Let’s agree on one thing straight off the bat – ‘finding your purpose’ is not a final destination. It’s not a one-off act, or the final stop on the train trip to enlightenment where we retire to a perfect state of inner peace, speaking like a cross between Eckhart Tolle and Oprah. Purpose is a continual conversation. Like peeling back an onion layer by layer, our path to purpose is continual and ever evolving. Just like you, it is fluid, dynamic, ever changing, adaptable and agile.
We’re currently witnessing a changing age. Our drivers are shifting from surface level existence to a deep yearning for more meaning and fulfilment in the lives we lead. This movement is calling us to experience this life as the truest, most authentic expression of ourselves. To understand the part we play in the bigger picture and expand into these roles. So we all know we want it, but just how do we go about finding it?
Do More Of What Makes You Happy
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Find what makes your heart skip a beat and do more of it. Our greatest thoughts, insights, and quantum shifts happen when we are doing things that make us happy. Forget about the outcome. You don’t need to know the whole plan. You just need to take the next step. So as the yogis say “follow your bliss” – your passions will always lead you closer to your calling, and the greatest expression of your authentic self.
Expand Your Awareness
Everyday little hints, lessons, and guidance are continually being delivered to us. However, we’re often moving too fast to see, hear, or notice them. Ultimately we need to slow time down and expand our awareness. Enter meditation. Now no need to go reaching for your incense sticks or prayer beads. Meditation is far from woo woo. In fact, it is a practical tool used by the greatest entrepreneurs and the most cutting edge companies around. Steve jobs, Arianna Huffington, Google… just to name a few.
Put simply, meditation is the practice of focused attention, and through a daily practice it allows us to put space into our day, to see things as they truly are, and to choose our path through life. So sit down quietly for the first 5-10 minutes of your day, release your thoughts, and start to see the world more clearly.
Let Go Of, ‘I Shoulds’
“I should climb the corporate ladder”.
“I should make X amount of dollars.”
“I should drive X car”.
Honestly, screw it.
Throw those, ‘I shoulds’ further away than you’ve ever thrown anything ever before.
Here’s a look inside my, ‘I should’ story……
When I was 25, with a Psychology degree under my belt, I was working in a private practice and was offered equity with a future to take over the practice. It was all of my (or my parents’) ‘you shoulds’ in one. It looked like I’d hit the big time, but internally I was completely unsatisfied. I threw away the lot, bought a one way ticket to the opposite side of the planet, and truly started living my authentic life.
Get Curious
Got a niggling feeling about a trip you want to take? A book you want to read? A place you want to visit? These are all clues to discovering your purpose. So get curious and allow yourself to explore the possibilities. Open the door to that niggling thought and explore what’s on the other side. Every door has the potential to lead you closer to your calling.
Realise You’re Part of a Bigger Picture
Just like you, your purpose doesn’t exist on its own. It exists in the interconnected web of life that connects you to everyone and everything around you. So think big, exist expansively, cast your net wide and live your life to it’s fullest.
Finally, there is no right or wrong way to uncovering your purpose, and no permission slip required. Just a gentle and continual exploration of you, by you. Don’t chase it. Surrender to it. Don’t push it. Allow yourself to be pulled to it.
You’ll likely find that deep down, you knew it all along.
As a trained Psychologist and Entrepreneurial Thinker, Pru Chapman works with Startups through to CEOs to get them on purpose and disruptive in their industries.
She is the Founder + Head Hustler of Owners Collective with a mad passion for all things creative, mindful and innovative.
Aside from the world of business, Pru is a bit of a thrill seeker who gets giddy on outdoorsy stuff. Pru has meditated with monks in Asia, split snowboarding seasons across the globe, fed hungry hedge fund traders healthy food in London, danced samba in Brazil, and finds pleasure in the pain of Crossfit most days.