13 Ways to Figure Out Your Life Purpose

Photo Credit: Ben Canales Art Piece: Truth in Beauty by Marco Cochrane

This is the third post in a four part series about the elements of Ikigai. This week’s element is “What the World Needs.”

You may notice that the title of this post is about your life purpose and not “What the World Needs,” because the world needs a whole heck of a lot and if I started writing that post I would never finish and you couldn’t start doing what the world needs. It’s also because using your unique passion and talents to create an impact on the world is your life purpose, and quite simply, what the world needs is for people to fulfill their purpose.

To underscore the urgency of you getting out there, finding your purpose, and giving the world what it needs, I’m taking the narrative out of this post and going straight to the questions.

-Your Hire Self

Hire Purpose Questions

If you haven’t already, it will be helpful to complete the questions for your Hire Passion and your Hire Power, as knowing what you love and what you are good at is essential to determining your purpose in life and how you can best offer that which the world needs.

1. If you were starring in a super hero movie, and your super power was simply an exaggerated version of your already existing talents, what would your super power be? What would you be fighting for? Who would you be fighting against? How would you use your power?
2. Fill in the blank: What the world needs now is_________. What do you think the world needs? It can be straightforward or obscure. It can be commercial or not. Do we need improved access to education? Healthy food? Clean water? Uncorrupted political systems? Music? Innovation? Spirituality? Art? Creativity? Happiness? Comfort? Exploration? Energy? More jobs? Cultural awareness? Peacekeeping? More entrepreneurship? Better books? Wellness? Mindfulness? Connection? More play time? Inspirational spaces? Ways to express our individuality? Makers? Tighter knit communities? Scientific advances? Planet friendly policies? Equality? Loving relationships? More time in nature? Civil rights? What does your world need more of?
3. Imagine that your one responsibility in life is to return in full the gifts (abilities, advantages, opportunities, and qualities) you have been given, by offering them back in a way that helps others and/or helps the world. What is your biggest gift? How can it be returned to the world? How could it be used to offer the world more of what you wrote in the blank space for #1 above?
4. If you were going to crowdfund your salary for a year, to do something that had a positive impact on the world (or your community, or your company, or your family), what would it be? Why should people donate money to your campaign?
5. What do you have an abundance of? When I did non-profit fundraising, I heard an expression: “Ask people for that which they feel they have an abundance of, and they will not refuse you.” If they have a lot of money, ask for a donation; a lot of access, ask for an introduction; a lot of wisdom, ask for advice; a lot of time, ask for assistance. What do you have a lot of, that you can offer freely?
6. On what or with whom do you want to make the biggest impact in your life? Your community? Humanity? The planet? Human knowledge? Your self?
7. Imagine that you are reading a book about the character of you. What is your hero’s journey? What is the reader cheering for you to do, if you can just get out of your own way? What is your “best self,” that you aspire to be? How are you changing the lives of others?
8. If you could had the ability to fix something in the world that you think is very important, what ability would you have, and what you fix with that ability?
9. What are your top three skills? What are the top three things you care most about? How can you uniquely combine these skills and interests to move the needle on something?
10. What do you think of as unimportant — something other people think of as important, but you view as a total waste of time? How can you make sure that you don’t waste your gifts on something you find unimportant?
11. If you were given the option of volunteering for a month with full pay, where would you spend that month? What would you do? What would you want your impact to be?
12. Imagine that you are a student and life is your classroom — what is your lesson in life right now? What are you supposed to be learning? What situations or themes keep coming up? How can you prove that you are learning this lesson?
13. If you could create something — a product, a piece of art, a piece of literature — what would you leave as your legacy? What if you could only create something utilizing a skill you already have?