How Do I Find My Life Purpose?
Life is full of infinite possibilities. Man is a marvelous creation that can turn these infinite possibilities to his advantage. He writes his own great story out of the infinite possibilities that life offers. In this story, he is the hero of his own life and he progressively achieves his life’s purpose and lives a fulfilled and rewarding life.
You may not be happy with your current circumstances. You may not yet be aware of the purpose of your life to which you are committed or would like to be committed. In this blog post, I will address how to find your life’s purpose.
What is life purpose?
What associations does what we call “life purpose” evoke in your mind? When I talk about people who have a purpose in life, do you think of a world-renowned person, a leader who started movements, a leader who led large groups of people, a hero who made history? Or are you among those who think that simply surviving can also be a purpose in life?
You don’t have to swing to either extreme. Life purpose exists for everyone. However, there are people who have found their purpose in life and people who have not. When we see people who have already found their purpose in life and who live their lives accordingly, we get impressed by them. Those who have not found their purpose in life are doomed to live boring and colorless lives.
Every living thing has the same instinct to live. But it is the purpose of life makes this instinct to life meaningful. A meaningful life breathes vitality into the individual that goes beyond being alive.
A life purpose is a purpose that makes your life fulfilling, that enables you to experience the best version of yourself, that fuels you with a sense of satisfaction when you look back, that makes you understand what you are truly living for and that makes you glad you are living for that purpose.
Looking back, not living for the wrong purpose is only possible with a future that you can create by making the right decisions today.
The path to finding life purpose
To find your life purpose, you first need to understand your current reality very clearly. Your past is a reality you have experienced and cannot change… Your future is yet to come. You only have today and you are going to fulfill your life purpose starting today.
Today you must be rooted and grounded so that you can move towards the right future. Stand firm and solid where you stand today so that you know where you are going.
If you don’t know where you are, you cannot possibly see where you are going.
Who are you?
One of the most difficult but most crucial questions of life is “Who am I?” This question has created your present to the extent that you know about it, and it creates your future to the extent that you can understand it today.
Today, we will start working with this question to shape your future, which will be centered around your life purpose. Because knowing where you are starts with knowing who you are.
Practice: Discovering who you are
Write “Who am I?” on a piece of paper, set your alarm clock for 15 minutes and try to answer this question by spending 15 minutes writing.
Who are you?
What would you say if you introduced yourself?
How would you describe yourself if you just met someone?
Who are you in your family life?
Who are you to those who know you?
Who are you at work?
Who are you to children?
How are you towards the world you live in and other living beings?
And who are you when no one knows you?
Can you be more than that?
When you do this practice for 15 minutes, you may feel a little stuck from time to time. Because after you list the labels you are most used to, it will seem to you as if there is no other you. That’s when you will start thinking about yourself. Thinking will remind you of your different traits and you will begin to list them as well. The most important thing in this practice is to write without pausing and thinking. Write so that your mind pours out everything in it as much as possible.
After completing this practice, take a deep breath, sit back and reread what you wrote.
Which are the traits that everyone already knows?
Which ones nobody knows about?
Which ones surprised you?
Are there any qualities that you have forgotten but that you really like about yourself?
And how much did you mention the features you don’t like?
Have you also written about how you respond to events that challenge you?
Did you include your fears to the list you wrote?
We tend to define ourselves first with our good qualities. However, human beings are whole and complete with their good qualities, their “bad” qualities, their fears, hopes, excitement, what they hide, what they tell everyone.
When you view what you have written from this perspective, maybe you will need another 15 minutes to describe yourself with all your characteristics: Who are you with all your traits?
If you have completed the next 15 minutes, now it is time to take a look at what you have written. Take a deep breath, read what you have written and think:
“Could you be more than that?”
The human potential is a magnificent thing. It is not possible to limit human beings. Therefore it is not possible to limit you. You will be amazed at what you can do if you get to know yourself in all your many aspects.
Practice: Know yourself in all your aspects
At the end of these two practices, you have what you have written about yourself and your thoughts about whether you can be more. Now, as you continue to think about these, I want you to group these characteristics – and any others that come to mind as you write them down.
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- What are the traits and situations that you fear and perceive as threats in life?
- Which aspects and situations can be opportunities?
Ask yourself powerful questions
This categorization will allow you to look at yourself more objectively.
Let the qualities you identified as strong here shine through in your life.
Try to understand your weaknesses, whether you are really weak in these areas or whether the possibility of strengthening them is just waiting there as an area of development.
Then look at your fears and what you perceive as threats. Are they really a threat? What would happen if you could turn them into opportunities? Who would you be if you were not afraid of them?
Then, see your options. Do you take action on your options? Reflect on what you are doing to make the most of your opportunities.
I will move on with my powerful questions and let you reflect a little more on this categorization.
- Who are you with your strengths?
- What difficult situations could you have easily overcome if you had used your strengths?
- What would you like to achieve if you used your strengths?
Is a wish-free life possible?
I hope you have said “I am grateful” more than you have said “I wish”. But life can bring regrets as well as joys. The important thing is to know how to deal with your regrets.
Practice: Looking at life from two directions
Again, we will use pen and paper in this exercise. Split the paper in half with a line and write on one side what you are “grateful for” and on the other side what you wish you had.
Then answer the following question for each “I am grateful” you write:
- Which of your strengths did you use when you said “I am grateful”?
And for every “I wish” you write, answer this question:
- Which of your strengths could you use to make your “I wish” no longer an “I wish”?
The stage is yours!
This exercise can sometimes bring sadness. But don’t worry; as I told you before, knowing how to look at regrets will change your life.
Accept your life as it is today; the past is over and done with; the future is in your hands. Now come, in the light of what you have practiced and reflected so far, let us continue to move towards the life purpose that will build that future.
Practice: The path to life purpose
Close your eyes and calm your mind.
Imagine yourself on stage. You are on stage and everyone is applauding you.
You have achieved what you most wanted to do. You shine like a star in your own life. You inspire people with what you do. Even the ones inspired by you have made a difference in their own lives.
The applause continues and you are full of appreciation for life.
Who are you on that stage?
An entrepreneur who has opened his own small café, a business person who has started a production facility, an activist who stands against the massacres committed against nature, a leader who inspires his/ her colleagues and team, a manager who fulfills company goals and takes his/ her company one step further, and has built happy home with his/ her family, a person who spends his/ her private time with them with joy, who is aware of their needs and makes space for them, an academic who conducts research and contributes to science, a doctor who is dedicated to the health and well-being of humanity, a writer who makes people think and see what they don’t realize…
Which one of these are you? If you are not one of them, who are you?
Every human being has a life purpose
Entrepreneur, business person, activist, leader, manager, academic… The list goes on and on. Moreover, every entrepreneur’s goal, every activist’s area of work, that is, everyone’s goal, field, dream is different. There are as many life goals as there are people in the world, and as many items on this list.
The “you” that appears on that stage whispers to you your own life purpose. Hear it. Hear and identify your life purpose. No matter how distant it is from today. If there is a call, your steps will be shaped in that direction.
Powerful questions will always support you in this process. Because Coaching is there for you when you are on your journey to finding your own life purpose.