Finding a life purpose may well be the most significant thing you do with your life. It is just too easy to sail on from day to day without ever giving much thought and consideration to what is your reason for being here. Now, of course, we all have numerous reasons, family, work, hobbies, things that we get involved in, that keep us busy. But this is different from being on a deliberate path. A path that you choose rather than one you simply end up on or fall into. A path in which you intentionally choose how you want to be and feel and act, that together combines to give you a strongly held map that makes sense of your life. Creating a map for yourself in which every day feels like a gift is the sort of life we can lead when we are clear about our life purpose! It acts as a kind of treasure map for our soul.
Too many people end up at the end of their days wondering what was all that about? It should not take a near death experience or a significant life trauma for us to evaluate our lives. Each person alive deserves to feel good about their life, and to appreciate the gift that is a life lived filled with purpose, passion and meaning. Having a life purpose has got people through incredible tragedies. Victor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning tells the stories of holocaust survivors who were enabled to endure the most horrific circumstances because of a deeply held sense of life purpose.
Working on discovering and creating your own life purpose that is specific to you and has nothing to do with what others expect or demand of you, can be a surprisingly liberating experience. It can also provide a blueprint to refer to when decisions are upon you and when the going gets tough.
One of the best ways to define your own life purpose is to write down a mission statement, much as any organization does. This helps you have a clear and compelling vision of what you are here for and what your life is about. Having a clear understanding for yourself of what you aspire to be and how you aspire to act, affects every decision and choice you make.
Part of this involves knowing your values, what especially resonates with your heart. I suggest choosing a couple of values which really strike a chord for you, can be a meaningful way to bring about an increased sense of fulfillment in your life and can help illuminate your life purpose. It may be kindness, honesty or forgiveness. You may aspire to be non-judgemental or compassionate or patient. However, whatever values you choose, need to resonate with you and to make sense to you. They need to be consciously chosen and regularly revisited. Reflecting for just a few minutes each day on how you are going with your newly chosen values is necessary to bring about the change you desire. Writing them down is also a great reinforcer.
Someone once said life is too short to live for the weekends. Don’t leave it to chance! It’s too important. Imagine: looking back at the end of your days over your life, imagine the feeling you will have when you can say, yes, that was what I wanted my life to look like, that is how I wanted to live. It may not have turned out like you thought it would; that’s not really the point. The question you will be answering for yourself, is not what happened to me or how hard did I work. For most people it will be how did I live my life and what did I bring to life? Did I live a life connected to what was really meaningful to me? Living a life on purpose brings happiness, and reduces anger, frustration and bitterness. It really is worth the effort.
©Margie Ulbrick
If you would like some support with your relationships or creating greater happiness in your life, please contact me on 0403 814 477 for a free 10-minute consultation to discuss your needs.
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