Having a purpose is the reason you wake up in the morning. Without purpose, depression would affect us all. It is the lifeblood of humanity, instinctive in all of us unless negative beliefs get in the way of it. Purpose creates passion and tenacity for life. It pushes people to do amazing things while still feeling satisfied and happy along the way.
Guided Meditation can help you reflect on your life’s purpose and find a passion that drives you.
Our Self-Development Programme can help you take practical steps to turn this passion into a plan! We can help you find the path towards your purpose in life.
What’s the point?
A sense of purpose “adds years to life”
A study found that having a purpose in life is linked to living longer, regardless of your age or retirement status. A study surveyed 6,000 people, aged 20 to 70, and asked them questions about their purpose and social relationships. The researchers tracked the death rates of these people for 14 years. Out of the participants, 596 died. It was found that all the individuals who died had lower scores on purpose and relationships compared to those who survived.
What is a purpose?
A purpose in life is why we do anything. It is the reason you get up in the morning, it is the reason you feel connected. Purpose is the motivation behind creating skyscrapers, building computers and designing video games. Having a purpose in life gives people motivation and high self-esteem. Imagine having a direction in life, a goal that creates a burning desire within you. Think back to when you craved something so bad that you had to have it. This could be a new job, helping a friend recover, or to get a girl you had a crush on. This is what the purpose is, and we have all felt it. The purpose gives us a plan, a target, and an objective in life. Most importantly, it gives hope.
It is sadly lacking in today’s world. Most young people don’t feel any meaning at all in their lives. This is very unhealthy and causes crime to increase, mental health to worsen and depression to be pretty much everywhere. Without purpose, people are forced to medicate themselves with drugs, alcohol and cigarettes. Have you not wondered why it is so common to work all week, and then get insanely drunk at the weekend? This all stems from a lack of purpose. Purpose gives us something to fight for, something to pull us through the bad times, something to guide us. A life purpose could be anything from taking care of others, to quantum physics; it is the fire that pushes you to do whatever you want.
Why do you need a purpose in life?
“HAPPINESS IS FLEETING, PURPOSE ISN’T”
You can live life without a purpose, but what kind of life is that? As it turns out, a very bad one. It is a life without responsibility or growth. Having no purpose in life is like living without a soul or passion; it is the absence of responsibility, which can only leave you with suffering. Humans need something to fight for, something to achieve; it has been bred into us for millions of years; it is the reason you are here today. It is so easy in today’s society to have no purpose in life. There are no immediate dangers, and you have food on your table. This can sometimes make it harder to find a purpose because modern life is very comfortable, making it unnecessary to push yourself. It forces you to feel depressed, anxious or fatigued. To avoid these feelings, you are going to have to find something to fight for, something you’d die for.
You need a purpose in life so that you can grow, so that you can become the best version of yourself. This is basically the meaning of life. You will become all you can be along the way because while the destination is important, the journey makes you stronger. Thousands of years ago, our environment made sure that we became the best version of ourselves, but now we have to exert this pressure on ourselves. We have to create our own strong purpose and chase after it. This is the only way to find fulfilment and happiness.
What is it like to have a strong sense of purpose?
People who live their lives with a strong sense of purpose are becoming rarer. This is because of our modern society. However, the ones that remain have incredible lives. They understand what to prioritise and make plans accordingly. They have astounding drives that cause them to get up and do what needs to be done, even when motivation is lacking. If their lives start going downhill, they can easily identify what truly matters to them and focus on it. As they live this life, they become happier and more resilient as their years go on. They grow tough, stable, and thick-skinned. They have incredible emotional control.
Having a purpose helps you focus on short-term goals much easier. These can be things like; doing homework, completing paperwork, and working out. You are driven to achieve long-term goals such as getting into university, becoming a royal marine or developing a skill. With a purpose in life comes meaning, security, and pleasure. There is laughter, health, and self-respect. People with a high level of purpose have great qualities, things like honesty, respect, and generosity. They live life knowing they will always have a purpose. This is extremely comforting and motivating.
What if you don’t have a purpose?
If you are reading this and are one of the many people who struggle with finding a purpose, you are not alone. You may feel as if the day is always a struggle to get through; you feel confused, uncertain, and between two minds. Without purpose comes no direction, no dreams, no goals, no passion, and no soul. It is truly a very sad existence. Most of your day may be filled up with menial tasks, to take your mind off of it, while all you have to look forward to is eating and sleeping; this isn’t living, this isn’t the right life for anyone.
You will wander aimlessly through life without any true fulfilment or happiness. This is because these benefits come from becoming the person you need to be to, in order to achieve your purpose. If you live one day at a time and don’t really think about where you’re going or want to go, then you have a purpose problem. A common one a lot of elderly people experience is that they think they feel they have done everything there is to do in life. If this sounds like you, then you need something to do, something to live for. Understand that you can achieve this at any moment.
How do you find your purpose in life?
Now that you know about purpose and how it can help you live a better life, how exactly do you discover your life’s purpose? Sometimes the toughest questions require the simplest behaviours. You will have to stop and self-reflect. You will have to spend some time with yourself and become aware of what it is you really want to do. You will have to listen to that voice that you have shut away and then do what it says. Sometimes we have beliefs that can block us from our life’s purpose; removing these can also help massively. But how do you do this? The best way is through guided meditation. This is nothing but sitting with yourself and listening to what is deep inside. You will then implement positive affirmations, which will become part of who you are. You will feel as if you have the ability to achieve your purpose in life. After you do this, you will become aware of what you want out of life and are capable enough to figure out a way to get it; this is what a purpose is.
This will often involve changing your life and changing the choices you make to follow your purpose. People may not like that you are doing this, but it is necessary. It is very important to have a vision for the future, but critically, this has to be your own vision for the future, not somebody else’s. This would otherwise have no positive impact on your happiness, just somebody else’s. One important note would be that if you do start following your purpose and truly enjoy what you’re doing, don’t compare yourself to others. Only look for inspiration but never to compare, as this will only end in sadness and discouragement.
