>>> Make the decision to choose your life purpose<<<
Key Learning Points
- A central life purpose creates a bedrock of meaning around everything you do
- It can help you feel more connected to those around you
- A life purpose can change and shift
- It doesn’t have to be perfect
- More purpose, more meaning equals much more joy!
My story
I always wanted a ‘purpose’ but I never really knew what that would mean for me. After divorce number two I decided I wanted to live a much more purposeful life. I felt like I had drifted into things and ended up doing things that didn’t really work for me. Sometimes it was saying No to a great job, or saying YES to stay in a relationship that just wasn’t working.
There was no bigger picture of what I wanted overall to achieve in my life.
I felt not having this really meant I wasn’t picking the right or best things for me in terms of who I had in my life and what I was doing with it. I really wanted to feel like I had a frame for my decisions. So I started the work to create a life purpose. It took a while and I even took two weeks off work to just work on myself. I would never have done that earlier in my life.
It sounds so fluffy and yet it was probably the best two weeks investment I have ever spent on myself and all it cost me was my own time (and annual leave).
In this post I really want to provide some prompts to help you begin this process. And WHY do I want to do this? Because having this purpose has led to the happiest, most creative and fulfilling 3 years of my life and counting. And, I WANT THAT FOR YOU TOO!
Activity
Make the decision to choose your life purpose
And then,
- Right down all the reasons you want a life purpose (and stick this list up where you will see it first thing in the morning)
- Describe what having a life purpose would mean and feel like to you
- Find 2 people who embody having a life purpose in the way that you would like too. What do you admire about these people? What makes them stand out to you?
- Now, book in a time each month to work on your life purpose.
- And, go for it!!
Want some inspirational resources to keep you going for it?
For Reading…
- Grit – The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth, Page 62. The way Angela lays out how goals can link together, is how I have structured my purpose and goals. With my BIG LIFE purpose being : Help Women Progress and then all my other goals big and small linking back to this big goal in some way.
- Rising Strong by Brene Brown – Chaper 2 – Civilisation Stops At The Water Line
- Start with WHY by Simon Sinek – Chapter 13 – The Origins of Why. I recommend reading the whole book but this chapter gives some context for how WHY can influence us so strongly.
- Think Grow Rich – Chapter 2 – Desire. This book is focussed on MONEY but really it can apply to EVERYTHING in life. In fact, the super inspirational Marie Forleo video below is Chapter 2 lived (Read and watch to expand your mindset and also to see how this actually works.)
- Eat Pray Love – because its awesome!
For inspiration watch this: Have an impossible dream? This Women Proves You Can Achieve It
Want a group program to be involved in?
Looking for a program to support re-programming your negative thoughts into positive ones, this program and book is amazing (Melissa’s podcast is a great listen as well): Mastering Your Mean Girl Program