How to find your life purpose

by | Dec 9, 2015 | Goals, Mindset practices, Self-belief

When my sister was little, she always knew that she wanted to become a nurse. That goal never changed. At school she chose subjects that would help her get into Nursing School. When she failed her maths exam, she went back and did it again. When she got into Nursing School, her subsequent goals were around completing the course, getting registered as a nurse, getting her first job etc. Before she died, she was a Nurse Practitioner.

Defining “life purpose”

Quite simply, your life’s purpose is like a compass. It will guide you in the direction that you want to go, but it is not a destination in of itself. If my sister’s life purpose was simply to be a nurse, then she would have achieved that at age 21. However, her life’s purpose was bigger than this, it was to help other people at a time in their life when they were vulnerable. She lived a fulfilled life because her goals were in tune with her life’s purpose.

Most people don’t know their life’s purpose. They haven’t found their passion in life, and tend to live a life that is aimless and has no clear direction. The thing is, if you take a journey without a compass, then you could end up going round in circles. When you add goals to your life’s purpose, then it’s like having a map. When you add passion, then you include motivation to achieve those goals.

So to find your life’s purpose you need to look back at your life and keep an eye out for the clues you’ve left behind that will help you identify your purpose. What did you do where everything came together and it felt just right? What did you love about it? To find your life’s purpose look to your heart, not your head!

Shannon Kaiser stated that:

  • passion + daily action = purposeful life

However, I would amend this slightly:

  • goals + passion + daily action = purposeful life

Finding my own life purpose

It’s taken me along time to work out my life’s purpose, but the clues were there to find, once I started looking for them. My first job was in accountancy, but I wasn’t happy and it didn’t feel right. Anyone who worked with me during that time was describe me in very negative terms. Whilst I was good at what I did, I spent more time talking with the staff in IT than doing what I was supposed to do. First clue: working with people, not numbers.

My next career was in nursing, and one of the highlights of my career was helping a patient who had developed type 1 diabetes to overcome their fear and inject themselves with insulin. We broke the process down, starting with her simply holding the syringe. Only once she was comfortable with that did we move onto the next stage: using the syringe to stab an orange. Nothing else. Just getting comfortable doing that. Next we worked on drawing fluid into the syringe, then injecting the orange. Only once she was comfortable doing this did we move onto injecting herself. Clue two: teaching.

Strangely enough, my next career was in IT training, and then training. My focus in social media training was to help people with their resumes and LinkedIn profiles. I wrote books, e-learning courses and delivered training to small groups. The aim was to help people get the jobs that they want.

As I’ve been working through my coaching course, I’ve been able to refined my life’s purpose to helping people to achieve their true potential. This feels right, and when you look at the clues, then what I have been doing all along has fulfilled this.

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