What is your life purpose? It’s what comes to you naturally. You don’t have to motivate yourself for it. You were already into it when you were younger. You’ve always had a talent for it.
Later in life, it may get lost in a pile of indoctrination about what you’re supposed to do, what’s “safe” to do, what parents want you to do, what society tells you to do, what seems to make money.
Following what you were created for, makes your life more effortless and wholesome.
A tree was created to grow, give off leaves, provide oxygen, provide a home for birds, provide energy, provide wood for building and other purposes humans don’t even know about yet. A tree requires no effort to follow its purpose, it can’t help but do what it’s made to do. If a tree were to be re-purposed as a mobile phone tower, it would be unhappy and get sick.
When I talk about life purpose, the first reaction is often that I’m given a list why people “can’t” quit the job they are doing – as if they already know its not what they are made for and they are preparing excuses for rejecting this wisdom. 9 times out of 10, the reason given is “money”.
The predominant philosophy our day is “I have to do do job XYZ to make money”. In other words: “I have to do something I don’t like (random job XYZ) to get what I like (money)”.
Their life formula is “doing what I don’t like leads to what I like”. Does it make sense? No. It’s the result of indoctrination. Someone who knows that they will always be supported by LIFE when they follow their purpose, doesn’t think like that.
Jesus said this in the book of Matthew (bolding mine):
“Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? 26 Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto [a]the measure of his life?
28 And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” .
There’s only two ways of viewing the world: The worldly view in which you are a small cog in a large wheel and have to hustle for sustenance. And the divine view of the world in which you are PROVIDED FOR, always.
You likely already know your life purpose, your mission, your talent – all three I use as synonym. If you’re not following it, you’ve bought into mainstream belief-systems, created by people who are also not following their purpose.
But if there’s still doubt about your purpose, I have two approaches that I use in coaching to discover what it is.
1. Write-until-tears-and/or-laughter
Find a quiet moment and write down as many answers as come to mind to the question “What is my life purpose?” Continue until you have tears in your eyes. Or until you laugh. Laughter and Tears are a form of emotional release, meaning you struck gold, struck truth after some digging. Underline what made you laugh or cry.
2. Go High to see Clearly
The other approach is to meditate yourself into a higher state or do whatever it takes to improve your physical and mental state. From the mountaintop-perspective it’s easier to see what vocations and activities suit you and what no longer belongs.
“If I were the highest version of me, what would I be doing?”
“If I were the highest version of me, in what direction would I be going?”
Your life purpose does not reveal itself all at once, but points in directions. As you take steps in the right direction, more of your life’s plan becomes visible.
