Finding Your Life Purpose

Most people get to a point in their life where they begin to question what they’re doing. They feel like they’re wasting their life doing something that doesn’t bring them joy. However they have no idea what will bring them joy. This begins the tiring search for their life purpose. but what is a life purpose really? And how are you suppose to find it?

I’ve been on this mission for a while myself. There are countless books and articles to be found on the subject each with their own opinion on finding your life purpose. But most seem to lead you to more questions and confusion. The problem with the majority of these methods is they tell you to look for something outside of yourself. They tell you to go and find, look for, and acquire something external. And once you’ve found it, that’s it you’ll live happily ever after! After countless failed attempts I have come to the conclusion that this isn’t the answer.

I believe that finding your life purpose and being happy is a lifelong pursuit. You will never find one thing that’s going to make you happy for the rest of your life. Searching for something external may bring temporary contentment, however it will never be lasting. To truly be happy and find your life purpose, or purposes you need to go inward. It’s about focussing on each moment instead of looking to the future. It’s great to plan for the future, but making this moment as another boring step to get to some happy place you believe you’ll have in the future just makes you unhappy now. And as Dr Phil says, “the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour”. So if you’re unhappy now, you’ll be unhappy then. This is where living in the moment comes in.

You’ve probably heard of ‘living in the moment’ before, or mindfulness. I used to think it was a load of rubbish, but to my skeptical mind’s surprise, it actually works! I’m not suggesting becoming a Buddhist monk, I don’t want to shave my head and give up red wine. But they have the right idea about living in the moment. All you need to do is make each moment count, if thoughts pop up allow them to past by without fighting them or getting caught up in them. This will allow you to hear or feel your intuition and find what will bring you joy while also being happy now, and remember what Dr Phil said!

It seems pretty simple doesn’t it? But it’s not, it never is. It’s almost impossible for the average person to be mindful in every moment, so don’t beat yourself up if you can only achieve a few minutes a day. It takes practice and it’s ok to get lost in your thoughts sometimes. That’s how you come up with some of your best ideas, like combining dark chocolate and potato chips.

In the end finding your life purpose, which may make more sense if it was called ‘living your life purpose’, is not so much finding a single thing that will make you happy but living each day in the moment, listening to your intuition and doing what makes you happy now. Everything else will fall into place when you don’t struggle against life.