Blogger Spotlight: Your Life Purpose with Nancy M.
Meet Nancy Mulligan and discover your life purpose
Yesterday Nancy talked to us about the “5 Signs to Living a Meaningful Life“. And today we are exploring what it takes to find your life purpose.
But, if you are here for the first time – welcome!
Nancy Mulligan is a published author, blogger and freelance writer. She brings to the table years of experience and is the creative voice behind “My Everyday Challenges“.
Today I’m excited to share more of her great life hacks.
Find and Develop Your Life Purpose by Nancy Mulligan
Determining your purpose in life can be difficult, frustrating, and seem never-ending. Some people spend their whole lives trying to find it, only to never land on it. If you want to determine your purpose, you have to commit wholeheartedly to do whatever it takes and never stop trying. It’s can be a long journey, but one worth taking.
Nancy Mulligan
1. Discover what motivates you
Some of you may already know what that is; you may be so passionate about something that you just know it’s what drives you. But, if you don’t, ask yourself the following questions:
● What problem, unhappiness, injustice, or pain in the world have you witnessed that you just can’t live with? This could be a social issue, something you always find yourself trying to rectify. Examples include but aren’t limited to the following: motherless children, abuse victims, world hunger, litter, animals, etc.
● Is there something that you are so passionate about that you just can’t imagine a day going by without participating in it? Examples include but aren’t limited to: drawing, reading, writing, playing video games, helping people, volunteering, working, playing sports, etc.
2. Figure out what energizes you
For some, it can be as simple as talking with people that energizes them, but for others, it could be a more solitary act. What energizes you is that one activity that just fills you with energy rather than draining it.
Often the thing that energizes you is your passion and your purpose; the thing you just feel you need to do. If you need help determining this ask yourself the following questions:
● Is there something you do that makes you feel entirely rejuvenated and energized?
● What was the last thing you did or went to that you didn’t want to stop or leave?
3. Discover what it is for which you’re willing to sacrifice
We all have something that drives us to sacrifice anything to get it. Sometimes, it takes us a little time to get to that point, but if something’s your purpose, you’ll sacrifice anything to be involved with it.
For example, you may have the goal of furthering your career and education by going back to graduate school, but it may be three or four years after your undergraduate education is complete before you are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to get it done.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to determine this:
● Despite knowing the road up ahead is challenging, are you still driven to pursue it?
● What would you give up in order to achieve your goal?
4. Determine who it is that you want to help in this effort
As we discussed in the first step, your purpose typically involves some problem or issue you simply can’t live with occurring. In a similar vein, another way to pinpoint your purpose is to determine who it is specifically you want to help.
For instance, if you feel your purpose is motherless/abandoned children, determining who specifically in that category you want to help will allow you to narrow down the paths you need to take.
To determine who it is that you want to help, ask yourself these questions:
● What specific type of person do you want to help? To use our earlier example, do you want to help children work through divorce or those who are stranded? Do you want to help those in the foster system?
5. Discover how you want to help them
The last step in narrowing down your purpose and the proper path to it is determining the exact way you want to help them. This will point you to the right path and maybe give you a goal of a career or position to allow you to complete this.
To determine how you want to help them, here are some questions:
● What do you love to do? Using our earlier example of helping abandoned children, do you want to help them by being a mentor of sorts, a positive role model like an instructor or maybe teacher/principal, help them personally and specifically as a counselor or therapist, or maybe you want to become a foster parent?
● What meets all the criteria listed in the previous steps and this one?
Our lives don’t happen to us. We are the ones who make it meaningful. We are the ones who choose to thrive, to live life to the fullest with all that comes with it.
When we answer our life’s calling, we begin to live a meaningful life.
It All Starts with You!
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Do any of Nancy’s steps resonate with you? Share your story in the comments below… We love hearing from you!
