How Do I Find My Life’s Purpose?

People often ask the question: how do I find my purpose in life?

I know I myself ask that question often.

As a recent college graduate I feel I should be asking myself that very question often. I mean, who knows their life’s purpose immediately upon getting out of college? It’s a tough time being thrown out into the world and told to find a job.

That said, college graduates aren’t the only people who ask that question.

Plenty of people find themselves asking the same question day after day – whether they’re 8 years old or 64 years old.

It’s the kind of question that weighs on you and creates a lot of stress and anxiety. I mean, what could be scarier than having to explain to someone why you think you exist?

Tell Me How to Figure it Out!

I imagine you’re probably saying to yourself, “Ok Alex, stop musing and start telling me how to find my purpose!” For that I defer to someone who is a little more knowledgeable than me: Dr. Susan Biali, a wellness expert and life coach, has three steps for you on answering that very question.

She shares very similar views with Unconditional Responsibility: finding your passion in order to discover your purpose; listening to feedback from others in order to find out what you’re good at; accomplishing tasks that you’ve always wanted to complete before it’s too late – in other words, living with a sense of urgency.

A lot of times we don’t listen to ourselves and we don’t listen to others. We get caught up in the day to day hustle and bustle of everyday life and don’t realize what we’re passionate about. We spend so much time listening to what is expected of us – such as going to school and getting a steady job with a steady paycheck – and while all of these things are perfectly fine, we should also be taking a step back and thinking for ourselves: what do I love to do? What makes time fly for me? What do I work hard at even without pay?

These are questions we should be asking ourselves consistently. Because if you are willing to work your hardest at something that you aren’t even paid for, it’s probably a safe bet that thing makes you happy. It’s also probably a safe bet that somewhere out there someone has learned how to make a living off of doing that thing – be it designing and flying kites or creating little stories in fantasy worlds.

I think you’d be amazed at all of the possibilities this world has to offer – just saying.

Don’t Confuse Purpose with Permanence

Now with all of this being said, finding your life purpose doesn’t mean that this has to be one specific thing.

You can have a general purpose that acts as an umbrella for all of the things that you do. For example, you might feel your purpose is serving others. Well, good news for you! That purpose is general enough that you could fit a great number of things under that umbrella and still keep on track. So, you won’t have to worry about compromising your life’s purpose by finishing one thing or moving onto another.

And since we are creatures of change, our life’s purpose may change drastically. Maybe when you’re in your twenties (as this writer is) you feel that your life’s purpose is to swim with dolphins, then in your thirties you feel that your life’s purpose is to create balloon animals, and maybe in your forties you find that your purpose is to create a musical masterpiece.

These are just examples but the point is clear: we are constantly changing, so don’t stress yourself out thinking that you can only do one thing for the rest of your life.

Whether you feel your purpose is to own your own paperclip business or to create magnetic shoes that allow you to walk on the ceiling, like this awesome guy, start working on figuring it out and don’t get bogged down by a fear of permanence. We should be forever changing and forever able to at least consider new ideas.

You’ll do great, just as long as you get out of your own way!