„The meaning of life is to give life meaning.“ ~ Ken Hudgins
It’s interesting. When I talk to friends and colleagues about purpose, I get a very diverse mixture of how they understand what a life purpose is. Some know their purpose intuitively, others never even asked themselves the question.
What Does Life Purpose Mean?
Purpose means the reason for existence. Plain and simple.
Life purpose is the reason for your existence. It’s why you are here on this earth. [Tweet this!]
So when you’re answering the question of your life’s purpose, you are really answering: Why do you exist?
And you have to decide your way and actively give an answer to that question. As the quote from Ken Hudgins suggests: The purpose of life is to live a life on purpose. And this is totally up to you.
Purpose is Direction
So why would it make sense to define your purpose?
Knowing your purpose will give you a clear direction in life. [Tweet this!]
If you know your life purpose you will gain clarity and have the benefit of an inner guiding system. And following this path will fulfill you with meaning in life. A meaning that you set for yourself.
Your life purpose is like the ultimate goal you have in your life. It’s your vision for how you wish your life will be.
In The 7 Habits Stephen Covey mentioned an interesting exercise where you would write the speech at your own funeral. This is revealing how you would like to ultimately see your life turn out.
Inner and Outer Purpose
It was Eckhart Tolle who said that there are really two kind of purposes:
The first is always to fulfill your inner purpose which is to grow consciously inside. The outer purpose is what you set out to achieve for yourself in life. But while you go after it, you have to do it consciously, in other words: live now in every moment.
This makes a lot of sense if I look at my experiences with following goals and living in the present moment. You have to make space and not lose yourself solely in your outer purpose. It would be a trap.
But If I Don’t Know My Purpose?
(1) You can either go with the flow and see where life takes you. If you make good decisions and use your conscience to guide you, this may work fine. I personally would not advice it, although the majority of people lives by this philosophy.
(2) Or you can also consciously follow your heart and use your conscience to guide you. This would be close to living primarily from your inner purpose.
(3) And you can proactively define your purpose. An interesting way to do that was posted by Steve Pavlina:
- Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type.
- Write at the top, „What is my true purpose in life?“
- Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
- Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.Maybe you want to give that a shot.
What would you say is your purpose in life? Write it into the comments.
Hello Myrko! Greetings from México, I like The way you wrote your life porpose .
Unfortunely my english is not very good, but my girlfriend is a profesional translator.
It will be interesting if you have all this information un spanish too, as you know in this time, The people are los and the most of them takes The bad roads… If you want to help The people that needs more, make a Translations of your site and phylosophy.
Thanks for sharing your words and inspiration
Enrique Gonzalez
Thanks Anna! :-)
a truly awesome LIFE’S MISSION STATEMENT
Bravo !! Inspiring
That’s certainly a helpful view in some cases, but I think it could be limiting in others. I personally think that you as a person have to be in harmony with what you create and have around you. For instance if I developed my mindset, beliefs and my skillset to be in harmony with my goals, these goals will feel natural for me.
In a sense there is a price to pay, but if my purpose / goals are what I truly want, then I also want to pay that price since it’s the way…
Concerning money or success, I have the idea (stuck?) that there is always a price to pay for whatever you ‚want‘ in this life. For example, yes, you can have what you want, but are you aware and do you accept the price for that money or success. I remain fairly afraid to ‚want‘ anything.
@Myrko Thum: i totally agree with all those you’ve written.
To live happily & peacefully as this life is a big test for the hereafter.
My purpose is to achieve my goals in life.
My purpose is to serve God and to make this world a better place than I found it.
Lorraine, thanks. Purpose goes over all areas in life: Relationships, Career, Personal Development, Passions.
I think my purpose is to help others learn from me. To write, to pour my heart and soul into my poems and stories is my true purpose. To nourish my son and help him grow. To show others a better way of living, of loving. To pass on a legacy worth having. To love, to share, to grow. To blog, for all the world to see. To encourage others to strive toward their goals. To guide them, to inspire them, to lead by example. These are all of my purposes.
My purpose is to be the best I could be.
My purpose is to realize my true nature.
My purpose is to be a source of good on this planet.
My purpose is to live and enjoy my life to the fullest.
My purpose is to create value and help other people with my personal strengths like creativity, seeing essence, strategic thinking and connecting with truth.
My purpose is also to be the best father to my kids and the best husband for my wife I could be. And the best son I could be to my parents.
really important question in our life..=)
purpose of my life is to serve God, that creates us and the entirely universe.. =)