This is part 1 of a 7-part series on how to find your life purpose.
- Part 1: How To Find Your Life Purpose: Introduction
- Part 2: 5 Reasons You Should Have a Life Purpose
- Part 3: Why Earning Money Is Not Your Real Purpose (And How To Know What Is)
- Part 4: Two Important Things that Led Me to Discover My Life Purpose
- Part 5: 6 Things To Consider Before Discovering Your Purpose
- Part 6: How To Discover Your Real Life Purpose in 30 Minutes
- Part 7: Living in Alignment with Your Purpose
“The biggest threat to our well-being is the absence of moral clarity and purpose.” — Rich Sherman
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you’re alive, it isn’t.” — Richard Bach
Have you ever wondered what is the meaning of life?
What is your life purpose? Do you know what you are here on Earth for?
Most people don’t think about their life purpose.
For many, they see life as doing what they are told and living out a pre-defined existence. Life is about studying, working, starting a family, having kids, going for a holiday once in a while, and then dying from sickness or old age at some point.
To them, the idea of having a purpose is dumb or even “hippy.” They are more interested in following the latest fads, following what the media says, shopping, and following the life path as defined by society and government. Questioning things is just being silly.
For the apathetic who are jaded about life, life is just… life. Eat, sleep, wake up, get things done, rinse and repeat. They don’t see the point about thinking deeper or creating a meaningful life.
For the nihilistic who find no meaning in life, they feel that it is pointless to find a life purpose. To them, life has no intrinsic meaning or value. Why find a purpose if something has no meaning?
But what if I am to tell you that you have a specific purpose in life? One that’s different from what you have been taught all this while? One that’s greater than anything you have ever imagined?
What if the meaning of your life is far greater than anything you’ve been told about yourself and the world, but you just can’t see it yet because you’ve been repressing your true and highest self?
How To Find Your Life Purpose series
If you
- are looking for your purpose,
- aren’t sure if you are living your purpose right now,
- aren’t interested in finding a purpose yet you are reading this page for some reason, or
- don’t believe that you have a purpose or that life has a purpose,
then this series is for you.
For some of you, you may be skeptical about this series. For the nihilistic of you who believe life is meaningless, you may think that this series is utter rubbish. For the apathetic of you who don’t care about whether you have a purpose or not, you may view this series with scorn. Life purpose? Who cares?
That’s fine. The point is that you’re here at this blog, and you’re reading this now for a reason. To you, I invite you to read this series with an open mind, without bias. Do not approach this series with judgment, scorn, or expectation, but simply with an open intent to learn. For it is when we adopt an open mind that we learn the most, as opposed to evaluating things with a closed mind and skepticism.
At the end of the day, there’s no harm in reading this series, except an hour or so of your time invested. If you don’t like what you read by the time you are done, you can close shop and move on. If you hate the content, you can leave and never come back. If you disagree with some of the content, you are welcome to embrace your own views, without obligation to change any opinion. I do not expect you to change anything about yourself.
But, let’s say that somehow, through the course of this life purpose series, you discover something new about yourself and your life.
What’s going to happen? Firstly, you’ll be able to take this knowledge and apply that right away. You’ll be able to use this nugget of information to further yourself in your journey. Secondly, you’ll become wiser than before you read this series, which is the goal of everything I write on this blog.
And let’s say… through this series, you find your life purpose. Your life purpose that has eluded you all this while, but becomes so clear all of a sudden.
What’s going to happen?
Suddenly, life as you know it will be different. Suddenly, you discover a whole new spectrum of life that you never knew before. Suddenly, you wake up each day with a new-found zest of what’s to come, and what you’re about to do — more than you have ever done before.
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I’m not saying that you’ll find your life purpose just by reading this series. That depends on how far along you are in your self-development, how much thought you put into this series, and how far you take the content and exercise that I’ll be sharing in the next few parts.
All I’m saying is, having a purpose is a part of living a conscious life. I want to support you in living your best life ever. By keeping an open mind (and heart), you allow yourself to gain new insights, in turn accelerating your path towards living your highest life.
If you feel that you have full clarity of your purpose, I invite you to read this series with an open mind and see what comes out of it. Sometimes, it’s possible that what we think is the truth isn’t the truth, in which it’s by adopting an open mind that the real truth will come to us. If what you think is your purpose is truly your purpose, it’ll come back to you by the time we’re done.
My hope is that by the end of this series, you’ll be several steps closer towards finding your real purpose — in turn, living a conscious life of your creation. Whether you find your purpose or not is a secondary effect that happens when the right things are in place. Like I often share with my clients, progress, not perfection, is the key.
Here’s my hand — I’m stretching it out to you now. In the next few parts of this series, I’ll be walking you through the journey of finding your purpose — your highest mission in life.
Proceed to Part 2: 5 Reasons You Should Have a Life Purpose, where we look into what is a life purpose and why it’s important to have one.
This is part 1 of a 7-part series on how to find your life purpose.
- Part 1: How To Find Your Life Purpose: Introduction
- Part 2: 5 Reasons You Should Have a Life Purpose
- Part 3: Why Earning Money Is Not Your Real Purpose (And How To Know What Is)
- Part 4: Two Important Things that Led Me to Discover My Life Purpose
- Part 5: 6 Things To Consider Before Discovering Your Purpose
- Part 6: How To Discover Your Real Life Purpose in 30 Minutes
- Part 7: Living in Alignment with Your Purpose
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Once a long time ago, my life purpose was devoted to a particular rose whom i cared about with all my heart……
However, the rose died and i need to find a new purpose to life…. (tarot)
Hi Shimure :) The interesting thing is Part-5 actually covers the factors to consider when identifying your purpose – one of them is about giving your purpose a limitless definition and not hinged on 1 particular entity. This helps ensure your life is anchored on universal principles which will never be shakable by anything. I’ll be posting part-5 up very soon! :)
I really don’t know what to do with my life. I’ve got many, many years ahead of me that are ready for action, but I don’t know what to do. :?
Purpose of Allah’s (swt) Creation of Man & Jinn
Surah Adh–Dhariya,t 51:56
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونِ
Wa maa khalaqtul-Jin-na wal-’insa ’il-laa liya‘-buduun.
56. And (tell them that) I have not created the invisible beings and men to any end other than that they may (know and) worship Me.
Thus, the innermost purpose of the creation of all rational beings is their cognition (Marifah) of the existence of God and, hence, their conscious willingness to conform their own existence to whatever they may perceive of His Will and plan: and it is this two fold concept of cognition and willingness that gives the deepest meaning to what the Qur’an describes as “worship” (ibadah).
It is to be noted too that this spiritual call does not arise from any supposed “need” on the part of the Creator, who is self-sufficient and infinite in His power, but is designed as an instrument for the inner development of the worshipper, who, by the act of his conscious self-surrender to the all-pervading Creative Will, may hope to come closer to an understanding of that Will and, thus, closer to Allah (swt) Himself. This is therefore the object of creation, in the Holy Book, to act according to the Will and command of the Creator, the absolute submission to His Will i.e. Islam.
http://www.al-islam.org/excerpts-from-the-holy-quran-an-eternal-guidance-to-mankind/allahs-swt-creations
incredible
Oh God thank you for such an insightful information from someone so rich in knowledge and understanding about life. I have been sleepwalking all along. Thanks very much.
I am a new visitor in this site…
thank you so much for share this mindblowing information ….
I have no real purpose now, I’m sure that, very soon I will find my real purpose on the earth ….be happy :-)
Ah Celes, I’m so excited for your revisit on this series! Near the beginning of the year I read through the series, and have since then done a few sessions trying to discover my purpose. I haven’t been successful, but that just makes me more eager to follow along with the series! =)
I’m not sure if I haven’t yet found my purpose because I don’t have enough life experiences, or because of personal blocks I have (I get excited to do the exercise, but I feel an undercurrent of, “well, this hasn’t worked yet, so why would it be any different this time?”), or maybe both. But I will be following this series diligently. =)
Calae, you’re so fast! I was still rewriting the post after I published it, so I imagine the post is quite dramatically different from when you posted this comment. Hopefully you’ll get to read the re-written part 1 above — I hope to publish part 2 in the next few days!
I was actually thinking of you while I was starting the re-write (because I remember your earlier comments re: finding your purpose before), and am hoping this re-write will somehow support you in your purpose discovery journey! Like I mentioned in the new part 1 above, “Whether you find your purpose or not is a secondary effect that happens when the right pieces are in place, and isn’t the primary goal here.” Don’t worry too much about whether you find your purpose or not, but simply read the material with an open mind and heart, without expectations/hope. I see the discovery of one’s purpose as more of an “effect” than a goal actually, and hopefully the series will help move everyone a few steps closer towards finding their desired purpose in life.
I think that with you working now and everything, it’s definitely a big step toward gaining a new set of life experiences. Definitely keep pursuing your various interests, which will help you to get more insights on what you really like vs. not. By the way, have I ever pointed you to this article before? https://personalexcellence.co/blog/what-to-do-in-life/ (I think I may have?) It may well reflect your previous “block” with regards to the purpose exercise, I think!
Haha, I saw your facebook post when I had a break which is why I clicked it right away! I haven’t read this particular article in a while so it felt “new” to me and I had no idea it wasn’t updated yet! I just re-read it right now, so I’m up to speed. xD
I’m honored that you thought of me while you started the re-write! I will do my best to keep your advice in mind about going through this without expectations. =)
I think I may have read that article before, but as I don’t quite remember I will definitely check it out! Thanks again for all of your encouragement/support! =D Can’t wait to see the rest of the re-writes!
Okay awesome!! Actually the one you wrote right after clicking from Facebook was already rewritten, but I felt it could be better so I did a near-total re-write after that. I’m glad I did as I find this version much better!
Okay, I look forward to your comments in the other parts! I’m working on part 2 now, but need to pause on Fri and Sat as I’ll be working on the next module of Soulmate Journey. Hopefully it’ll be up on Sunday or Monday!
Celes,
Please see Youtube: Alan Watts – Is there a purpose to living. The reason is that there are many reasons to feel that purpose does not imply happiness, nor life, nor happiness. I know that you are wonderful as a blogger and wanted to share. Jason
I totally agree that purpose doesn’t imply life or happiness. I have clients who approach me before with the sole objective of finding their purpose, thinking that it’s the #1 thing that will change everything, and I often work on setting the tone and expectations straight first that finding our purpose is part of the process and isn’t a miracle pill, because often the thinking that finding a purpose will “change everything” isn’t true at all.
However, just because purpose doesn’t imply life or happiness doesn’t mean that we don’t work on finding it, because the fact is that it is one of the fundamental first steps toward conscious living. It’s the same argument in that formal education doesn’t necessarily lead to an eventful and vibrant career, but that doesn’t mean that we forgo education because it does in some ways prepare us in living a better life. Just because A doesn’t necessarily lead to B doesn’t mean there isn’t merit in exploring A, because A is still very much important at the end of the day. I’ll be covering more in part two!
What if what you enjoy doing is not your life purpose?
I’ve identified my life purpose as helping people fulfill them potential. But recently I did an exercise where I’ve to list things that I enjoyed doing and comes easy for me and ranked them, I realised that helping people is on the top.
The energy level I feel towards no. 1 and no. 2 are very different as well although I still feel happy and charged about helping people.
I wonder what’s wrong here?
Ultimately there should be an alignment between what we enjoy doing and what our life purpose is. There should be a distinction made between “enjoy” and “passionate” too; for example someone may enjoy gardening and working with pets but what he/she is really passionate about is ultimately sharing stories and working with people, in which case the latter will be a closer match for his/her purpose.
If anything, I actually think the two examples you listed — helping people fulfill their potential and helping people — are one and the same thing. The former is probably better defined as a subset of the latter, but they represent the same direction of thinking to me. Perhaps what’s needed here is simply a further refinement in the message, which we’ll be exploring as we progress in the series.
Sorry Celes, it was late and I didn’t read through before sending.
What I meant was helping people fulfill potential is one of the top on the list for me. It’s no. 2 while organizing and hosting events is no. 1 for me.
I enjoy coaching people but given the opportunity to help someone plan a wedding, I’ll probably jump at the latter.
But yes, regardless, I am looking forward to this series and refine my message along the way.
I’ve found the idea of a life’s purpose to be intimidating because it sounds like each of us (a) only has one life’s purpose and (b) that purpose is predetermined, and remains fixed. Celes, what are your thoughts on this? Can we have multiple purposes? Do they change as our life progresses?
Great read. Excited for the rest!
Awesome question, and you’ll be delighted to know that I’ve actually addressed this in part 2! It’ll be out hopefully soon (it’s taking some time as I’m currently running a live course plus managing other work on the business front) — stay tuned!
Thank you very much for considering that Celes, i have read your life purpose ebook numerous times and I love the content, it challenged me to want to discover why am I here (although I must admit at first it didn’t look like something achievable) now I know why I am here…and oh tears did rush down my cheeks when I discovered mine. looking forward to the updated version
That is fantastic Sanele! :D I’m so glad to know that you’ve discovered yours! You are welcome to share that here or later on in the series too btw.
I enjoyed your life purpose series the first time around. I’ve tried quite a few exercises but never come up with a life purpose that feels completely right to me, so I’m looking forward to reading the updated series. :)
Thanks for this series. Hope Part II is out soon. I’m 20 and people always ask me what I want to do for my career. I know there’s no shame in not knowing because I’m still young. Almost everyone my age isn’t fully sure, but my parents constantly bother me about it. I do want to discover my purpose and live happy life doing it. Your writing is very good and you have lots of insight. Excited to read the rest of this series.
I am 62 and would love to get a purpose of life now. It will be great if priorities get sorted out and direction is seen clearly.
Hi Karun, that’s timely that you came across this series then. I hope it helps you find the answer you’re looking for! :)
I sent a reply but seems missed to reach you due to technical issues. I found my life purpose when I just woke up from my sleep 3 days ago, after reading your article. I am excited and directed towards it. This is ” To be Happy & Hopeful and Healthy & Helpful”. Please share your opinion as I have started living a better life now. Thank you so much.
I love that you’re re-writing this :) ! My view in life has never been the same again since I found PE. Lately I finished my pastry studies and felt I had an ‘aha’ moment as soon as I finished. I’m still trying to find a job in what I studied just for the sake of finding an easy income, but I also signed up to this classes with a local life coach who teaches how to start your own small business to women from my island.
I felt like sharing that her teachings remind me a lot about you and I started to notice a growing interest inside me to start mg own business, I started selling with super small steps and I’m really slowly tryinf to grow bigger with my super low budget, but for the first time in my life I felt happy to be in control. I felt I was made for this. I realized the reason I signed up for pastry chef was not because I liked cooking that much, it was actually from my deep root desire to have control in my life, control what I sell, make my own income with the few I have.
I’m not even selling sweets, just selling stuff in general depending on what I want to sell and from my desire to blogging, to writing, to cooking, blah, blah. I realized it was all just sparks from my true passion that is creating and selling and being a business women and just simply being in control.
I plan to continue my studies on business and graphic design. I just felt like sharing this because I know another PE reader might see it and I know how many College students struggle with realizing their degree was not what they wished for after they’re almost ending it.
It was really hard for me to finish the last months but that small ‘mistake’ was what eventually led me to my real hidden passion which was making my own business (still thinking of my niche though). I’m thinking every single day how I want to do my business and I cry of excitement imagining the moment I’ll achieve my dream and can’t stop thinking about it. To think I HATE math lol but I’m excitedly thinking about this type of stuff.
PS: I felt like letting you know I still kept my diet but sadly got hospitalized in two ocassions and couldn’t eat so I lost all the weight I owned!! So I’m back to 0!! But I’m back in health and I tried the same diet plan and it worked AGAIN! :’D in just a week I was able to go from 85 to 87 (for my body it’s a big deal) but the I have to be super careful to not skip meals because I literelly loose a pound just by skipping for one day. A long journey but at least it’s fun. Thank you so much for the insights on that challenge!!!
I really hate writing from my phone. So many typos!! >_<
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