This post is inspired by Carol W.C, who asked a simple, yet profound question on our Facebook page: ‘How do I discover my purpose?

Questions of the Day: How do I discover my purpose? What if I’m not sure of what my talents or abilities are? What if I’m not passionate about anything? What if I’m talented and skilled at many different things, how do I narrow my focus? Where are you spending your resources? Where and what are your thoughts on most of the time? What makes life worth living?

WWN Reflection DAY 19: Take ACTION and Transform Your Life!

Here are 10 points to think about:

1. Your purpose is tied to your PASSIONS and PAINS. Most often we focus on only the passion and miss out the power hidden in our pain. Tragedy can be transformed to purpose and power.

2. PASSIONS: What you’re passionate about, who and what are the people, things, projects, topics you absolutely love and never get tired of, what do you truly, deeply enjoy? What makes your heart sing, your spirit soar, what energizes you and gives you bursts of creativity?
PAIN: What keeps you up at night, what stirs your spirit, what moves you to tears, what breaks your heart open, what kills your soul?

3. To discover your purpose, you may also want to start reflecting on your whole life journey so far. What Significant Emotional Events (SEEs), happened in your life at different critical stages: From birth to 8 years, From 8 to 14 years, from 14 to 21 years, from 21 to 28 years,  28 to 35 years, 35 to 42 years, 42 to 55 years, 55 to 65 years etc. Search for the key learnings, and events that bring up strong feelings of anger, sadness, fear, hurt, guilt, regret, shame AND feelings of indescribable joy, worthiness, love, and fulfilment. These SEEs reflect a pattern, a theme, a direction to your purpose. If there are things that still need resolution, perhaps those are areas to start from.

4.Begin to really reflect on those experiences from # 3. above and going forward, look for patterns in what you did and experienced in life in the past and relate them to your present behaviour, strategies and approach to life. Pay attention to the common themes and triggers.

5. How can you best serve and add value to yourself, family, colleagues, community, humanity? What are you really good at? What unique talents and abilities do you have? Do an audit of all your skill set and then reflect on your talents, no matter how small (all the things you do exceptionally well, easily and effortlessly). “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious, the desire to reach HEARTS is wise.” ~Maya Angelou~

6. Read books about living a life of purpose, a good recommendation is  Rick Warren’s PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE.

7. Begin to develop yourself, skills, and surround yourself with people who are living the life you aspire to. What do you dream of becoming if you had all the money, energy and time in the world? Seek people already living that truth and learn from them. Perhaps, their light will ignite your own fire!

8. Everything you do now is tied to your purpose, live everyday as if it is the most significant day in your life. Add extra effort to everything you do. Be purposeful in your use of time, money, energy, words, thoughts. Your bigger purpose is tied to your smaller goals and dreams. Show up and be present in your life, with your family, friends and community. Play at 100% and your purpose slowly reveal itself with each step you take. Most people erroneously think that their purpose in life will be revealed as an epiphany, with heavenly lights and signs/wonders. I think that perhaps, our purpose is not a big bang that suddenly hits us, rather it is continuous journey that reveals itself to those who take it one step, each day at a time. “Take a single step and the path will reveal itself.” ~James MacNeil~

9. Reverse engineer your life. That is, imagine that you are now say 100 years old, at the end of your life, what are the important things you want to be remembered for by your family, friends, community and society? If you had no limitations in terms of time, money, energy, what life would you rather be living? Your passion may be tied to your answer. Your task is now to figure out a way to actually start living it NOW!

10. At the heart of discovering our purpose is to understand that we live in a physical reality and we are here to share, create, heal, connect and serve one another. There must be an exchange of value that takes place and a compensation in exchange for the value that is created. Do the little things with 100% commitment, passion and heart. Simply mind your business and live life fully and completely. Give it everything you’ve got. Your purpose WILL show up!

Be social! Share this post with your network.

Join the conversation on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/wholewomannetwork

————————————————————————————————————-

The preceding is a guest post from Juliet Ume, MBA –Strategic Interventionist, Wealth Management Consultant & Leadership-Coach at Whole Woman Network. Juliet is the author of the upcoming book: ‘UN-Locking Your HeArt of Leadership.” She is an avid Life Connoisseur and a passionate advocate of WomEntrepreneurship, Leadership Training, Investment & Financial Literacy for women. Her mission is simply to engage, educate and empower women, regardless of their levels of income or background, to return to ‘wholeness’ and live Healthier, Sexier, Wealthier Lives using Faith-based, Scientific and Universal (Common-Sense) principles! Follow her on Twitter: @wholewomaninc, @julietumeinc.

Related articles

• Are you LIVING, or just EXISTING? (preciousinyoureyes.wordpress.com)
• Someone Asked ‘What Is Purpose’ (preziosofrye.wordpress.com)
• 176. Finding Your Purpose…It’s Easy! (toinspirefromwithin.com)
• MKMMA: Week Three the Awakening (ownerofme.wordpress.com)