A Practical Guide to Finding your purpose

A Practical Guide to Finding your Purpose

What if I told you that you that I had the formula for happiness? A way to live a more elevated life with more energy, meaning and fulfillment.  It is my belief, (and more and more research is backing it up) that this is achieved through pursuing and living in your purpose.  The amount of hours I have invested into this quest would frighten you, but using this research I have put together some steps, content and resources for you to start your own personal journey to finding your unique purpose. 

1.  Know your values.   

This point is very underrated in today's culture and if you are like me, you may have a high-level idea of what you value but nothing that is clear and easily articulated .  If you are going to design an authentic purposeful life you need to know what matters most to you. Typically there will be a handful of categories that have the most meaning for you like maybe for example family, contribution, career, health, etc, etc. but do you have an inspiring value statement for each of these areas to keep it clear in your mind and to stay motivated to follow it? 
 
I recently invested some time into this topic and to develop these for myself.  I found I had to dig deep internally to get to the goods. But I uncovered the following article on-line that was a really helpful resource in developing a meaningful set of personal core values:
 
 7 Steps to discover your personal core values

Prompts are provided to get you into the right mind set and a list of over 200 value words. With this you:

• Choose which ones have the most meaning to you and categorize these into groups.
• Then choose your top 3-5 categories and title them with the word that matters most to you. 
• Then you write a value statement for each category using the inspiring words you initially grouped into that category. 

 
If you would like to see my final set of personal core values to use as reference please do so here:
 
Value Statement Example
 
I now refer to mine each and every morning to start my day with intention and inspiration.  The best thing is, once you have developed a clear set of values it can be used as the compass for all of your life decisions.  Ask yourself "Does this decision fit with my values?" if yes move forward, if not, pass.  It's as easy as that, and the best part, no more decision fatigue and second guessing as you will have a clear guideline to follow.


2.  Purpose Questions.
 
I have created a list of questions I gathered throughout my own purpose pursuit that will help you start to identify some themes and threads in your life that could put you toward the direction of your purpose.  I have already included these questions in another blog post "Why are YOU here?" which also has some additional information and tips for you if you would like to refer back, but I will include the questions here again, along with some additional ones I have added since the last post:

• What did you want to be when you were a kid? How did you spend your time?
• What are you interested in, what makes you curious, what do you love to talk about?
• What are your life experiences individual to you and what have you learned from them that could be helpful to others?
• What can you do that is generous and provides value to others?
• What is a problem that you are currently facing that you could fix that would add value to others?
• What do you do anyway?  What do you do out of pure enjoyment or curiosity?
• If there was no limit to time, money, resources etc, what problem would you fix in the world?
• What puts you into flow state?  Where you are fully immersed in a task, full of energy and it seems as if time has stopped?
• What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?
• What are you good at?  What do your friends come to you for?
• What are your personality traits?  Are you introverted, out-going, detailed oriented, etc, etc.  You need some self-awareness on your personality and take this into account when considering how you want to add value to the world.

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 3.   Ikigai - Putting it all together.  

The Japanese word Ikigai literally translates to "Reason for being"  and to me, is the formula for happiness.  It takes all of these ideas I listed one step further and then brings them all together and becomes the map for your purpose journey.  The Ikigai model is as per the below:
​

​Using this model you map out:
​

• What it is that you love
• What you are good at
• What the world needs
• What you could get paid for 

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​When you put them all together you get Ikigai.  I have curated some videos for you to review that go much further into depth on the topic and walk you through the completion of your own Ikigai map.  Please take the time to watch, learn and try for yourself. 
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4.   Take Action.
 
Completing these steps will take some time, but what is a better investment than investing in yourself, in your freedom, in your purpose to live a life you love?  I have developed a free printable & downloadable guide which you can get here "A Practical Guide to Finding YOUR Purpose" that walks you through all of the above steps including worksheets that you can fill in to support you along the process.  It also has a Purpose Planner so that once you have found some ideas to investigate further, you can take action immediately over the next 4 weeks to get you closer to a life that you love and the unique formula to your happiness. Know that as you evolve as a person so may your purpose and values so don't be afraid to come back this exercise as needed.
 
Please let me know if you found the guide helpful and let me know about your journey to finding your purpose as we grow together to:
 
Design your Life ~ Be Authentic. Be You. Be Sharp. ​

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​Sources: 

• CEOSage. "7 Steps to Discover your Personal Core Values".  By Scott Jeffrey. Updated April 2019. 
  • https://scottjeffrey.com/personal-core-values/
• Ikigai Image ~ 
  • Thrive Global. "Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life Might Just Help You Live a More Fulfilling Life".  By Thomas Oppong. Updated Janruary 10,  2018. 
    • https://medium.com/thrive-global/ikigai-the-japanese-secret-to-a-long-and-happy-life-might-just-help-you-live-a-more-fulfilling-9871d01992b7
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