Can't Decide On Life Purpose...

[cle103]

Hi there, I have gone through the LP course until the definition of your purpose statement and I'm stuck... because I have multiple zones of genius (or so it seems) and I can't really decide on which one I'd like to commit to. Here is a quick overview: 

 

1. Zone one: Drawing 

My whole life I drew. Sometimes liking it, sometimes only when my parents sent me to a art course. I have definetely talent here, as I won competitions as a kid and as a teenager. 

I still draw but it's more like I see something that inspires me and then I go full force until the picture is done (I mostly finish artwork in one sitting). It's quite like Leo describes in the "What is art?" video. It feels like Maya just uses my body as a medium to express itself and then leaves me behind with no inspiration at all after the picture is done. Then I can go months without drawing at all. 

 

2. Cooking 

I love cooking and do it everyday. I'm good at it. Especially when making healthy, mostly vegan meals. My top value is health. And I'm interested in sustainability, what's the perfect diet and the craft of cooking (no big natural talent here, I just picked it up because I wanted to eat healthy as started lifting weights as a teenager). 

 

3. Personal development:

I love that stuff. I am passionate about psychedelics, meditation, enlightenment, yoga, astral projection, life mastery, ...   

 

Top values

1. Health 
2. Self actualization (as meaning: making everything you do as art, especially your life) 
3. Spirituality (as meaning self realization and mindfullness) 
4. Honesty
5. Focus 
6. Creativity 
7. Freedom 
8. Nature 
9. Calmness
10. Contribution 

Strengths 

1. Caution and descretion 
2. Critical thinking 
3. Hard work and perseverance
4. Self control and regulation 
5. Wisdom 

I feel like the most meaningful thing I can give/do is raise the consciousness of humanity (impact). And I feel that when I go with art this is not the most direct and impactful thing I could do (could be a limiting belief as well). 

With the cooking I could see myself doing videos, courses and workshops on the art of the craft and being mindful with what you eat, the effect it has on your body, sustainability, ... I can see how that could raise consciousness, but I can also see that it could be limiting, as I think the most direct way to raise consciousness is through spirituality. 

Personal development and "life mastery" could be with videos as well, as I see that in my country there is no such thing as "no B.S. spirituality" yet. And I think it's the most direct way to raise consciousness. 

As a side note: I have a background in online marketing, so I know quite some stuff on positioning and marketing which should come in handy and which is why I want to focus on bringing my purpose "online". 

 

Further: 

I thought about doing experiments. Like doing one piece of art or one video in a given week and then posting it online/... just to see if I like it. I also tried it but to be honest I always half-assed it as my job and spiritual practise takes up the majority of my time and energy.

Do you think that this is the way to go? What would be some questions to get me going in the right direction?

Any help and thoughts are much appreciated! 

[The Monk]

@cle103 Neither have I, lol. But remember Leo said that may take you anywhere from 1-20 years to find your life purpose. So try be diligent bro and hopefully you will find it. 

I would recommend that you try take your top values and strengths then try find a job/business that fits the majority of them. 

Good luck!

[Toby]

Life purpose is an ego trip that doesn't exist imo. Imagine you have an accident and are paralysed. Speech gone, skills gone, anything you thought yourself to be is gone. What's your big life purpose now? Drawing? Cooking? Or just the way you are with what is (aka being)?

From my perspective all this "life purpose" thing and searching for it comes from times when jobs defined who you are because you did it all your life. This is no longer the case. Everything changes so quickly. It's better not to seek happiness through it. Express happiness through it, but don't seek happiness through it.

[sleeperstakes]

Get a vision for where you want to be. It doesn't matter whether it changes, but having a vision is one of the biggest drivers of success and actualisation. The biggest difference between a leader and a follower is the power of their vision. You seem like you've invested a decent amount of time into discovering your skills and values, so use them to create your vision. Unfortunately none of us can tell you what your life purpose should be, you have to discover it. You seem like you're on the right path, keep going, get a vision for the future, whether it means starting a restaurant, committing to your art, or doing something personal development related. The more detailed the better. Good luck!

[BjarkeT]

Just chose one thing and get really good at it 

[Slade]

@cle103  What about a healthy cooking channel on youtube? 

[cle103]

@The Monk Thanks. Easier said than done  Don't want a "kinda nice job" but rather something I'm passionate about and that contributes in a meaningful way. 

[cle103]

@Toby Of course it's an ego trip. It's probably the ultimate distraction from enlightenment as you can delude yourself into thinking it's really meaningful. However, even if there's no meaning at all in the world, I can still create it. 

Furthermore, I don't want to live in a cave and do nothing after I'm enlightened. 

Your point is definetely valid that one should bring happiness into everything he/she does however I think one can do more with his life than working happily at Mc Donalds  

[cle103]

@sleeperstakes Thanks, the vision is pretty much there, even as the 3 things seem rather different, they all point to the same thing. 

[cle103]

@BjarkeT That's what I'm trying to do here

@Slade Yes, that's definetely in consideration. Gotta put a twist on it though. Thanks for your suggestion  

[BjarkeT]

@cle103 maybe just pick the one you have stayed with the longest and are most skilled in  

[mathieu]

19 hours ago, cle103 said:

Top values

1. Health 
2. Self actualization (as meaning: making everything you do as art, especially your life) 
3. Spirituality (as meaning self realization and mindfullness) 

maybe try making recipes of healthy food with pschedelic mushrooms and dmt's for improving people? lol. just kidding.

what i know is the life purpose should be something around the top 3 or 5 values, your top signature strengths were also the clues. if this is your first draft, then refine it in the future when something changed as you do research. Life purpose should have a really sparking compelling vision, that moves your ass to work every single day.

[cle103]

@BjarkeT Could do that, that would be art. However not 100% comfortable with that yet. 

@mathieu Haha, yeah a psychedelic cooking show would be interesting to say the least... That's the thing with the strengths: I can't really see yet how they fit together. 

[BjarkeT]

If you are interested maybe read cal newports so good they can't ignore you

he tells that a lot of people where confused about what their life purpose/passion should be and even had anexity over it (even top performers before they got at their level of expertise) but it was only untill they became really good(at the level of experts/top performers) that they where clear about what they wanted it to be that's also why I recommend to keep going with something you are already good at so it might take you less time to be at that level of expertise

good luck  

Edited September 25, 2017 by BjarkeT

[cle103]

@BjarkeT Got that booking sitting on my desk... thanks for your suggestion, it's definetely on the reading list.