The 4 Steps to Finding Your Purpose That No One Told You About

Your ability to go out, compete for jobs and earn a living reveals that you’re self-sufficient and deserves recognition. Yet, at the end of the day, you may experience the inevitable question: Is this all there is?

To achieve greater levels of fulfillment, you need a higher calling than just serving your individual needs or pursuing external rewards.

But getting to that next level of fulfillment requires a bigger purpose -- and it won't show up by itself.  Most people passively wait for their purpose, agonizing over their failure to become inspired or the fact that life is passing them by. The truth is, they are making this too complicated.

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For the purpose of this exercise, we'll use the same example throughout the article. Keep in mind that this technique can be applied to any area of interest.

The 4 steps to finding your life's purpose 

1. What do I enjoy doing for fun?

To give your life purpose, you need find out what’s important to you first.

What are the things that you like to do? What do you spend time on when you’re not working? This could include hobbies like reading, woodworking, fixing old motorcycles, working out, playing tennis, golfing, or whatever else you like to do for fun. 

List all the things that you like to do, and pick your top passion activity.

2.  Who needs what I know?

If your top passion activity is reading about business strategy, then spend some time searching for Facebook groups, book review blogs, forums, LinkedIn groups, or look for local book clubs. Find ways to connect with people who could benefit from your knowledge on the topic you're passionate about. 

Once you’ve established a list of contacts and joined online or in-person groups, start reaching out and engaging those who could use your help. Make it your mission to find out what their passions are and what kind of problems they experience.

You will get a variety of answers about obstacles you could potentially help these people with, so take notes.

3. What do they want?

By engaging with others, you start to understand things.

For example, if we stick to the interest in business strategy mentioned above, you could notice that startups are desperate for sales and the revenue they bring in, but they can’t afford to hire a high-priced consultant.

Many startups will fail prematurely simply because they are not able to target their ideal customer and take them through the sales cycle by helping them solve a problem. 

As someone who is passionate about business strategy, you understand that startups need to grasp how to setup a system of lead-generation. This lead-generation system targets their ideal customer while having a process in place that takes the customer from prospect to client while adding value to both sides.

4.  How will they change as a result?

The company learns to create its own lead-generation campaigns and becomes self-sustaining.

This increases the odds that the startup will succeed and prosper, thanks to you simply doing what you already love to do. 

Crafting Your Life’s Purpose

Try this exercise for yourself and answer each of the four questions in order. Now, distill your answer into a statement for your life’s purpose.

Some of the life-purpose statements could look like this: 

Don't overcomplicate things

You can have a lot of fun with this as you refine your message, but be careful about dismissing the exercise as too simple.

It’s supposed to be simple.

Too many people overcomplicate the process of finding their purpose and make it more complex than it has to be.

The key to this process is understanding that this is not about money, but about helping elevate others so they can fulfill what’s truly important to them. By doing so, they can reach their dreams and goals while you fulfill your sense of contribution, adding meaning to your life. Oh, and this is also the perfect way to start making a living doing what you love.