The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.
A question everyone must ask him/herself is this, “what is my purpose in life?” This answer to this question, although simple it might be, it’s the source of true fulfilment.
If you walk around your town or city right now, do you know that out of every 20 people you come across, only 1 of them knows what there purpose in life is?
Anyone who’s not on their purpose can never truly be happy or fulfilled. There is a difference between doing what you are good at and doing what you love.
When I was working in the Care Sector, I was good at the job. I was one of the best staffs but I also knew then that it doesn’t really make me happy. I was just good at it. And that was that.
Christ said in the book of Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” The kingdom of God Jesus was talking about is not somewhere in the sky or somewhere you will end up if you live a righteous life while here on this earth.
The kingdom of God Jesus was talking about is your Purpose in life. It is that thing you wake up for, every morning. It is that thing you are prepared to do whether you get paid for it or not. It is your contribution to the human race. It is that thing that after you have dedicated your time and energy to it, you can look back proudly and say to yourself, “Indeed I have lived.“
You might have read to this point and be wondering or asking yourself, this simple question, “what is my purpose in life?” Let me help you find out your “own answer”.
What Is Purpose?
A definite purpose is the thing that defines who you are as a person and guides your actions. It is why you are here on this earth.
If I walk up to you right now and ask you, who are you? What defines you? Which qualities do you believe are your core traits? And finally, name one thing you love passionately, that you will happily do for the rest of your life if we live in a world where money is not needed and all our basic necessities are met?
How would you answer the above questions? Your answer to the above questions will make it abundantly to you what your life purpose is.
I have come to the conclusion that a person characteristics and traits are always in line with there purpose. Florence Nightingale was a compassionate woman, so you can see how caring for others become her purpose in life. Your core qualities will ALWAYS be in line with your life purpose.
God didn’t send you to this reality empty-handed. He actually gave you everything you need to succeed in life. He gave you talents and qualities which no other person possess in the same way as you do. You just need to identify which qualities you possess and that thing you are the best at.
Know thyself is a short statement but it’s packed with more power that you can even begin to imagine. I say this because it is only when you “Know thyself” that you can truly know your true value. It is only when you “Know thyself” that you can start to identify the qualities you possess. And it is only when you “Know thyself” you can align yourself with your life purpose.
Just in case you are still on the fence about finding out what your purpose in life is, here are some of the benefits of you being on your purpose:
– It gives your life a meaning
– It gives your life a direction. Tells you where you want to go.
– It explains why you get out of bed in the morning.
– It is the reason you do the things you do.
After you have identified what your life purpose is, the next thing naturally is the vision to turn it into reality. This leads us to the next section of this article.
Vision To Achieve
What is a vision? A vision is how you will achieve your purpose.
For example let say you identified or knew that your purpose in life is to become a motivational speaker, the next step is the vision to turn that purpose into reality.
In your vision to turn your purpose into reality, you should try as much as possible to have a step by step plan of your vision. It is in the same manner that a person who wants to become a doctor will have a vision of scoring high marks in secondary school and then scoring A’s in GCSE. The A’s the person scored in his or her GCSE exam will give him or her opportunities to study at a University of his or her liking.
In same manner that a student who wants to become a doctor will have a vision of scoring high marks in his or her GCSE and then going to a University to study medicine before becoming an intern and eventually a doctor, so will someone whose purpose in life is to become a motivational speaker will have a vision of learning public speaking, reading many books, practising public speaking on a consistent basis and finally trying it out on a real audience.
Everything stated above in the previous paragraph are just a vision of turning a purpose into reality. As you must have noticed in the previous paragraph, the visions were broken down into stages. These stages are called goals. This leads to the final part of this article; which is goals.
Goals
What is a goal? A goal is how you will realize your vision.
Your goal or goals are the stages in your vision. I will make this section of the article as simple as it can possibly be.
Let me explain. After you have identified what your purpose in life is, the natural next phase is to have the vision to turn it into reality. Your vision MUST be broken down into stages. This stages of your vision are called goals.
The goals in your vision must be broken down into stages and numbered. You must number the stages in their order of priority. With the most important stage numbered as 1. And you must discipline yourself to complete number 1 before moving on to the number 2 thing on your list.
Conclusion
Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others. ― Roy T. Bennett.
The above quote by Roy T. Bennett encourages you to live the life of your dreams. What is your life dream? What is that thing you would like to dedicate your life to if paying bills, peer pressure and societal expectations were not an issue?
The quote by Roy T. Bennett also said that you should “be brave enough to live the life of your dreams”. I encourage you to do the same. Out of every species on this planet, we are the most fearful of all and the funny thing is that the main source of most of our fears are bills.
Bills, bills and bills have conditioned us to be stuck in a job we despise for years. How can this be? A lot of time people are afraid to do the right because it might affect their earnings.
Be brave enough to follow your heart to that unknown territory of your desires. Know thy self. Know what is it that you are on this earth for. For it is from knowing what your purpose in life is will discover your “kingdom of God and its righteousness“.
Finally, remember that after you know what your life purpose is, the next thing is the vision to realize it and this vision must be broken down into stages. These stages are what are referred to as goals.
I hope you’ve found this article useful in one way or the other. If you know anyone who might find it useful, please be kind enough to share it with them using the share buttons at the top of this article.
Please also share it on your social media pages, someone might find it helpful.
Have a wonderful day.
Mr Ben.