Find Your Purpose

I wrote a few days back about finding your identity. Identity is the most important concept to have a good grasp on as far as introspective analysis is concerned. It really is the foundation upon which your life is built whether you see it or not.

The second most important thing to understand is your purpose. How do you, as a son or daughter of G-d, structure your life? Finding your purpose allows you to make priorities and determine what life choices are best. There are five questions proposed by Adam Leipzig. Many of these questions might not be super simple to answer, but they will give you a starting point for living a life of purpose.

1. Who am I?
The answer to this goes back to identity. You are a son or daughter of G-d. Embracing that and living fully in that identity is the process of a lifetime.

2. What do I do?
The way Adam suggests to answer this question is by thinking about the one thing that you are extremely qualified to teach others. However, what about those, like me, who don't have an area like that? "I am not amazing at anything" you may say, or "I'm great at one thing, but it's not something I love or even like."

When I answered this question it was largely aspirational for me. I am not great at it, but I want to be eventually. I used that to inform the next three questions which were also somewhat aspirational. However, if you really are stuck on this one you might have some success by coming back to this one after answering the next ones.

3. Who do I serve?
Is there a group of people you specifically want to help or are already helping?

4. What do they get?
What kind of help do you give them? What areas of their lives do/will you affect?

5. How do they change?
At the end of the day, what changes in their lives? What is the end result of your purpose? Adam Leipzig says that the answer to this question is a great response to the question "What do you do?" It forces follow up questions. For example, when asked the question you could say "I help people live long full and active lives." The natural response then is "how do you do that?" It is a great way to get into your purpose and share what you are really interested in.

In the video Adam makes it sound really simple, and if you can answer these questions right off the top of your head then that is great. However, I suspect many people will get hung up pretty hard on some.

Once you do get to the point of having some answer I want to add a final step. Writing a life sentence. Take the answers and combine them into a single sentence. Memorize it, write it down, put it on your bathroom mirror. It will be a valuable guide whenever you question your path and direction in life. Revisit it occasionally to update and revise it as your perspective changes. It may change a lot as the years pass, but having a guide will always be helpful.