Discovering Life’s Purpose

This article will not be an article about finding that one passion in life and focusing our time and energy into attaining that one specific goal.

This article is about all of us who are in essence a wanderer at heart, who has been in a situation where we were very stuck, stuck in a state of limbo because we’ve just reached a point in our life where we feel that there is an overwhelming urge to want to find something within ourselves that will magically give our everyday life more meaning.

Life is just too complex to just be about one definite life goal.

Life should be about a string of multiple goals that we strive for.

In within this wanderer heart we just know that there needs to be a balance of working hard to achieve great things in life –to make an impact in this world, and of going on a journey to finding more about ourselves.

We understand that life should be an adventure.

Finding life’s purpose may be difficult at times as we are restricted by the constraint of daily lives. We may be tied down by responsibility, commitment and sometimes even fear but for us to really make the most of our lives we need to find pockets within our lives and give ourselves time to grow, to just drop things sometimes and just say we’re going on an adventure.

Image from thisismalsblog.blogspot.com

Here are a few ways that we can make way for the adventure that we have always craved in within our hearts.

1. Make a Bucket List

Many a time we feel like we want to go out there and do a million different things, this inspiration usually happens when we see people- whether around us or on social media, achieve great things, visit breath taking places or unlocked milestones within their lives.

During these times, we retreat to the depths of our minds and sigh to ourselves as we think and reflect about how wonderful it would be if we were just like those people.

Thinking about it will no longer cut it, for us to actually be heading in the direction of finding ourselves we need to see it happening and making a list of all the things you’d want to achieve is a great way of burning the image into our minds by making a list.

Take ​out a paper and a pen.

Start brainstorming 10 things for your bucket list. Assume that money and time isn't an issue and really look deep into yourself to find out what you really want to achieve in life.​

2. Set a Definite Time

After having a specific list of things we want to achieve we need to set a definite time for when we want to achieve it by.

Setting a definite time would make these goals more tangible and ignite a sense of urgency .

This would create a feeling within ourselves to take action straight away and get to planning.

Setting a goal for a 90 day time frame will be a good place to start.​

The Thriving Goals Journal is one way to help you achieve your #1 goal within 90 days.

If you are determined to make sure you succeed, check out the Thriving Goals Journal here.

Image from Youth-spark.org

3. Have specific play times

Planning can get nowhere if we do not have the time to pursue the things we want.

This is why we would have to set aside time –it could be a week, a month or even a few months, where you take a break from the business of everyday life and just pursue the things that we have planned out.

Do not be afraid to take time off.

There will always be work or things that require our attention, in order to feel alive and to find our purpose we would have to make way for the adventures that has always been floating around in our depths of our minds.

4. Act on impulses

Throughout our adventure of discovering ourselves there will be certain things that will spark our interest, it could be something that we would think was absolutely pointless to pursue yet within ourselves there is a strong pull towards it.

Most of the time we would think that these impulses are too ridiculous that we banish them to the depths of our subconscious mind.

Image from scienceblogs.com

But every once in a while when we let our guards down, these impulses creeps up on us and linger at the back of our minds.

Instead of banishing them we need to learn to accept these urges and act on them.

One simple rule that my colleague, Julian taught me is the 3 second rule , something that he uses up to this day.

The 3 second rule defines that if you are to act on an impulse, you should do it within 3 seconds.

For example, if ​you see a girl that you like in a cafe, you must go up and talk to her within 3 seconds of noticing her. 

If you take longer than that, you will start to doubt yourself and you will have missed your opportunity.​

One mantra that Julian lives by is "Try and you will have 50% chance of success, don't try and you will have 0% chance of success".​

So yeah.. go try it..​.

5. Be open to new adventures

As we try to act on our impulses, fear will be the biggest challenge that we would have to face up to.

Thoughts like ‘what if people laugh at me’, or ‘what if I fail’ will always be opposing the urge to want to act on our impulses.

To this we need to let go our fear and live in the moment, start saying yes to new adventures and take the plunge.

Only through being afraid and not knowing what happens next will we be able to test our limits and know ourselves better.

After all of this or half way through we have realized that this adventure was not for us, the journey was never wasted because through this journey, we have at least grown and learnt more about ourselves in ways we could never have.

We would have confirmed the suspicions we have had and most importantly it would have gotten us out of our state of limbo and propelled us in a direction that is one step closer to a goal we would never have known existed.