Finding Work You Love, Part 2
In Part 1 of the Finding Work You Love series, you wrote down 10 or so of your most important life experiences and searched for some golden threads amongst them. Did you find some important themes? Did any new ideas come about? Hopefully, some of the words will stand out as important and invigorating to you.
Gather the 5 or so most important words from that exercise. Do any of the words fit together? Do you find that some of the words reflect the same feeling or action? You may find that there’s an immediate pattern. For example, when I completed the exercise, words that stood out from my experiences were: learning, connection, soul, peace.
Now let’s take your 5 words and write each one down on a seperate index card or small slip of paper. Take some time to read each word, focus on it’s meaning and it’s connection to your life experience. Let the ideas and thoughts percolate without judgment or fear. If possible, spend a minute or two on each word, letting ideas come and go.
When you’re ready to move on to the next step, either immediately after the brainstorm you just completed, or a day or two later, bring your 5 words back in front of you. Try to arrange the words in a sentence. Try to complete the following sentences with your words.
My purpose is to….
I’m at my best when I am….
Take your time with this step, don’t hurry to make the words fit in a sentence. You don’t have to use all 5 of your words together, but it’s best to use at least 3 in your sentence. This exercise works best when you play around for a day or two with your statement, though if something clicks right away, don’t be afraid to go with it. When you have the words arranged in just the right fashion, and the sentence connects with you on a meaningful level, you have finished the exercise.
Guess what? You now have a life purpose statement. You have an announcement to yourself and the entire world of who you are at your absolute best.
Using the words from my example above of soul, connection, learning, and peace; I crafted the following purpose statement.
My purpose is to connect from the soul to create peace and learning.
To really give your statement extra power, find a nice visual to pair it with. Maybe your statement is connected in your mind to a place you’ve been or seen on TV. Perhaps another, more abstract visual comes to mind. Whatever works for you is what is best here. Spend the next week looking at your statement and reading it to yourself. Ground yourself in your purpose over the next seven days.
That’s the end of Part 2 of this series, look for Part 3 soon.
Tags: career, life purpose, success, growth
