How Can One Really Know His Life Purpose?

[icer]

 

On 2/9/2016 at 0:12 AM, sergeyrar said:

I really want to invent something great, but have no idea what it is yet!

Perhaps it's just a matter of time until I find it ... ? 

 

I'm in the same boat of trying to come up with something useful. It's one thing to have an idea and another to commit to it. I suffer from the latter. Per Leo, I need to say no to many other things that interest me and stick to one. It has been tough to do so but fortunately I know what my problem is.

One more thing, most if not all of my ideas came from tinkering on how to solve big problems or needs.

Best of luck.

[DanoDMano]

I love this forum because it allows us all to give our opinions and thoughts on what I feel are the most important questions we can ever ask ourselves and of others. And perhaps all our answers could be right and then again, all could be wrong. It all depends on what the true meaning of life is.

Like the theory that time, past, present and future is all predetermined and that ultimately the choices we make don't matter because what happens in our own reality was meant to happen. If you've decided to do nothing with your life, well... that wasn't really your decision, it was already set in stone even before you think it was your idea. Whoa... mind blower.

Here's another, what if you went through your whole life wondering what your life purpose was, and then one day your walking down the street and see a child standing on the street and a bus is barrelling down and at the last moment you push that child out of the way, saving the child but killing yourself. Then that child grows up to change the world in some grand way? Perhaps that one moment in time was your entire reason for your existence and yet you spent your whole life agonizing over why your here. See what I mean?

My thinking is this. Why not just wake up each morning and first and foremost appreciate that fact that your still here. Second, find anything that brings some joy and contentment in your life. If you plan your life correctly working and making money can become secondary. The basics of life are food and shelter. Are you going to eat steak and lobster everyday or grow a garden and enjoy tuna salad? Are you going to live with your parents or buy a luxury condo in the big city? My point is, work and doing something you don't want to do for a third of your life isn't necessary if you don't buy into this dogma culture we call capitalism and the American dream. When you take away the pressures of money and inevitably indebtedness you take away their power. Your then in a much better position to decide your own destiny. To me that's the trick.

So what is our life's purpose. To find happiness and to be content with the things that come our way. Positive people attract positive results. Once you have this I think our purpose can then find us.  

 

[abrakamowse]

Very enlightening @DanoDMano

Cool.

[DanoDMano]

Thanks @abrakamowse I just calls it like I sees it. 

[A way to Actualize]

On 8-2-2016 at 3:11 PM, sergeyrar said:

Hi,

I find it really hard to pick just one thing that will be my main focus in life.

I believe that all people are born equal, and that no one has a pre-defined purpose or a set of tools or advantages given by birth (maybe except very few people).

I know that it is in my power to know everything I want, and to do anything I want... and that eventually I can master it all to the highest levels! (thanks to google)

So what's really the difference which one I pick?

I don't feel like I have any passion,  but I do know that I want to live a happy fulfilled life => But for that I need a life purpose in the first place.

I also came to realize that money won't ultimately fulfill me ( I now earn 40 times more than I've earned 3 years ago, no difference in fulfillment levels)

 

 

Please advise,

Thanks!

 

 

P.S 

Congrats for the launch of the forum :-)

 

From a non-physical perspective, your Life Purpose are more things like self-expression, freedom, truth, unconditional love etc.

A way to look at it is to look at your best experience and worst experience of your life. And contemplate why it felt so good/bad.

Example: My best experience was standing by the sea in the evening in Greece, alone. When I ask continuously why, I came to the conclusion that it was freedom (and oneness). You can do this with more experiences you remember very well, conclusions of other experiences had the same result (only self-expression is a life purpose of mine too).

[Gui Coelho]

I feel the same way, kind of lost, with too many options, trying to find the ONE thing I could do everyday and not get bored for the rest of my life.This thing must feel natural for me to accomplish and at the same time be useful to someone else. It must make me feel free to be me, trust in myself and grow. 

Maybe the life purpose is also related to our view of things.

For example: politics could be a waste of time for one, but a way to change the world to another.

So the professions that exists are just ways to achieve a higher goal.

To fulfill this ultimate goal more than one activity is maybe necessary. Perhaps more than one skill.

What Steve Jobs said once made me think. You develop certain skills that you don't know why and what for. Then at some point of your life, you connect the dots and realize that using all you know can help to achieve that goal in a better way.

[ramamaiden]

I've been struggling with this myself. That's why i got into the Life Purpose course from Leo. It's really AWESOME! It helped me have more self knowledge of myself, and really focus onto what I would really want to do with my life.

And what I found for myself is that Life Coaching is something I really would do if I had all the money in the world and this was not an issue.

Finding The Life Purpose is hard, and is also true that this can change over your life.

Also, Life Purpose is not something that comes from nothing and you just know this is it and then everything flows easily. Life purpose even if you find it, you will question yourself about it, and it requires work and focus to keep the faith and that fire inside you to keep on going on those hard times.

How can we really know? I think there is not a straightforward answer to that, however at least a starting poit would be to eliminate all the things you would definitively not do, and from there keep looking for that thing you feel that will make you proud and fulfill you.

[Lou Martinez]

Nice Dano!  So true!  Positive people attract positive results!!!

[Mussabahire]

Hello everyone. I want to thank Mr. Leo for his videos and this forum. I believe that it will help many people around the world. As for the question of Life purpose, I suggest the following:

-What do you like to do? Your passion. Ex: Computers, teaching?

-What are your main values? Ex: Justice, helping others, compassion...

You have to first know your identity as your life purpose is hidden inside you.

NB: Be  careful as finding your life purpose may become your only thing to do and you die w/o achieving much.

Thanks.

[sergeyrar]

I once heard an interesting perspective on that whole life purpose matter.

 

Could it be that our life purpose, is generated by a deep dissatisfaction and a need of revenge?

Could it be that our life purpose is a side effect of misery and a feel of weakness ?  O_O

Has it occurred to you that if everybody would do pretty well and pretty much the same in all fields, and would not fail - ever... then there would not be much progress at all.

It may be that the real big things, come from huge failures and a deep feeling of hate and jealousy !

 

 

Tell me what you think about this.

Edited February 11, 2016 by sergeyrar

[tenshi]

First off, greatest. forum. ever. Props to Leo & the team.

One of my passions is Asian languages, one being Japanese in particular, because the values are embedded in the very structure of the language.
There's one Japanese word which brought a lot of clarity in my journey called "IKI-GAI", in short "Life Purpose" or "Life Worth".

It's interesting as it's broken down into 4 sections which involves some major areas of life. If we're able to hit all 4 of these sections on a particular pathway/activity of our calling, we're ultimately able to feel our 'worth', therefore fulfilment.

There was a great quote, by a psychiatrist called Kobayashi Tsukasa regarding IKIGAI 

Quote

"people can feel real Ikigai only when, on the basis of personal maturity, the satisfaction of various desires, love and happiness, encounters with others, and a sense of the value of life, they proceed toward self-realisation.”

 

[Pav]

On 10/02/2016 at 6:33 PM, Ayla said:

Your ultimate purpose in life is to be happy ! 

I've made my ultimate purpose in life to experience life as richly as I can before I die and to be a positive influence on the people in my life. Happiness is fairly easy to attain, and there's a wide variety more emotions to experience besides happiness (eg. fulfilment or even the many "negative" emotions; they are just other life experiences after all). 

Experiencing happy emotions can be one purpose in your life, but there are so many more purposes worth pursuing for their own sake. There is so much to learn, so much art and music to experience or create, so many beautiful people to love and form deep emotional relationships with, so many places of the world to explore, so many different states of conciousness to explore, so many hobbies to get fully engaged with and master, and so much personal development to be had. You need to switch to a psychology of being (read Maslow's Toward a Psychology of Being); instead of trying to acquire thing due to lack (ie trying to acquire happiness), do things simply because you love to (for example, don't try to form friendships to try to attain happiness, do so simply because you love forming emotional bonds and sharing life with other people, work on your hobbies simply because you love working on your hobbies). Of cause your "life purpose" (meaningful creating contribution) is another large aspect of your life experience.

I think self-actualisation (being in a state of being) and living a life of passion is what life is about. Happiness is just one experience in this and really isn't hard to get. Happy emotions come as a result of your thoughts and behaviours.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2016 by Mat Pav

[abrakamowse]

I found this quote, I think it's useful for this thread...

 

“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

[DreamSpirit]

For so many years I went through life aimlessly wandering what my passion was and where I would do best in life.  I went from job to job, got a degree in economics, thought about Law school, ended up studying acting for a year in LA, then went and backpacked across Asia...all looking for my passion haha.  I think it's something just unfolds as you go and you do have to decide to master at least ONE thing and turn a blind eye to everything else.  We're too distracted nowadays and that makes it harder to focus and be diligent.  

Ultimately we've got to think what's beyond our thoughts and emotions and fulfill that part of ourselves (the deeper/higher levels within us).  Once we do that, nothing else really matters.  So, ultimately, life's about taking the journey within.  

[Midlife Crisis]

Enjoy the not knowing exactly what your LP is. Make finding out your current LP. 

[ramamaiden]

14 hours ago, DreamSpirit said:

For so many years I went through life aimlessly wandering what my passion was and where I would do best in life.  I went from job to job, got a degree in economics, thought about Law school, ended up studying acting for a year in LA, then went and backpacked across Asia...all looking for my passion haha.  I think it's something just unfolds as you go and you do have to decide to master at least ONE thing and turn a blind eye to everything else.  We're too distracted nowadays and that makes it harder to focus and be diligent.  

Ultimately we've got to think what's beyond our thoughts and emotions and fulfill that part of ourselves (the deeper/higher levels within us).  Once we do that, nothing else really matters.  So, ultimately, life's about taking the journey within.  

Hey! I've also been moving from job to job, and questioning if there  is something wrong with myself.

However I totally agree with you, there is so much distractions out there, and is so easy to get excited with one thing, and later get excited with another thing, so we end up focusing on multiple things at once.

The important thing is to finally as you said master thet ONE thing and don't get distracted. 

Of course the idea is that what we choose is something that makes sense to us, we like it and it's meaningful to us at least.

Also something very important is to ENJOY THE PROCESS itself. If we only like the goal itself, then we won't get far most probably.

 

[ramamaiden]

On 12/2/2016 at 10:42 PM, tenshi said:

First off, greatest. forum. ever. Props to Leo & the team.

One of my passions is Asian languages, one being Japanese in particular, because the values are embedded in the very structure of the language.
There's one Japanese word which brought a lot of clarity in my journey called "IKI-GAI", in short "Life Purpose" or "Life Worth".

It's interesting as it's broken down into 4 sections which involves some major areas of life. If we're able to hit all 4 of these sections on a particular pathway/activity of our calling, we're ultimately able to feel our 'worth', therefore fulfilment.

There was a great quote, by a psychiatrist called Kobayashi Tsukasa regarding IKIGAI 

 

Loved the Ikigai concept! Thanks for sharing :D. Definitvely very helpful.

[DreamSpirit]

10 hours ago, ramamaiden said:

Hey! I've also been moving from job to job, and questioning if there  is something wrong with myself.

However I totally agree with you, there is so much distractions out there, and is so easy to get excited with one thing, and later get excited with another thing, so we end up focusing on multiple things at once.

The important thing is to finally as you said master thet ONE thing and don't get distracted. 

Of course the idea is that what we choose is something that makes sense to us, we like it and it's meaningful to us at least.

Also something very important is to ENJOY THE PROCESS itself. If we only like the goal itself, then we won't get far most probably.

 

Enjoying the process...that's the nail on the head there!  Sometimes it won't  be all fun and games, but it could be fulfilling on a deeper level.   I think sometimes we forget to enjoy the process.  Totally agree with you!

[CirclesofMastery]

[Xpansion]

For me if I can just find a way to want to get out of bed and feel excited about the day ahead because I am adding something positive to the world, being creative, and in the process making enough money to look after my needs, save a bit and donate a bit then I will have found my purpose. I am so not there.   I don't even have a job and have been financially dependant for so long on my partner that I have lost any interest in even looking for work. 

Currently laying in bed writing this with my usual "cannot be bothered" attitude.  I have signed up for Leos course so I'm hoping it will help me snap out of it and change. I know there is no such thing as miracles or an easy quick fix but I think the talks will help me see things a bit differently. 

 I'm late 40s now and when I was younger I had dreams of being an entertainer but I never made them happen. I tried, not hard enough but I did try. I even did some gigs and recorded an Ep but I lacked the confidence, motivation, social skills and so I never followed through, honed my craft, built connections etc. The only reason I can think of why I have not made my dreams a reality is because at school I was severely bullied and ostracised and then my home life was abusive and chaotic also and so I developed severely maladaptive defense mechanisms. I begun to see the world as something I needed to protect myself from. I trusted nobody.

I became socially anxious and the fear of rejection was so great that I let it dictate my actions. This is not an excuse but a reason to try and understand where I went wrong. My self esteem and confidence was so low that the slightest rejection felt life threatening to me. My 17 year relationship has now broken down largely because of the way I am.  I have been what feels like half dead for many years. It feels comfortable now. Im scared.  I don't want to die a depressed unfulfilled person but unless I do the work and change its going to happen.

Edited October 10, 2016 by Xpansion