Discovering Purpose

**Adapted from upcoming book: How To Feel Good

Having a decent working knowledge of your values is really going to help you with this one. In fact, start there and come back to this blog if you haven’t quite sorted out your values yet. Once you’ve done that you’re ready to spend a little bit of time with your purpose.

So what’s the difference between values and purpose? Values are kind of the compass that guide you on your journey, but purpose is the reason you’re on the journey in the first place. Still vague, I know, but basically purpose is the reason for your existence. What are you doing? What do you want to be doing? What is your goal in life? Oof, scary stuff. But fun and enlightening and fulfilling to think on. So let’s think about it for a bit.

A lot of what I've previously written about about is going to help you with this one. Knowing your values, self reflection, journaling; all of these can be valuable tools to discovering purpose.

Here’s a thought experiment that I like to do. Think of a time when you were really, truly happy. I mean completely content even if just for a moment. Got it? Okay, now notice all of the ingredients that made up that moment or that period of time. Where were you? Who were you with? What can you see? What are you hearing? What are you doing? What are you feeling? Take those ingredients and see if that can’t help build your purpose. Maybe you were backpacking with your friends on top of a mountain, you could hear some birds overhead while you picked blueberries off a bush, you felt intense belonging and desire to know more about that place, those birds, those blueberries. What do you make of all that? Maybe a part of your purpose is to be outside, maybe it’s to learn more about the living world, maybe it’s to spend quality time with those you love, maybe it’s to respect and protect life and the living. Maybe it’s all of those wrapped up into one. Maybe it’s each individually. Yes, you can have multiple purposes!

Try the thought experiment. What’s coming up for you? Reflect on it. Journal about it. Meditate. Can you write down your purpose in plain language? Can you communicate it to another person? It’s okay if not, but do your best to get it down. Do your best to say it out loud, if only to yourself.