If organizations could have a purpose of why they exist, sportsmen could live a disciplined life to achieve a goal, political parties could come up with the most innovative ways to engage with their voters, every element of nature could play its part in keeping the balance of environment and every small & big body part of ours could play a definite role in keeping us alive and healthy, then why we as individuals, not care enough about the purpose of our existence?
There’s a reason why we all exist, why we are chosen to be this individual, in this role, with these set of skills and attitude. Different religions define life’s purpose differently, but they all do. A housewife in a small town of Eastern India made tasty pickles, someone asked her to start selling it to others, recently she won the best woman entrepreneur award by the President of India. Circumstances could lead you to discover your life’s purpose and there’s no defined age to discover it either.
What’s important for you to know is, clarity of life’s purpose is not a God given gift that is bestowed on only a selected few, each one of us, and let me make this clear, each one- a housewife, a student, a teacher, a small-medium entrepreneur, each one of us- can figure it out for our own self and then work around our life in a way that helps us get closer to achieving it.
Knowing why you exist is not a spiritual or a philosophical journey, it’s a basic question which should be answered as easily as what’s your favourite colour.
It’s only once you know, what is it that you are meant to do in life, will you take concrete steps to achieve it, and hence lead a much more fulfilled life which will not only give you happiness but would spread the positivity and vibes to all the people who come in your sphere of influence.
One of the reasons, why we loved R Madhavan’s character in the movie 3 Idiots was because a lot many of us could relate to how he was. Studying because father wanted him to study, not giving focus to what he really liked doing, because a defined career gives money and stability, which a hobby cannot. Basically, not being clear as to what makes him unique and gifted. Whereas, Aamir Khan knew exactly what he wanted and why he existed.
I come across many individuals who having attained all the corporate laurels, hefty bank balances, branded cars and addresses, still struggle with the thought of is this what I am supposed to do in life? The normal routine looks boring to them, it’s a pain to get out of bed every morning, but they do it because that’s the only thing they know they can do. If you’ve been following the corporate world, then you would observe that till a few years back a lot of emphasis was given on stress management and impact of stress on lifestyles and even relationships. The focus is now becoming more holistic towards health, well- being and personal development.
One of the key reasons is with the new approach, the individuals are taught to become more self-aware. Who are they? What are their core values and beliefs? What makes them unique? What is their life’s purpose? Once the answers to these questions are clear, no stress remains, because your daily life becomes centred around what makes you a happier, better individual.
I will leave you with these pointers for the time being and in the next post, help you with ways by which you could know what your life’s purpose is:
- Life purpose needs to be defined, written down and then broken into action items
- You could have broad based life purposes which say I want to be a happy person, who spreads happiness to anyone I meet or it can be specific as to I want to be a happy wife and mother (for all other roles, you can be non-happy then!)
- A life purpose doesn’t necessarily have to be big, it could be as clear as I want to dish out tasty food for my family every night.
- One could have more than one life purpose. You could choose to be a happy mom, a top performer and a marathon runner, all at the same time
- Life purpose may or may not be linked to money. You could wish to be a home entrepreneur who works with only poor and needy or you could be a home entrepreneur who contributed X% of money to monthly family earnings
- It should be about YOU first- what defines you, and what you wish to do, which will make you a content and happy being.
More on this, in the next post. Till then, spend some time jotting down what makes you really happy.
Be the first to comment