Before we discuss how you can take the first step towards finding your purpose and living it, it’s important to clarify what purpose actually is. We believe that everyone has a purpose in life – a purpose to be of service to the world. It’s the reason for our existence, as well as to experience unconditional love and joy; purpose provides us with meaning. Most of us find it difficult to identify what our true purpose is. Others have a feeling that they know what it is, but are often forced to conform with society’s norms and choose to ignore the path to purpose, to be practical.
Think of purpose like a football, or soccer (for our American readers). The purpose of this ball is to be kicked. If the ball just sits there doing nothing in the corner of a room, its purpose is being ignored – however it doesn’t care because it has no soul. Imagine now that the ball has a soul; giving the ball self-consciousness. If the ball stayed sitting in the corner of the room, it would have a weird feeling inside of it, like something is missing. It won’t feel fulfilled because it would probably feel as if it hasn’t shown the world its true worth.
Now imagine someone finally picks up this ball and decides to play catch with it. As the ball is thrown around, it feels ecstatic; being moved around brings it emotions of joy. However moments later, the ball will still feel somewhat unfulfilled, because although it had fun, it still wasn’t enough. The ball could then be used in a variety of ways, with heaps of action, but still feel unfulfilled. The ball assumes that the more events that occur in its life, the more fulfilment the ball will reach. Until one day, when it’s kicked. In this moment, everything makes sense to the ball. It understands what it was designed for; it was supposed to be kicked. It looks back at the events that have already taken place and starts connecting the dots. When it was being moved in the air and when it felt someone applying pressure to it, these were feelings of excitement that related to the ball’s purpose. The ball now knows what it had been soul-searching for, all along.
See, most of the time we are used for different purposes and gain some satisfaction out of it, but rarely do we get lasting satisfaction. That’s not to say that you can’t be happy – after all, happiness is a choice. Yet, we can only feel ultimate fulfilment if we are used for the purpose that we were designed for by creation. Now that you have some idea about what purpose is and why it’s important, we’re going to explain how you can start finding your purpose and begin doing what you love.
It’s all about excitement!
To answer the questions above, we’re going to use suggestions from the book Think. Grow. Prosper by our good friend Ruben Chavez. We highly recommend that you buy this book; it’s one of the best investments you can make to empower your mind and improve your life. It’s very detailed yet concise; at around 50 pages, it doesn’t beat around the bush. It’s a very simple read too – no decorative language to explain simple concepts. The book gives you everything you need to know to transform your life into a life that you will love!
When trying to figure out your purpose, or at least get on the right path towards it, the first step is always the hardest. Where do I begin? You’ve probably worked out that you need to take some form of action. Take action on whatever it is that truly excites you, and that you perceive to be in your reach. It really is as simple as this. Don’t overcomplicate it by thinking that you need to have it all figured out. Also, don’t be dishonest with yourself and force action on something you feel is unfeasible. For example, if you really like drawing then you could start up a website or social media accounts and share some of your work. Don’t try and sell your drawings for thousands of dollars right away on eBay instead, especially if this seems like a long-shot to you.
Excitement here is just something you feel passionate about, or something that makes you feel good. However, don’t be mistaken. Don’t choose something that you label as exciting because you can’t think of anything else. It must be something that you feel is natural to you.
“…act on the things that genuinely excite you, not the things you label as “exciting” to distract yourself from what actually does excites you.” – Ruben Chavez
Ruben has suggested in his book that you act on your excitement without expecting anything in particular. Now this might seem odd, considering that we promote taking a positive approach to life. However, what is meant here is that you should act on your excitement because it feels good to you, not because you want to gain anything in particular. For example, if you love creating your own recipes and decide to share them on the internet, do it because you enjoy the idea of sharing your own work with the world. It’s absolutely fine to want it to lead somewhere great, like a book deal – we recommend that you maintain a positive vision. Nevertheless, don’t do it just for a specific result, otherwise you’ll find that if you don’t see results straight away, you may become disheartened and divert away from your excitement. This is commonly known as giving up!
You may be asking right now, how does acting on my excitement solve my purpose? The quote below taken directly from the book pretty much answers this question:
“The more you demonstrate to the universe that you’re willing to act on what excites you at any given moment, the more the universe will reflect those opportunities back to you by giving you more exciting things to act upon until your days eventually become a synchronistic string of events that will ultimately put you on the path to your life purpose.” – Ruben Chavez
Start small. Even if it means just looking into things; any sort of action in the right direction is better than going in the wrong direction, or no action at all. The small things will lead to the bigger things… And eventually your purpose will unfold. Enjoy the journey by following your excitement and accept that everything you experience will put you in alignment with your purpose. A good friend of ours was in a full-time job and decided that to take inspired action on what excited him. This was music. He loved music and always downloaded the latest songs. He was the guy everyone went to, to find out what new songs were lurking around, that were potentially going to be hits. He eventually found himself looking for more exclusive material and decided to reach out to unsigned artists that were making great music. He then started a blog and featured these artists, along with their music and his own reviews. This then led to opportunities in managing upcoming artists, and eventually he became a music scout for one of the biggest labels in the world. He now finds undiscovered talent and signs them onto to the label he works at, whilst developing them into the complete artist. He identifies this as his purpose and believes it all began from him just keeping up-to-date with his music.
As you can see, the small steps will always lead to your bigger desires, when you follow your excitement. Things can change; you may eventually find yourself doing something a bit different to where you started, but that’s okay! It’s all about taking action and following your excitement; this is the best way to discover your true passions and purpose to reach ultimate fulfilment. Our friend in the story above was working a 9-5 during a lot of his journey. He didn’t attempt to make any drastic changes until he saw the opportunity to do so. He had responsibilities and financial-obligations which meant that he couldn’t quit his job until he felt ready to do so. If he had quit, he would have been under severe pressure and extremely stressed out! Now we don’t want that!
“Usually, the way it works goes something like this: You start to integrate the small things that excite you into your everyday life. Eventually, those things lead you to bigger things that either replace the passionless activities you were doing before, or they integrate into what you are currently doing to support yourself or your family. At some point along the way, the logistics of how you can make your passion your paycheck start to become more clear. With a little creativity and cleverness, you figure out how to start supporting yourself and your family by doing the things you want and realize that you no longer need the other stuff. Transition complete.” – Ruben Chavez
There are also some people, who are so mentally prepared for change that they take a massive leap of faith to pursue their passions. These individuals are often very optimistic and have great faith and clarity in what it is that they want to achieve. They’ll quit their jobs or even have no job, and pursue what they love without over-thinking the challenges that they might face. Many others will only do this through calculated risks; having savings and some sort of rigid plan. There’s not really a right or wrong way to go about things – you have to do what you feel works best for you, and what you feel most confident about.
We hope that this post has helped you understand what purpose is, why it’s important and finally, how you can take the first step towards finding your purpose and living it. Again, we’d like to thank our good friend Ruben Chavez for all his insights, taken directly from his book which you can buy HERE.
Author: Vex King
I am the founder and owner of the Bon Vita lifestyle brand. I could give myself a title and call myself a lifestyle entrepreneur, personal mentor, writer, designer, innovator, CEO, or anything else I see as fitting. However no title can define me as an individual. I’m just an optimist, a visionary, a philanthropist and jack of many trades. I’m using my positive influence to redefine the creative industries using Good Vibes Only #GVO so that people can fulfil their dreams, purposefully, and enjoy The Good Life #TGL. My daily words of intent are to make people… Think, look & feel GOOD!
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