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Everyone I know has a very
busy schedule. We go to work, take kids
to school, to their sports practices and games, meal prep, house cleaning,
grocery shopping, other errands, homework, medical appointments and the list
goes on. We have all this stuff going on
in our lives. We're stuck on a hamster wheel seeming to be going nowhere,
accomplishing little.
I recently took one of
those Facebook surveys that would tell me what my life purpose is. It said I
was meant to "Eat all the food. You have your work cut out for you." If you know
me, that's a dream come true. But the survey got me to thinking about what
really is my life purpose? What should I
do with my life? Is there more that I should be doing with my life?
Many of us want to have a
more fulfilling life, to contribute more to the world and have a better sense
of peace and happiness. For a business, their purpose is the fundamental reason
for their existence. Unfortunately, finding your individual purpose in life is
not so clearly defined and certainly can't be found by an online survey. You
cannot just pick a purpose. You need to
get out and do things to help you find your purpose and passion.
Mark Manson wrote an
article titled 7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose. Here
are his questions ~~
What is your favorite flavor of crap sandwich and
does it come with an olive? (He says something different than crap. LOL)
Why a "crap" sandwich? Because life is difficult, some of the time. Everything
involves sacrifice. Everything includes a cost of some kind. Nothing is
uplifting all of the time. So what struggles or sacrifices are you willing to
tolerate to be what you want to be? What "crap" are you willing to put up with to
do something you truly enjoy?
What is true about you today that would make your
8-year-old self cry? We have a tendency to lose touch with what we loved
as a child. The social pressure of adulthood and society squeezes our passion
out of us. We are taught that the only reason to do anything is for the reward.
What would you enjoy doing even if you didn't get paid? Are you doing or being
what your 8-year-old self thought you would be doing and being?
What makes you forget to eat? Have you ever
gotten so involved in a project, TV show or activity that you completely forgot
to eat? Often times it's not the actual activity itself that is causing us to
not remember to eat or shower but the cognitive principles used to perform that
activity, such as you like competition, you like searching for the hidden clues,
you like solving puzzles, you like teaching.
How can you better embarrass yourself? Before you
are able to do something good, you have to be bad at it. And when you're bad at
something it's embarrassing. Most people try to avoid being embarrassed and
therefore, aren't willing to try new things or become better at the things they
are just so-so at. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and do what you have
fantasized about doing. Don't worry about what others will think of you when you
fail, think about what they will think of you when you succeed. Chances are
that the more a decision scares you, the more you need to be doing it.
How are you going to save the world? To live a
happy and healthy life, we must hold on to values that are greater than our own
pleasure or satisfaction. The world is messed up and there are plenty of
problems out there so pick a problem and start saving the world. Contribute and
make a difference.
If you had to leave the house all day, every day,
where would you go and what would you do? The world is full of complacent
people. We need to get up off the couch, pretend there is no internet, TV,
video games and go do something you've always wanted to do.
If you knew you were going
to die one year from today, what would you do and how would you want to be
remembered? Facing death forces us to focus on what is really important in our
lives. What is your legacy going to be? What are people going to say about you
after you have passed on? If you don't think people will be talking about you in
the way you would want them to, then go out and do what you need to do to make
changes so they will start talking about you the way you want to be remembered.
Your answers to these 7
questions will help you define what your life's purpose is, what's important to
you. Discovering your purpose helps you find those things that are bigger than
you are. If you don't have a purpose, then you are just living someone else's
purpose or just existing. Once you've figured out your purpose, you can put more
focus on tasks that fulfill that purpose and eliminate tasks that are not
fulfilling and essentially waste your time. Discover who you are, use yourself
to build up others and you will become whatever you want in life.
Eleanor Roosevelt said - "The
purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out
eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience."
Robert F. Kennedy said - "The
purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better."
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