Finding Purpose

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If heaven made him – earth can find some use for him. – Chinese Proverb

Everyone has a purpose. 
It’s about discovering why we’re here. All life has a purpose and we are all here on a mission to fulfill our purpose. Regardless of our ideologies, race or religious beliefs, whether we believe in a god or not, we all have a reason for being. We need to discover what it is and once we have, we need to live it. We need to embrace it. It should become our mantra.
Finding one’s purpose is a journey of personal discovery. It requires truly knowing who you are and what you’re passionate about. We need to dig deep within ourselves and get acquainted with our “inner you.” It’s a process of developing a friendship where we exert effort in really knowing someone very intimately, except we do so with ourselves.
It requires honesty, being honest with oneself and truthfully answering some of the hard questions, such as:
  • “Am I happy with what I’m currently doing?”
  • “Would I rather be doing something else, if so what would it be?”
  • “What is the one thing that truly inspires me to live?”
  • “What is it that I would want to devote my life to?”
  • “Am I ready to let go of what I have now?”
The answers to some of these questions may not be easy to discover, but the process of discovering is an experience in itself.
Sometimes the answers will require you to take risks, to give up stability, to be inconvenienced, to lose a sense of security. It will pose even more difficult questions the answers to which you would struggle to find. Some of which might be: “If I don’t do it now, then when?”; “If I don’t do it all, can I live with myself and still live a contented life?”; “Can I risk everything I currently have, to have the one thing I have always wanted?”.
Tough questions, I know, the good thing is the answers to these are all within you. Know yourself well and the answers will reveal itself. Whether you take action on them is another story – that will require courage, determination, strong will and capabilities to make it happen.
For now, ask yourself the hard questions, answer them truthfully and discover your purpose.
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“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

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