You’ve tried Enneagrams, personality and career tests. Maybe they hinted at a few things you’re interested in, but it hasn’t fully filled that empty jug of what am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?
I know talking about a purpose driven life is controversial these days. Everybody on the internet and your aunt is saying that it’s too much pressure to find your passion or purpose. Better to just do what feels good right now and not worry about the future.
I get it.
We’re all so tense and anxious these days. We want our lives to be Instagram beautiful. But we’re strained with work and family responsibilities. We don’t have the time or energy to figure out what our purpose is, whatever that means. And we don’t want the pressure of having to figure it out.
But I don’t think it’s as hard as you think.
Your purpose is sprinkled, embedded and imprinted in various points of our life. It’s there for the finding. It wants to be found. Yet, we often look at all the wrong places.
What finding your purpose really requires
I don’t think it involves a lot of time or money. It requires reflection and courage to see what you already know you want to do.
I’m going to be honest with you. I started this blog 10+ years ago when I was first mining my purpose. I was unhappy with my job and met someone at a party who was a journalist for a local newspaper. All I could think of was that she was a real paid writer. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It triggered a cascade of events which led to me writing for a few community newspapers, shadowing a local journalist and then landed me a full-time copywriting gig.
So began my freelance writing journey which has given me amazing opportunities that I could never have dreamed of. But it’s only been the last few years that I’ve uncovered more to the story.
Yes writing nonfiction is part of my purpose. But fiction might be THE thing I’m meant to do.
This is hard for me to confess so I’m only telling you because I have no right to say that. I’ve got a decade’s worth of experience writing nonfiction. I have zero publishing experience as a fiction writer. But let me tell you when I started writing fiction a few years ago, something got lit in me that never happened before.
And when I reflected back I realized I was given the message multiple times throughout my life. I’m certain I’m on the right path. And now I want to help you make the process of discovering your purpose less overwhelming and intimidating.
Here are two questions that will help you discover what you’re meant to do.
- What did you want to be when you grew up? Maybe you wanted to be a doctor or scientist or like me a cashier or postal clerk. But look deeper. There was something you did that you couldn’t stop doing. And you did it through most of your childhood. Look at the things you asked for at Christmas. Look at the hobbies that made you lose track of time. I wanted an electric typewriter (we didn’t have personal computers back then) more than anything in the world. I spent my free time pretending I was a writer. I made portfolios of commercial jingles. And when I did get that typewriter, I wrote about the leaky pipe as if it was a newspaper article.
- What do people find most annoying about you? I know this seems ridiculous, but stay with me. As a child, I used to wake up in the middle of the night cause I had a burning question that must be answered now. In college, a friend said my question asking was obnoxious. A few years ago I realized my curiosity fuels my work. In elementary school, my friends called me a liar because I loved to tell stories. Whatever weakness we think we have because it irks other people, may hold the key to what actually makes you unique. Maybe you can’t stop taking photos of your food or you’re always correcting other people’s grammar. Maybe that might provide insight into something that you love to do and you’d be good at.
- What did you say you’d never do? I was a story-teller always wanting to make my ordinary life seem more magical. But as I got older and took classes in writing, I was scared to go deep and did poorly in fiction courses. More than writing nonfiction which was based on truth, I was scared to write fiction because it had to come from my imagination. Since I never trusted my voice, I deemed I’d never do it. I realized it was a self-protective thing to say that. I love fiction so much if I failed at it, I wouldn’t be able to come back from that. So I thought.
Ask yourself these questions and reflect on the answers. Are any of these pushing you towards your purpose? I’d love to know. Leave a comment or send me an email bauyemura AT gmail DOT com
