How I figured out my life purpose
After I quit my job, people would ask, “so what have you been doing?” The question would bubble up latent anxiety about what I was doing with my life. Asking me what I was doing or working on equated to asking me what my life purpose was. It reminded me how deep I still was in existential crisis. I felt pressured to have done something or know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Not only did it have to be cool and hip, but also benefit the world, pay the bills, and energize my life.
What I didn’t realize until recently is that it’s actually easy to find your life purpose. Here’s how.
Life changes. So does your life purpose.
The beauty of the universe is that change is universal. Over your lifetime, your priorities, circumstances, and whims will change. That means your passions and life purpose will also change. Life purpose doesn’t have to mean what you do for the rest of your life.
5 years ago you probably couldn’t have predicted the person you’d be today. So why do you think you can predict what your purpose will be for the rest of your life?
Instead of aiming for what you want to do for the rest of your life, pick an easier target. If 5 years is too many, choose one year. If one year is too long, how about one month? Maybe if you’re having a rough month, just pick today. What do you want to accomplish today? That’s your life purpose. Today, my life purpose is to publish this article. Tomorrow, my life purpose will be different.
Figuring out your life purpose
You’ve picked out a time scale for your life purpose, now it’s time to figure out what your actual purpose is.
It’s as simple as answering the question that everyone keeps asking: “what have I been doing” or “what have I been working on?” It doesn’t have to be some active grandiose project. It’s more important that you’re true to yourself. Think about what you do day-to-day, what do you spend time reading, watching, talking about, or simply enjoying? That’s what your life purpose is. In the past year I’ve been actively thinking about and exploring what it means to have purpose or passion. To that end, I give you my life purpose for the next year:
To find and cultivate the truest expression of myself.
Now that I’ve told myself that my overarching life purpose is essentially “finding my life purpose,” that leaves me free to explore other things. I’m not crushed by the existential angst anymore. So now I think about what I’m working on in the interim to reach that goal. I’m working on Missuteki, Pay Attention, and other creative pursuits. These projects will be my life purpose for the next few months as I work to find what is true about myself and how to accentuate it.
For some of you, your honest answer to what you do may be that you watch Netflix all day. That’s completely ok. That can be your life purpose: to chill out and take time to recuperate from your busy day. You only need to realize your truth and own it. If you’re not happy with your reason for why you do what you do, find a way to change it. Noticing how you spend your time and then taking responsibility for it makes life meaningful.
Challenge
Ask yourself “what have I been doing recently?” and answer truthfully. Frame your actions as a life purpose. Then, decide how long you want to be exploring that purpose. Next time someone asks you “what are you working on?” tell them your new life purpose!
