9 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Your Purpose

9 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Your Purpose

“There are two great days in a person’s life: the day you were born, and the day you discover why.” ~John Maxwell

Having clarity of your purpose and your “why” plays a major role in living an intentional life that is fulfilling and joyful.

If you haven’t yet discovered your purpose, here are some thought-provoking questions to help you find it.

You’ll want to grab a notebook, a pen, and find a quiet room to do a brain dump and answer these questions thoughtfully and fully.

9 Questions to Ask Yourself to Find Your Purpose

Do you like what you’re doing now?

“If, as Socrates said, the un-examined life is not worth living, so the un-lived life is worth examining.” ~Abraham Kaplan

Do you like your current career status, or do you dread going to work each morning?

Or maybe you don’t like where you live, or another aspect of your life, but you feel stuck where you’re at.

The good news is, you’re never truly stuck-only your brain can limit you in keeping you stuck where you’re at.

The first question is to evaluate what you’re doing and if it brings you joy, purpose, and fulfillment or not.

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What would you like to do?

“How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to know what matters most.” ~Stephen Covey

Before you can have success, you must discover what you’re passionate about.

Here is what John Maxwell has to say about passion in his book, the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth:

You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.
Passion gives you an advantage over others, because one person with passion is greater than ninety-nine who have only an interest.
Passion gives you energy.

Long story short: You need to discover your passion in order to achieve success.

If you don’t truly love what you’re doing, there’s a great chance you will never reach the level of success you desire when your potential isn’t being reached.

Your potential is reached through your passion.

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Can you do what you would like to do?

“You must have some kind of criteria for knowing if the desire you have matches the abilities you possess.” ~John Maxwell

Is what you want to do possible for you?

I remember when I was in middle school and watching ice skating on the winter Olympics. The ice skaters were so graceful and I thought, “I want to do that too.”

One day, my teacher asked us what we wanted to do when we grew up, so I said I wanted to be an ice skater. He asked if I took lessons, and, blushing, I said “no.”

I didn’t have a clue about ice skating. And by no means am I graceful. Let alone flexible. Or trained.

Clearly, ice skating was not in my future.

To be successful and fulfill your purpose, you must identify what your unique gifting and talents are.

(Note to my 7^th grade self: Ice skating is not my unique gifting or talent.)

Warren Bennis came up with three questions to help you figure this out.

Do you know…

The difference between what you want and what you’re good at?
What drives you and what gives you satisfaction?
Your values and priorities, and your organization’s values and priorities?

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Do you know why you want to do what you would like to do?

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” ~Carl Jung

Motives matter.

Why do you want to do what you want to do?

Do you feel you were born to do what you want to do?

Is it second nature?

If so, you’ve unlocked your purpose.

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Do you know what to do so you can do what you want to do?

“The first step toward change is awareness.” ~Darren Hardy

John Maxwell created a list four steps to knowing what to do so you can do what you want to do.

The first step is awareness.

You must be aware of where you are headed before you start in that direction.

Otherwise, you’ll do what I did last summer when I wanted to start my blog, but didn’t know how:

Sit in neutral.

This leads to the next step, which is taking action.

You have to get out there and do it. You must take initiative.

If you feel that your circumstances aren’t conducive to doing this, then create your own circumstances.

When you want something bad enough, you’ll make it happen-despite current circumstances.

The next step is accountability. You must hold yourself accountable. Keep track of every action in an area of your life that needs improvement.

The final step is attraction. When you are aware of the things you need to do, take action and hold yourself accountable, you’ll attract what you desire.

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Do you know people who do what you’d like to do?

Find people who do what you want to do, well.

Think of these people as mentors, whether you personally know them or not.

Read their books. Listen to their podcasts. Attend their conferences. Soak up everything you can learn from them.

If they are people you know in person, ask them if they’d like to grab a cup of coffee sometime. Get to know them better. Let them know your intentions to do what they’d like to do. You can even outright ask them to mentor you.

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Will you discipline yourself to do what you want to do?

“Probably the most honest self-made man ever was the one we heard say: ‘I got to the top the hard way-fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way.’” ~James Thom

Many people know what they’d like to do, but never follow through to get what they want because they aren’t disciplined enough to make it happen.

They aren’t willing to sacrifice their bad habits that provide them instant gratification, instead of swapping them out for good habits that lead to long-term success.

It’s why so many obese people say they want to lose weight, but don’t exercise or clean up their diet.

Why people with credit card debt want to pay off their debt, but won’t cut their cards up and quit using them.

Nothing worth having ever comes easy.

You must discipline yourself daily to get to where you want to go. Eliminate bad habits and implement good ones.

I’m not always excited about working out in the morning, but my motivation to be healthy keeps me getting on the treadmill without fail.

Successful people don’t always like doing certain things, but they keep the end result at the forefront of their mind. That’s why they succeed while the rest of us are undisciplined and stuck where we’re at.

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