Did you know that a new survey by Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University says that three-quarters of millennials have admitted that they are struggling to find direction in life.
How amazing is that? Or probably, how un-amazing is that?
In this blog post, I’ll go through the long, necessary, process that will teach you how to find your purpose in life.
Do You Know Your Purpose in Life?
Did you ever imagine—if you yourself are a millennial—that statistically-speaking, roughly, approximately, every three out of four fellow millennials don’t have a clear, singular and focused purpose in life? And that if they do, they’re not serious about it?
Are you the lucky one? Are you that ambitious, determined one who has got a clear motive and objective in life and is dead-set on following it?
If not, I’m here for you.
There are people who have their drive with them, the thing that pushes them ahead. Then there are people who haven’t found their purpose yet. It’s not like they aren’t searching. It’s just that they haven’t found the right guide yet.
Not to look further, here I am with a detailed, extensive guide full of credible facts and resources that will help you find your ultimate purpose in life.
How Important Is It to Find Your Purpose In Life?
Everyone has got a purpose in life. Everyone. No one’s life is wasted. People are here for a reason.
A famous novelist Kurt Vonnegut says that every character must want something, even if it is just a glass of water. In real life, every character does want something. Most of the times it’s just not a glass of water. It’s an ocean of possibilities and potentials and I know just how hard can it be, sometimes, to dig up pearls out of that enormity.
People have extremely complex desires, you’ll be surprised.
These desires are, for the most part, shaped by society. By what we see while growing up and what we see our parents doing.
If someone grows up in poverty, watching their parents struggling to make ends meet, naturally they’re going to want to have more money when they grow up. They have a desire for having a nice job, nice income, nice house.
If someone grows up in a toxic family, they’re naturally impulsed to desire a healthy relationship now more intensely than they would have otherwise had the conditions in their early life been ordinary and good.
Our desires are shaped by society. These are intricately designed and well-built.
We spend days and nights thinking about them and forming our plans for achieving them. We spend a lot of time day-dreaming about it.
So why do you need a purpose in life?
We’ve all got a reason why we’re here. It would easily go to waste if we let it.
It wouldn’t take seconds to all be messed up.
Our purpose in life gives us drive and desire. Life’s boring is we live just for ourselves and just for remaining secure and comfortable.
If something burns your soul with purpose and desire, it’s your duty to be reduced to ashes by it. Any other form of existence will be yet another dull book in the library of life.
-Charles Bukowski
Your purpose in life can be anything: success, money, relationships, social service, self-growth, or okaaaaay, maybe even a glass of water.
How to Find Your Purpose in Life?
Your purpose is also kind of your ikigai. Okay, who am I kidding? They’re the same thing. Your ikigai is what gives you innate happiness and satisfaction.
IKIGAI is a Japanese word that has no exact translation. IKIGAI is the meaning of life, the thing that makes you get out of bed each day in eager anticipation. The word is made by joining ‘Iki’, meaning ‘life’ or ‘being alive’, and ‘GAI’ meaning ‘what is worthwhile and has value’. So, the literal translation would be that which makes life worth living.
Héctor García and Francesc Micalles, The IKIGAI Journey
It’s mainly something that you begin doing as a hobby and just for fun until suddenly you start doing it all the time because you realise how much it means to you.
Dream job?
Passion?
Something that ignites a fire in your heart and forces you to get up from bed every morning early at 5 a.m. just to work your sleepy mind off until you’ve done it? Yeah, my ikigai.
So pick up a piece of paper, or simply a journal if you want to do it the formal way, and start asking yourself these thoughtful questions.
Be honest, don’t deny what your mind speaks.
And you’ll realise that your ikigai, your passion, your purpose is buried deep inside you and has been since the very beginning.
What Owns You?
What things actually, quite obviously own you? What’s one thing you’ll let yourself get consumed by without a doubt or a second thought?
You’ll know this answer if you look inside.
Or maybe if you don’t know this answer, try asking some close friend of family about it. They’d know it since they’ve been observing you and have known you since long.
I didn’t know what owned me, what thing I was good at, so I asked my mother and she told me that I was good with words. (Eh…*shrugs modestly*)
For me, something that obviously owns me is the act of writing, my novels, my blog. That’s my purpose. So what’s yours?
What Drives You?
What’s the thing you to get up to do every morning? What motivates you to get out of your bed without turning off your alarm?
What’s one thing you’re ambitious about? What’s your determination? In hard times, what’s the thing that keeps pushing you forward?
What’s One Thing You’re Obsessed With?
I’m quite honestly obsessed with reading. And working. And writing. Every writer out there is obsessed with stories. (I’m also kind of obsessed with myself since I seem to talk a lot about me.)
If you don’t know the answer to this, try asking someone else about this too. Try observing what act you spend your most of the time on? What takes up majority of your thinking and working time?
What’s One Thing You’re Good At?
That’s obviously what you’ll spend most of your life doing. If you’re good at singing and music composition, you should probably do that. That might be your purpose.
There’s this thing in our class; probably every school in the world: if someone’s good at studying they’re probably supposed to be a chartered accountant (since I study accountacy, look, I told you i was self-obsessed).
What you’re good at is probably close to your purpose in life.
Do It The Ikigai Way
Ikigai explains this concept in a really good way.
Make lists. Make lists of things you love. Then of things you’re good at. And then finally of things that can help you make money. The common ground between all these lists would be your purpose in life.
If this post resonated with one thing deep within you that wants to make an impact, a difference, a firefly glowing bright and brilliant for one brief, beautiful second (because that’s what we all aspire to be, isn’t it—a firefly, seen and remembered), you can also check out my extensive blog post series My Formula For Changing The World.
Who knows, maybe your purpose in life is to change the world, after all.
