Life Purpose Week | Day 4: Realization
So far we have examined the intuition, reflection and exploration in the process of searching for your life purpose. Hopefully you have gained a clearer understanding of what you are meant to pursue in this lifetime. What’s next? How does this insight translate into actions? First of all, let’s talk about what life is like when you are living in a way fully aligned with your purpose.
A life “on purpose”
When you are living “on purpose”, you feel alive and fulfilled. You live a life with a clear direction and intention. You make decisions that increases the sense of fulfillment you and others feel. And you are “unstoppable” (H. Kimsey-House et al., Co-Active Coaching: Changing Business, Transforming Lives. 3rd edition. 2011. p. 126). Do you remember a time in your life when you are living “on purpose”? What did you do? What kind of person were you being at that time? How did you feel?
Pause and ask yourself
- Look at different areas of your life. Are the choices you made, e.g. the career you are in, an expression of your life purpose? If not, is it expressed elsewhere in your life?
- Think about your life purpose as a context for a moment. What is missing in your life right now?
- What is the impact you have on the world or the people around you when you honour your life purpose?
- What will you do to create this impact?
- What kind of person should I become to create this impact?
Tools to help you continue your journey
Once you have answered the questions above, break down the concrete goals and actions you got from answering questions 4 and 5 and try the tools recommended below.
Vision board
A vision board is a board that displays visual reminders of what you would like to realize in your life. Our brain likes the concrete information the visualization process provides and would be better equipped to rally all sorts of resources in the rest of your brain to accomplish your goal. For example, if one of the goals you want to accomplish in order to live a life with purpose is to create a family full of joy for your children, putting a favourite family photo where your children are frolicking would elicit a much more powerful emotion and motivation for you to act towards that goal, compared to just writing down that sentence on paper. There are some articles online (e.g. this one) that questions the usage of vision board because of its tie to The Law of Attraction in the book, The Secret, and the lack of actions that follow this vision setting process. My argument would be to read more on this topic (e.g. this is a more comprehensive and academic one and a short one with how-to’s) to understand the science behind visualization and take actions towards your visions so that they are not just “wishful thinking”. Having a vision helps you get into action more easily. It doesn’t mean no-action. To create a vision board, you can go with the old fashion way (e.g. a cork board), or with Pinterest or a digital collage as your computer’s wallpaper.
Setting intentions
Remember the answers you gave when answering question 6 above? To carry out the important actions to leave a legacy of your life, you want to think about what kind of qualities would aid you in this journey. Is it time to be more assertive? Or is it time to be more courageous and less worrisome? Should you be more trusting of the people around you and delegate more? Or should you prioritize and focus on a shorter to-do list? Short daily journaling in the morning before you get out of bed is a great routine where you remind yourself of these characteristics. Alternatively, you could try morning meditations with an intention setting component. No clue how to get started with your meditation? Try some free YouTube videos or enlist the help of an app, like Calm or Buddhify).
Embracing the bumpy journey
Living a life honouring your purpose is not necessarily easy. There will be incidents, people and inner voices pulling you into different directions. You may have doubts. Is it worth it? Am I on the right track? How the hell do I do this? Who’s going to help me? Whenever these moments arise, ask yourself these questions:
- What is important to you in your life? What are your core values?
- Have your core values changed over time because your circumstances have changed? If yes, what adjustments can you make in what you do and how you do it in your life journey?
- Are any of your core values being trampled on?
- Where did your doubt come from? Is it from yourself or others?
- How much do those people who doubt your dream and your approach know about you, your abilities and your vision? How much do their opinions matter?
- Is there a self-limiting belief lurking somewhere? (To learn more about how you may have been self-sabotaging yourself, take this free saboteur assessment I highly recommend to all my clients on www.positiveintelligence.com).
Enjoy the treasure hunt
Your life purpose is a journey, not a destination. Even if you haven’t found your life purpose statement, your life purpose is still there waiting to be listened to. So don’t be discouraged and enjoy this treasure hunt. I trust that you will discover in this process many gems that will shed light on various aspects of the magnificent you.
This post belongs to a series of blog posts starting from Find Career Passion & Direction by Exploring Your Life Purpose.