Are you missing your purpose?
Do you know what your purpose is? Even more importantly, do you feel like you’re living it? OR do you feel like this is the all-important, yet ever elusive question that keeps you up at night?
When you know what it is your life feels full – it feels meaningful – and you’re happy.
But when you’re not sure what it is you feel lost – you feel disconnected – and you’re constantly searching for that missing piece.
Knowing your purpose is what will make your life feel important. It’s your reason to get out of bed every morning. It’s a big deal.
Which is why just hearing the question itself can leave you feeling overwhelmed, paralyzed, and stuck – afraid that you don’t have this answer.
The answer feels like it needs to be important.
There’s so much pressure and expectation.
But here’s the thing, it’s actually way simpler than you ever imagined.
You know how when you can’t find your sunglasses because they’re on top of your head? This is exactly like that.
Your purpose is right there. It’s a part of you. You just have to stop looking for it so hard.
All you have to do is live your life. Show up each day and do your very best (whatever that may be). And use your unique set of strengths, skills, and interests.
When you do this, you make an impact. You affect the people in your world. And then that affects the people in their world. And then, without even realizing it, you’ve impacted the whole wide world.
Yep, all that happens simply when you show up, be yourself and do your thing.
It’s not complicated. But in case you’re still feeling a little unclear about what this means for you – here are 2 questions to ask yourself:
What are my strengths? – the things that come naturally to me and I’m really good at? Go ahead and brag about yourself for a minute. You need to know what these things are, and you’ve got to be willing to fully acknowledge them in yourself. It’s the only way to use them to really make an impact.
Downplaying them isn’t doing you, or anyone else any favors. If you minimize your strengths you’re actually being super selfish. Your fear of being judged in some way around what you are really freaking good at – is actually keeping you from the world.
It’s like hoarding all the Halloween candy – don’t you feel so much better when you share? You don’t worry if Allison in accounting is going to be mad that you brought in your candy – no, you know she’s going to be so flipping pumped you’re sharing!
If you’re really great at cooking, small talk or organizing – know it, own it and then do/share it as often as possible. No matter what scale it’s on, you’re having a bigger impact than you realize.
What are you most passionate about? So passionate that you could do it every single day AND you’d be willing to not do other important things just to be sure you were able to do this one thing.
Think of things that you really enjoy doing – even when it’s hard or complicated. Those things you feel excited about and are completely willing to push through all the discomfort to get to the end result. Because here’s the deal, if your passion is driving you – nothing can stop you!
A few more tips to help:
- Make sure you’re not filling your life with too many things you don’t really love – ultimately squeezing out any room for the thing(s) that really light you up.
- Passion doesn’t mean easy (let this belief go). Yes, there’s an ease to it because you love it – it feels worth it. But it’s still hard – it calls you to dig deep and push through.
- Your passion, whatever it is, is vitally important. It’s your thing you bring to the world. The scale of it does not matter. If you love to organize – your kid’s school may need a kickass coordinator for the bake sale. If you love to read – your friends could desperately need someone to initiate a monthly brunch book club. If you love small talk – the person checking you at the grocery store could be begging for a friendly face and few minutes of conversation.
The world NEEDS more people who are happier and lit up. These people are nicer, friendlier and way more willing to connect, inspire and support each other. Be that person SIMPLY BY being brave enough to be you.