The purpose of life - an ancient question that humans have been discussing and wondering about for thousands of years.
Maybe it's even the most discussed question in history!
Well, essentially everybody has to determine their purpose in life for themselves.
Maybe you feel unhappy with your current life situation, you don't have specific goals to chase or you don't know what to do with your life at all.
You have to find your mission, your passion, your WHY! The reason WHY you are doing what you're doing!
Let's start with some Tips about Self-Discovery:
1) Start off with a clear mind.
Getting to know yourself and finding your passion isn't a short or easy task, and you won't be able to accomplish it if you're constantly worrying or being distracted by other things in your life.
2) Get to know yourself.
You're probably thinking you already know that, but I'm talking about actually analyzing your thought patterns and behaviour. You can do that by asking yourself the RIGHT questions, for example: What are my values? What do I want to achieve in life? What stops me from doing that? What's my motivation?
3) Don't be distracted or discouraged by others.
Finding your passion is something that's only YOUR business. Don't compare yourself to others, or be discouraged by their opinion. You are doing this for yourself and no one else.
4) Follow your heart.
As cheesy as it sounds - this is true. Listen to yourself, and what you enjoy doing. What's your passion? Is it an activity, an artform, or maybe something entirely different like helping people or creating something with your hands or exploring - whatever it is, follow your heart rather than your brain in this case. Don't think too much about it, just do what feels "right" to you.
And what if you have no idea what that is? Your passion is not always something you've been doing for years or something you're great at. But everybody has something they enjoy doing. Whatever it is, start from there and follow the path!
5) Don't put pressure on yourself.
When you tell yourself "I have to figure out what to do with my life" and feel like you have to choose ONE thing only, you are only making the process harder for yourself. Finding your true passion is a process that can take several years, and it doesn't always have to be ONE specific thing only!
Okay, now you have found your passion, how do you get started and pursue it?
Take a piece of paper, and write down the goals you want to achieve with your passion in 6 months and in 1 year. Depending on your goal, these could be things like "practice singing everyday and then participate in this competition" or "start my online business by designing a website" or "read a book every week and teach others about it".
And then, write another list of things you can do RIGHT NOW to get started.
For our examples above, this could be "Practice to sing Song XY" or "research marketing strategies for my online business" or "call someone today and help them with their problem".
You have found something and tried it out - how do you know if what you're doing is ACTUALLY your passion?
Are you in "The Zone" when pursuing it?
Being in the Zone means that your work doesn't feel like work at all. You are so busy in the process, that time flies and you forget everything around you - your worries, the time, and sometimes I even forget to eat because being in the Zone means being so extremely focused. You are excited, productive and work quickly.
This feeling has many different names and has been scientifically proven in different studies, it's also often called "FLOW" as described in the book by Mihály Csikszentmihalyi.
When you feel like this while working on your new passion/goal, you know that you have found something you truly enjoy - and only then you have the possibility to actually stick with it!
You will also know that you have found your true passion when you naturally feel like you want to do it. You wake up and are excited to start working on your new project, no one has to force you or give you an additional motivation to start.
What if you are afraid to fail?
First of all, failure is part of life. And as long as you learn from your mistakes, you never really "fail" anyway. You either win, or you lose, learn from it, try again, and THEN win.
Our society has taught us that mistakes are bad, and that failing is unacceptable.
But you have to view mistakes from a different perspective!
Mistakes are simply signals from your environment, telling you: This is not the right way, you might want to try another one!
Learn to view it as "Feedback" rather than "Failure"!
Many people live life without ever finding their WHY, they just work and get older. They don't achieve their dreams because they don't have their WHY defined - their reason and motivation to do it!
Find a WHY that's strong enough to keep you going, even when times get rough, and that still makes you enjoy the ride!
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