Finding Your Purpose
Purpose is the most important thing about us- it's the driving force that pulls us forward when we’re too exhausted and discouraged. But how exactly do we arrive at gaining our individual purpose? In this episode, Joyce talk about some tips from www.verywellmind.com on how we can discover it.
Definition of Purpose
Purpose has to be something bigger than ourselves. If our purpose is just for us individually, we’ll always feel empty. It could only bring emptiness and meaninglessness. That’s the universal rule. God has designed us really to help others, to love others, and to serve Him. So, our soul naturally craves for something bigger than us. (JP)
Whatever our dreams are, those are good things as well but they cannot be our ultimate purpose. If we invest and assign ourselves to a mortal purpose that is fleeting, then ultimately, we will feel empty after fulfilling it.
Tips for Finding Purpose in Life
(from verywellmind.com)
Donate time, money and talent
○ Researchers at Florida State University and Stanford found that happiness and meaningfulness had overlaps, but were different. Happiness was linked to being a taker before a giver. Whereas meaningfulness went more with being a giver than a taker. being the giver in a relationship connected people with having a more purposeful life. The difference between happiness and joy is also the same thing. With happiness, which by definition, is fleeting, you take more than that you give. And joy, on the other hand, you give more than you take. That's why joy is more everlasting. It’s not circumstantial, like happiness. (JP)
○ It can be volunteering for a nonprofit organization. Donating money to causes we care about or just simply helping out the people around on a day-to-day basis
Listen to feedback
○ It can be hard to recognize the things you feel passionate about sometimes, after all, you probably like to do many different things. And the things you love to do may have become so ingrained in your life, that you don't realize how important those things are. Fortunately, other people might be able to give you some insight, there's a good chance you're already displaying your passion and your purpose to those around you, without even realizing it. You might choose to reach out to people and ask what reminds them of you, or what they think of when you enter their minds. Or you might even take note when someone pays you a compliment or makes an observation about you. write those observations down and look for patterns. (JP)
○ Sometimes the people in our closest circles know us more than we know ourselves. They see the things we love doing without us noticing what those really are. Listen to their feedback, ask other people what they think are our strengths, what we display as passion and purposes. And maybe their feedback could probably help us find that purpose.
Be surrounded by positive people
The five people that we most hang out with become who we are. So, try to always be surrounded by good people that will be an encourager and help us be better.
Start conversations with new people
Collaborate. Check out their perspectives and see how it changes the way we see things such as our passions and purposes.
Explore own interests
Look for something that you're passionate about, and that you're good at, and pursue those things, no matter how many things they are. Find your passionate pursuits first. And then you ask yourself what are the things you are passionate about and the particular skill sets that you have to achieve those pursuits. People’s purposes are always related to the things that they were gifted with. Assess yourself, what are the things that you find interesting? And what are the things that you're good at, and look for someone that you could serve, using those interests and passions and skill sets that you have. (JP)
Consider injustices that are bothersome
Check your environment and see what problems really bother you, this could be a way to help you find your purpose through knowing the solution. Also, know your ‘why’. You cannot answer the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ questions without knowing your ‘why’. If you don't have your purpose, you will always go through life, achieving things and doing things and then feeling empty afterwards because we are not created to just exist and finished tasks. We are created to be reunited with something, with our Creator, who is bigger than us, and to be reunited with a purpose that's actually also bigger than us. (JP)
Finding purpose isn't something that can be done in a few days, weeks or months. It can be a lifelong journey. And it can only be done one step at a time. On social media, it’s natural that we try to compare ourselves with others and question all our capabilities by seeing people seems to already found their purpose. But one thing to understand is that our timelines, our goals and our purposes are different. And all of them, as long as they are morally upright, they are of equal value.
From Episode 59 of Adulting with Joyce Pring: “FINDING YOUR PURPOSE”
Say hello on social media!
Adulting With Joyce Pring is the How-To’s of your 20’s told by a 20-something, traversing through life expectantly and with gusto!
Episode summary by Chiara
Soli Deo Gloria!