Your greater purpose in life is to discover your gift and deliver it to the world. Pursuing your purpose is the reason you were born.
When modern humans first appeared, everyone’s purpose was to survive and procreate. That purpose was hard-wired in our brains. Simple. Stay alive and make babies.
Today, life is more complex, and we can pursue many options beyond survival. But our original brain wiring has remained unchanged. So, many of us define our greater purpose as comfortable survival.
That belief is mistaken. In truth, a fundamental principle for living a full life is to make the world a little better for you having been here. To have a purpose beyond comfortable survival.
To better grasp this principle, consider these three questions.
- Do you believe that you don’t have anything special or unique to give the world?
- Do you believe that almost everyone knows what you know, or has your abilities and skills?
- Do you believe your purpose in life is to survive as comfortably as possible?
If you answered YES to any of these questions, you are living with mistaken beliefs.
All of us have a unique gift that is exclusively ours to give to those we touch and to the world at large.
But if you don’t know that greater purpose exists, how would you know what experiencing your greater purpose feels like?
Greater purpose can feel like the difference between walking with a limp vs. having strong, pain-free legs that allow you to dance, run, jump, and enjoy life at a far more gratifying level.
Your greater purpose need not be grand in scope. It can be found in the little things you do that define your uniqueness because only you can deliver it like you do.
If you have not yet discovered your greater purpose, or if you believe you don’t have one, here is one important tip to help you find your greater purpose. It is an excerpt from a chapter on Greater Purpose in my soon to be released book: What’s Next – How to Make Your Next Chapter Your Best Chapter.
If you do not yet know what you believe to be your special gift, REFLECT.
- Think back to situations and experiences in which you contributed something special that touched people in unique ways.
- Look for patterns over the years in which you delivered that same kind of uniqueness to other situations – and how they affected people and outcomes.
- Reflect on how you felt after those experiences. Joy? A sense of fulfillment? If not those emotions, then what else did you feel?
- What are you passionate about? How do you or how can you express those passions in ways that relate to other people?
Keep a journal. Write about your experiences. Your greater purpose lies somewhere in that collection of your experiences. It’s waiting for you to discover it. Start digging.