What is the meaning of life? What is your purpose? Why are you here? Are you here for a reason? Is there a divine entity looking down on you? What happens after you die?
The way you answer these questions determines the overall context for everything you do in life. It is not often that people sit down and seriously consider these questions but I’m here to tell you that it’s worth putting in the time and effort to figure it out, and I will tell you how I have gone about it.
This is part two of a seven-part series on how to find purpose and direction in your life:
Part 1: Why It’s Worth Knowing
Part 2: Overview
Part 3: Know Yourself
Part 4: Build Strong Foundations
Part 5: How Should We Live?
Part 6: Why Purpose Doesn’t Interest You yet (and When It Will)
Part 7: Discovery
Overview
Figuring out your purpose isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. There is no set way to go about it, either. So all I can do is share with you what has worked for me.
This process is very introspective — it requires time to simply think, without distractions, about who you are and what you want.
It took me about 18 months of distraction and contemplation before I nailed down what I wanted in life, and even now I think I’m only 90% of the way there. However, that was while studying, working, and travelling, and I didn’t really know what was going on or how to approach the problem. Now that I’ve been through it, I believe it’s possible to follow this series of posts and end up with your purpose in a week or two. The tasks I set might only take you a couple of days but it requires dedicated, distraction-free time and deliberate thought — something our culture is lacking in at the moment.
Let’s look at the steps involved in this process. I will go through my own experience of these steps in the next posts in the series.
Know Yourself
At the beginning of this process, I suggest you take stock of who you are. You will look back through your history and understand you own journey — the big events, people, actions, or circumstances that shaped and influenced you to make you the person you are today.
This recalling of memories will do two things: (1) we don’t remember all of our past, so the events you remember are the ones that are the most significant; and (2) your own selection of memories that tell the story of what influenced you gives insights into what you value today.
Build Strong Foundations
At the 2014 National Student Leadership Forum (NSLF) we were exposed to a number of talks by various members of parliament and business leaders. One such talk was on what it means to be a leader. We were introduced to the “Layers of Leadership”. From the bottom up, they are Beliefs, Values, Character, Talents, and Skills.
You will begin exploring your beliefs about the world, what values are important to you, and what talents and skills you have.
Additionally, just as you prepare a CV for a job application, I will get you to prepare something of a Life CV. Your job CV is a single piece of paper that highlights the important aspects of the employee/job part of your life: your name, education, work experience, leadership positions, achievements, relevant hobbies, professional skills, and personal skills. Now expand the context from ’employee/job’ to ‘life’.
How Should We Live?
By this stage, you will have finished with the introspection and you will begin to view life on a larger scale. How should an individual live their life? By what values? What should they aspire to? We take a look at what philosophers have said in the past and you have a chance to determine your own answer.
When Purpose Will Be Important to You If It’s Not Right Now
This post will be about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We will assess the needs of a human being and see what levels of the hierarchy your actions fall into. Also, we will discuss what the hierarchy might mean for the ideal way of living and your purpose in life.
Putting It All Together
Lastly, you will use all of the information you have gathered about your perception of the world, who you are, what you think life is all about, and what is important to you to figure out a purpose for yourself (if the realisation didn’t already occur during the process above). This post is not enough on its own, so don’t think you can skip straight to this post and know your purpose. No one can tell you what it is and the thinking required to figure it out on your own is likely to be very different from the usual patterns of thought that inhabit your mind in a typical week.
I believe the thought processes I guide you through during the rest of this series are enough to bring about the right conditions for your purpose to be realised. The amount of time those thoughts need to swirl around your head before this occurs, however, is unknown to me.
This is part two of a seven-part series on how to find purpose and direction in your life:
Part 1: Why It’s Worth Knowing
Part 2: Overview
Part 3: Know Yourself
Part 4: Build Strong Foundations
Part 5: How Should We Live?
Part 6: Why Purpose Doesn’t Interest You yet (and When It Will)
Part 7: Discovery