this idea only for a short period of time in the University, it makes sense now. It feels like I’ve found another piece of the puzzle and it adds more depth to my purpose of life.

To sum things up,

These techniques rely on different levels of our self-perception. Using each of these will get you closer to finding your purpose in life. And some of you will get a straightforward insight.

I will be glad to receive any feedback from you. Have you found your path already? Do you feel there’s meaning to your life? What helped you find it out? Please share! I believe it will be useful for those people who feel the need for changes and who are still searching for their purpose, meaning and harmony in life.