5 Key Questions to Help you Better Understand your Life's Purpose
We all feel “off” once in a while. When most people come to talk with me it is because they have felt this way for some time. Can you relate? I hear the words unsatisfied or stuck. I hear that they don’t feel like they are contributing to something meaningful, or they are unhappy and just know they don’t want to feel this way.
To address this, we’re going to go back to the day you were born. On that day, when you were formed as a human being, you were given a unique and special set of gifts. These were “hard wired” into you as a person. In other words, it is a special code imbedded in you as to what you are good at and how you can contribute to the world.
The tricky part of this is you aren’t told what that code is! Wouldn’t it have been nice if you were given your own personal manual that you left the hospital with and that you were able to access any time you want? It would have been great if you could look at it and know right away, I am better at playing the piano and reading music. Or, oh, I am more gifted than others at understanding people. What about the areas in which your brain doesn’t work as well? Like, while you have been given the gift of being able to write descriptively, you are going to have trouble interpreting time and will often be late.
Well, we weren’t given this “gift manual” or code. So, that leaves it up to us to figure out as we go through life. After all, isn’t that really what we are all trying to do? In a variety of ways, we’re all looking to find what this code is that’s locked inside of us so that we can be our best selves and contribute to the earth in a way that satisfies what we were born to do. These are the reasons we are here and the legacy we are to leave in this world. Understanding what this is and then being intentional about using these gifts in your work and life is what satisfies us and brings us meaning.
To complicate matters even more, as we are living our lives and looking for this code, that we often don’t even know we’re looking for, there are influences around us that further affect our search. These influences are people and experiences that we have that shape who we are. Sometimes these influences serve us well on our journey to find our gifts, and sometimes they don’t and can actually get us off track. Our gifts and code are unique to us and throughout our lives can be either nurtured, buried, or can get derailed. How we interpret our experiences can either keep us on course or take us off course.
When we are off course, we are stuck. When we are off course, we feel “off.” We are unhappy and unfulfilled.
Here are 5 key questions to help you better understand your code:
What am I good at? List all.
What do I love to do that completely energizes me?
What don’t I like to do or what drains my energy? Note here, these could be things listed in question one. Just because you are good at something, doesn’t mean it fits your purpose.
Regardless of what anyone thinks, or any other influences, what legacy do I want to leave that is unique and special to me? What things do I not want to leave this earth having not completed?
What fears do I have that are getting in my way?
It is said we spend the first half of our life proving ourselves, and the second half finding meaning. Understanding your specific code is a key to this and once you are on that path, even the hardest work is fun and fulfilling. You have a specific purpose. It is time to find it and take action.