What Is My Purpose In Life? - 5 Tips To Help You Find It

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is my purpose in life?

This is a question that I’ve asked many, many times over the course of my lifetime.

The thing about purpose is that it can be difficult to quantify.

The technical dictionary definition for the term ‘purpose’ is as follows:

“The reason for which something is done or created; or for which something exists. A person's sense of resolve or determination. A particular requirement or consideration, typically one that is temporary or restricted in scope or extent.”

So why were you created? Why do you exist?

For me, the answers only came after I learned to pay attention to where I truly wanted to be in life. I believe that there is a niche for everyone. But finding this niche is easier said than done!

Here are 5 tips to help you find your purpose in life!

Tip #1 - Recognize That You Must Create Your Own Purpose

One of my favorite things to say in regard to purpose is that the universe does not owe you one… but you CAN create one for yourself!

When I first realized this, I was blown away by the implications.

For most of my life, I thought that my purpose was supposed to come from outside of myself, through business opportunities, or from other people.

But the truth is the opposite.

We must create our own purpose in life, and it must come from within.

We certainly want to be aware of the world around us, because our purpose needs to merge and interface with the rest of humanity in a meaningful way.

But it actually starts inside of us.

Tip #2 - Identify Your Passion

What are you passionate about? What topic, niche, or subject lights a fire under you and makes you excited?

When you are at a dinner party, which conversations do you always tend to gravitate toward?

For Me, It Was Dating

I am incredibly passionate about listening to people talk about their dating problems. I am fascinated by human mating behavior.

I love to study the psychology of attraction. I read book after book on the subject, and can’t get enough!

And so, discovering my purpose really required me to focus on what I was passionate about.

My purpose is to help men win with women, by helping them to become higher-value men.

It is so simple and direct. And yet, it took me years to not only identify my passion, but also to give myself permission to actually pursue it in a meaningful way!

Tip #3 - Understand That We Are Always Evolving

One of the most difficult parts of understanding our own purpose in life is to realize that we are trying to hit a moving target.

We are constantly evolving, adapting, leveling up, and becoming more aware of not only ourselves, but also the world around us.

Therefore, we want to make sure that we allow room for that as we explore and seek to refine the direction of our purpose.

We want to give ourselves room to evolve.

Today, you might say that your purpose is to bake cookies.

But next week, you may find yourself incredibly excited to make specialty waffles!

There is nothing wrong with this. We don’t want to stifle our own sense of exploration while trying to nail down our purpose in life.

Give yourself room to evolve. This doesn’t make you an unfocused person. It makes you an explorative person, and that is powerful!

Tip #4 - Niche-Down

One mistake that I used to make in trying to determine my purpose was that I threw too wide of a net.

When you over-generalize things, your message and efforts get diluted.

It’s like trying to make lemonade with the entire ocean, instead of with a single pitcher of water!

First, I realized that I wanted to help humans be happier.

But how?

So I narrowed this down.

I want to help humans have happier relationships.

Ok, that’s better. But then, I realized that when I really focused-in on the part of this that excited me the most, I was able to narrow it down even more.

I want to help men have happier relationships.

Ok, this really cut my demographic in half… but it also strengthened my message for my remaining audience.

But I still needed to get more specific. How was I going to help? What was the mechanism that would accomplish it?

I want to help men win with women by helping them to become higher-value men.

Boom.

When this hit me, I felt like I had found the perfect key to the perfect lock.

It described exactly what I wanted to accomplish, and it did so in a very specific way.

Tip #5 - Make Sure That Your Purpose Makes The World A Better Place

This is perhaps the most important key to the entire puzzle.

If I wake up and say that my purpose in life is to make as much money as possible, I am missing out on a vital component to the process.

It’s like a compass that is always skewed a bit away from true-north!

Desiring To Amass Money Is More Of A State Of Being Than An Action That You Perform

You want to have a lot of money. There is nothing wrong with that.

But how are you going to do it?

You do it by helping the world.

You do it by creating meaningful change in other people’s lives.

You do it by bringing something to the world that nobody has ever brought into it before.

Humans Are A Fickle Species. Our Lives Are Short, And Truly Full Of Trouble

So when a human comes along who can actually change lives for the better, while doing what they love… that is an incredible power, and a true gift to give to the world.

Very few humans give themselves the true freedom to pursue this. But when they do, it tends to leave a powerful and long lasting impact.

This creates a legacy. If you want to make money, become successful, and level-up in life, the best way to do that is to start helping people.

Leverage your passion to bring incredible value into the world.

Once you learn to utilize this metric on a consistent basis, you will literally be unstoppable.

After that, it’s all about being consistent, showing up, and putting in the effort.

(Post written by Joshua K. Sigafus)