We all walk our life purpose.

We assume that finding it implies leading a life with passion, doing something that makes us truly happy, and more importantly, with a background beyond our own benefit.

The point is that many people do not know what to do with their lives , and they feel bad about it, forgetting that life itself is about that; to discover, try, try, fail and finally build a project that will never end, and that can always be improved.

Your life purpose is not found, it is something that is built:

Personally, I believe that the  purpose of life is not something that is found, but something that is built.

In other words, opting for a passive attitude towards discovering what you are passionate about is not the best plan to build an exemplary life.

It is useless to sit and think that you are wasting your life, assuming that others have their future resolved while you are stuck in a job that you do not enjoy, where the only happiness is the weekends and your two-week vacations a year.

So what should you do to find your life purpose?

The objective of this article is to share with you a series of practical tips that you can apply in your day to day life, so that you not only learn how to be happy in life , but also find that reason that makes you jump out of bed every day.

multiple intelligences:

Although it may seem contradictory, the best way to find your purpose is by applying the discard methodology , which states that, initially, you don't need to know what to do, quite the contrary, to know what not to do.

That is, identify what you do not like.

All human beings have weaknesses and strengths; there are topics that attract our attention, while there are others that do not interest us at all, this could be called multiple intelligences.

Unfortunately, one of the reasons why you do not find your life purpose is because today's society has made people worry about what they do wrong, and not what they are talented at.

For example, it is not strange that a child who does well in drawing, but is lousy in mathematics, is forced to go to courses on equations and not on drawing techniques, since we have been taught that "we have to reinforce those aspects that we have weaknesses ».

Unfortunately, this idea has led you to know a little about everything, and at the same time you don't know anything in depth.

How to build your life purpose:

So, the invitation before explaining the steps to find your life purpose is that you stop trying to please everyone, as well as wanting to know everything.

Rather focus on those activities that really arouse your interest, since these represent the optimal terrain where your purpose can be built.

1. Stop comparing yourself:

No one has their future figured out. Many people live aware of what others do, how much they earn, their dream jobs and the personal growth they have had.

This society has taught us to sell our present very well; from the images we post on Instagram to the appearances that do not reflect the reality of people. One thing is what they say and show, another is the reality they live. 

So my suggestion is that you focus on your process and stop thinking that others have their life figured out. Rest assured that they are just like you, without knowing very well what they are doing, with a sea of ​​doubts and appearances that hide these fears.

When you understand that everyone fights their own battle, and that every day is an opportunity for us to win it, you will have the freedom to calmly and wisely seek what you want to do with your life.

2. Work is a means, not an end:

When you think of your work as a means, and not as an end, you understand that work that does not finish fulfilling you, is one more experience that you live, good or bad, which leaves you with great life lessons .

How to take advantage of these types of situations? Identify what you can learn from your current job, as this will be essential to find your life purpose. Remember that the first thing is to know what you do not like.

Also, I am convinced that not everything related to your work is bad, there must be aspects that you enjoy and entertain you; be it your co-workers, the payment you receive, the work environment, among others.

Your job is to find what these are, as well as those that you enjoy doing for nothing in the world. Having this clear puts you in a winning position regarding your future, since you will know which fields you can focus on and which you cannot.

3. Define what you don't like to do:

As I mentioned in the previous point, ask yourself what makes you lazy to do at work, at university and in your life in general.

Do you enjoy talking to people?
Talk about certain topics like music, finances, meditation, TV shows?

If you don't like it, write it down. In this way you will become aware of what certain activities or topics make you feel.

Once you are clear that you do not like it, you will have eliminated too many options in the search for your life purpose . Now, the two key and determining questions that you should ask yourself at some point are the following:

What are you willing to do a whole month without receiving a single dollar in return?
How can you generate income from this activity?

4. Give yourself permission to try new things:

Before making a decision, give yourself the opportunity to try new things. For this you must efficiently use your free time .

The vast majority of people are dissatisfied with the life they lead, but do nothing about it; they complain from their bed, with a phone in hand and envying all the appearances that social networks offer.

They are frustrated dreamers who have the solution in their spare time, but prefer to complain as it is easier than to act based on the search for their purpose.

Ask yourself what you are doing in your free time; attend courses on topics that catch your attention, buy a book about something interesting, learn how to create a blog where you talk about your personal experiences, meet new people from other fields of knowledge, do different things.

5. Define what your best professional skills are:

If you want to find a career that you love, you must start from the identification of your strengths, or those skills that allow you to differentiate yourself from other people.

To achieve this, here are some steps, which consist of three questions you must ask to identify your life purpose :

What are my skills?

To start, choose 5-10 people who you feel know you best and divide them into two groups.

Group 1: Bring together the friends with whom you connect from the depths of your being, with whom you share principles, values ​​and a vision of life.

Group 2: Here you will have the people with whom you are close, but who differ from your personality, either because of their lifestyle, work or projects.

Begin by asking each person in each group what they honestly think are your greatest strengths and abilities, and what your weaknesses are.

In this first question it is important to achieve two things:

• Have a "market research" about your skills and,
• Create an environment in which your friend can be completely honest with you.

Because your friends love you, they may not want to tell you the truth because they feel like they are going to hurt you or put you through a hard time .

However, the sooner you realize what you're good at, and what you're bad at, the more you can focus on what 's truly important: your life purpose. So bear the pain.

What are my strengths?

You can not have a romantic view of the skills that have led you to be successful in life .

What do I mean? Think about the following example, you can be an above average excellent student, but have no interest in academia.

You can be extremely good at playing soccer, and this is not what you really want to pursue in your life.

Not having a romantic vision will undoubtedly help you find your life purpose , since this implies using these strengths as a basis to identify talents that, perhaps, you did not previously know.

As we mentioned, the fact that something is not what you want for your life does not mean that we cannot rescue the skills and strengths that you developed in this activity.

As an example, just because you don't like soccer doesn't mean your ability to work as a team isn't important. So don't waste your skills, use them to find your life purpose.

Ask strangers:

Use the full potential of the internet. Use your social networks, make a video or a publication asking all the people who follow you, the question that we have repeated so much:

What are my strengths?

After collecting all this information through these steps, you will have enough criteria and bases to make important decisions.

When you are clear about your skills, you know what you are good at, taking into account your criteria and the advice of your friends, you will be able to define important aspects in your life.

For example, you will have a large number of opportunities, such as:

• Find a new job based on your skills.
• Learn how to start your own business in your spare time.
• Find a partner that complements your skills and strengths and work with them
• Create a company with your friends that complement you.
• Start earning money online doing something you are passionate about.

6. Follow your curiosity:

Regardless of whether or not you have found your purpose, it is important that you follow those things that catch your attention; It does not matter that you have never tried it before, since the idea is that you discover less obvious interests.

This is why it is so important to get out of your comfort zone .

When you take the initiative to follow those unusual interests, you get out of your comfort zone and open yourself to the possibility of exploring new things.

An example of this is Steve Jobs 's curiosity about typefaces, which led him to attend a seemingly pointless class on typefaces and develop his design sensibility.

Later, this sensitivity became an essential part of Apple computers and a main differentiator from other brands.

7. Do not make money your main motivation:

If you're looking for your life purpose, and spending your years doing something you love, the best way to start is to treat financial worries as secondary.

With this I am not saying that your personal finances are not important. It is essential that you learn how to save money , generate new sources of income and manage your money.

Now, if you limit your life purpose to the amount of money you can currently earn, you will hardly find anything you love.

The idea is that you work on your personal finances first, so that you have the freedom (even in your spare time) to explore what other interests and tastes you can develop, as well as learn how to make money fast with them.

8. Difference between pleasure, passion and purpose:

In his book Delivering Happiness , Tony Hsieh argues that there are several types of happiness; there is pleasure, passion and purpose.

Pleasure:

It is the happiness of the short term, that which we enjoy in the moment and that is awakened by material things.

The passion:

This happiness that implies a greater commitment, this makes us feel that time flies and that everything else loses its importance for us.

The purpose:

Lastly and most importantly, this happiness is what we must go out to look for every day, and which is found when we are part of something that is bigger than ourselves.

The purpose becomes a reason to get up early , to sacrifice things that we like and that above all, gives meaning to our lives. To build the purpose of your life you will have to make decisions, and in turn, give up many others.

So much so, and this is something that happens to many people, is that when they do not have a passion or have not built their purpose, they tend to put the urgent before the important.

9. It's okay to change, retire and try other things:

It is normal that in this search and construction of a life project that you admire, you make mistakes, take paths that over time were not the right ones, or simply change your mind.

I recently read that the only wrong way to live is to think there is a right way to live.

In other words, the fact that you make a bad decision does not mean that you are doing it wrong, rather it is a process, where bad decisions also have their place.

So, the fact that you are not yet completely clear about what the direction of your life will be does not imply that you make decisions, change, give up or do what you feel is necessary.

On many occasions, finding your life purpose requires you to take risks, trust yourself and take a step into the unknown.

10. Your purpose is not a stroke of luck, it is a discipline:

The purpose of your life is not something that you find overnight, it is not something that you arrive at after thinking about it one morning, or after a conversation.

As you may have seen in this article, your life purpose is a product of your discipline .

It is the result of constantly looking for new activities, business opportunities , meeting new people, and when you find something that interests you, dedicate yourself to practicing it and perfecting it.

It is the result of having the discipline to say no to all other possibilities, to reject "easy roads" and to have a long-term vision; since greatness requires time, dedication and a lot of effort.

When you commit, you will understand that your purpose, beyond working little or doing something you like, is to be able to contribute in a unique way to the people around you.

Recommended books:

  

Conclusions

The only objective of this article is that you work for what you truly love.

Do not minimize your dreams to the size of your current reality, rather work so that your current version acquires the necessary skills so that your dreams, and life purpose, come true.

We must know that having a purpose in our lives, rather than a path to happiness, is happiness itself. Let's build a life purpose. Let's be honest with ourselves. That is happiness. That is living meaningfully.Continue reading:  How to create a list of New Year's resolutions that come true