Finding Your Purpose

This heading sounds cliché but hear me out guys. A lot of the time we can find ourselves stuck in a rut or even feeling lost in the rollercoaster of adventures that we call life. We may not know what to pursue or what we really want to do with our lives and this can have a big impact on our self fulfillment and overall happiness. 

The word purpose sounds like such a big abstract term and can seem a bit overwhelming. After all, how is someone able to know what their entire life existence is all about? But fear not, in this post I am going to help you answer some important questions which will help narrow down what you love and want to do in life. 

I have struggled with this myself for many years (and still do) but I am a little closer to living a more meaningful life than I was even 6 months ago. After some much useful research and inspiration from multiple sources, I have learned about the art of Ikigai.

What is Ikigai?

Ikigai is a Japanese concept which means "a reason for being". It focuses on 4 different aspects to help create a more meaningful and purposeful life. This venn diagram below helps visualise the concept better. I have also created a downloadable copy if you wish to try this for yourself and help benefit your life.

Ikigai covers 4 different elements to help you find your purpose:

What you love

What you are good at

What the world needs

What you can be paid for

This will help you find and understand your:

Passion

Mission

Profession

Vocation

I have created a toolkit of questions that you can use to help find your purpose:

(Note: a lot of these questions are similar but worded differently to help you look at these elements from different perspectives)

What You Love

What do you love doing?

What activities make you happy?

What brings you joy?

What makes you feel fulfilled?

What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning?

What could you spend hours doing and not get bored or tired?

What You Are Good At

What are your top 3 skills that you can utilise?

What do others admire about you? Ask someone 3 of your best qualities and note this down.

What abilities do you have that you can use to your advantage?

What issues do people come to you with? 

What problems are you good at solving?

What are you naturally good at?

What The World Needs

How can you give back to the world?

Who exactly do you want to help?

How can you help them (teaching, volunteering, charity work etc)?

What unique strengths do you have that can benefit other people?

How do you want to feel once you have accomplished this?

If you have ever impacted anyone in the past, what did you do and how did it make you feel? What key pointers can you take from this situation?

What You Can Be Paid For

How can you turn your passion, mission and vocation into something profitable?

What skills can you utilise to turn into your side hustle?

Are you happy working for someone or do you want to become your own boss? If the latter, what steps can you take to reach this vision?

How can you turn your passion into a career?

Now, after answering these questions, look for any patterns in your answers. These should relate to how you are UNIQUE, what your VISION is, and what TOOLS you can use to achieve your vision.

After doing so, I want you to write down your purpose statement. This should embody the three aspects above. There is no right or wrong way of writing this, just write it, and re-write it till you are happy with it. And remember, you can always come back to it at a later date and redefine your purpose statement.

Generally speaking, it should look something like this:

"My purpose in life is MY VISION that I want to embrace. I can do this because of how I am UNIQUE. I can deliver using these key set of TOOLS in order to achieve my vision and create a more fulfilling, meaningful and purposeful life".

You have completed the biggest step which is putting your thoughts onto paper. Now you need to master the next step which is putting words into action. You now have a substantial guideline to help you figure out what you want to do and what you can do with your life. Look at the tools you can bring to life and start creating step by steps actions (with deadlines) that will help you achieve your purpose and your goals. Check out my blog post on Life Changing Habits if you want to learn how to put these into action.

Do you know your purpose? Share with me in the comments what one thing you are going to take away from this!