Hello! Seiiti Arata. Last week we talked about how important it is to focus on one goal at a time. And some of you may say, but there are so many goals I want to pursue! Which goals should get priority? It all depends on the context, but I find that goal-setting often brings even more powerful results when it is aligned with our life purpose.
There are many techniques to find our purpose, and this is a very long topic. It may take lots of work to find it, so it is natural that some people even get frustrated trying to find their purpose. This is why we are having this conversation. We will use a simple approach.
1. Life purpose: a reference
We can relax, because this is going to be a fun game. We don’t need to have the ambition to crystallise our definitive life purposes. We will simply find a reference, a quick guide.
This is best done in a quiet place, taking only a pen and a notepad. Write down the main question: What is my life purpose today?
Then write down the first answer that comes to your mind.
There’s no need to get it right the first time, and it probably will not be the right one. We just want to get the flow, and if we do it on a laptop, there will be some temptation to delete everything and then feel like nothing was accomplished. This is why I prefer paper and pen.
2. Write until you feel something.
After writing a phrase, read and consider it for a moment. The first phrases will likely be very rational. There will be a good logic behind them, but not many emotions. If that’s the case, write again a different answer to the question: what is my life purpose today? Notice how the word “today” makes this exercise much lighter – tomorrow you may realise there is a different answer. So we are trying here to make it simple.
If you continue writing different answers, eventually you will find one answer that brings some emotions to your body. This is what we are looking for – something that has a deeper meaning and is not just logical reasoning.
During this exercise we want to start, and we want to continue. (Check the previous videos we have on How to get started and How to continue)
The first phrase that you write can be anything, just write the first idea that comes to your mind. It will help you get started. And then as you write new phrases, you will see you start to warm up, you start thinking about things you generally don’t dedicate the time to consider.
3. Get rid of past ideas.
Once you are already feeling comfortable writing different phrases in this notebook to find purpose, the next thing you want to achieve is to get rid of previous ideas you used to have.
You want to clear your head of all the preconceptions and conditioning about what you think your purpose ought to be. As you write these phrases, there will be recollections of other moments when you used to think what your purpose should be, but deep down in your gut, you know that’s not it. Good. Just write it down and then go to the next line.
When should you stop? When instead of finding a rational explanation for your purpose, you find a phrase that gives you an emotional meaning.
4. Don’t worry about finding the perfect answer.
Remember: This is a reference only. We will use it to guide us in choosing our priority goals, to sharpen our focus. This reference’s purpose should not limit our perspectives. Instead, it should help us to be free to pursue what matters.
Check our previous video about focus and goals. It will make a lot more sense after you do this exercise. And if you want to share your reference life purpose with us, please use the comments below!
And here is a bonus tip for you. It’s something I learned from Adam Leipzig, and it is so simple. To find purpose we can answer five questions:
Who are you?
What do you do?
Who do you do it for?
What do these people want or need?
How do they change as a result of what you do?
I’m Seiiti Arata. I create online courses for adults. These adults want to become better versions of themselves. The result is that they can live more fulfilling lives through making conscious choices.
Finding your purpose is one of the fundamental pieces of the personal development journey and if you want help with that, I invite you to visit https://arata.se/personaldevelopment and start your Personal Development course.