Finding your purpose in life is one of the things that most people want. But it’s harder to do than you think.
You see – most people are brought up with a pre-set purpose in mind. Get married and have kids. Pursue a particular career – become a teacher or a doctor. Live in a bigger house than your parents. Earn more than your parents. Start your own business. Have a million-pound business.
Goals and Purpose – two very different things.
The problem with all of the above is – they are NOT your purpose. Those are goals. And if you don’t believe me – answer me this. After you have married and had kids – what happens to your “purpose”? When you have your million-pound business, what’s your purpose then?
Purpose is not about goals, it’s about your WHY. What are you here to do? What impact are you here to make? Who are you here to help? Purpose is not an end goal, it is a way of life.
Find Your Ikigai
Knowing your purpose makes decisions simpler to make. It brings a sense of joy – or ‘ikigai’ as the Japanese call it. Following your joy. But what does that mean?
Well, it is the overlap of what your love to do and are good at and what the world needs and will pay for. If you take any of those 4 things out the equation doesn’t work.
If you do something you are good at but don’t love, the world might need it and pay for it, but you will eventually burn out and / or hate your life. That’s how people get stuck in ‘golden handcuffs’. They are great at something, it pays them a lot, they will always be in demand, but they hate it.
If you do something you love but are NOT good at – the world might want it, but they won’t keep paying you! (That applies to employment as well as running a business! That’s how you lose your job!).
If you do something you love and are good at, and the world would pay for it but not enough people want it, then you will be poor and bored. Maybe you are great at painting doors. But only doors. Not enough people want just their door painting. They would pay for it, but they also want the lounge painting at the same time. There’s no demand for just a door painter.
Finally, if you love and are good at what you do, and there IS a need in the world but the market won’t pay you enough, then again – you will be busy but poor. Because you will never earn enough from it to make it viable.
Imagine you make handmade quilts. Your work is amazing and your family all have an heirloom piece from you. But it takes you 2 months to make each one and the market won’t pay more than £1000 per quilt. You will be busy. But poor. You love it but you cant make enough of an impact with it, for it to be your purpose.
So, your WHY has to combine all 4 of those factors.
Most people don’t realise that. If they have put any thought into their WHY, they feel it must be a higher purpose thing, something selfless and not involving the M word. (Money).
But if it’s legacy you are after, if you want to make a lasting difference in the world, how much good can you really do if you have no money? And how much good could you do in the world if you had Elon Musk’s income?
Money is neutral, it is neither bad nor good. It is what people choose to do with money that makes it a positive or negative force.
“Well, that’s all very well for you Cheryl”, I hear you say, “You know your purpose”. I can assure you – it wasn’t always that way. When I was on my path of becoming an alcoholic, working for Dracula, in a shipping container, selling bathmats, I had no idea what my purpose was. In fact, I was pretty sure that I had no purpose and life was meaningless.
What Happens When You Find Your WHY
That’s a story for another day. But suffice it to say, I DID find my WHY. I went down many different dead ends, spent a lot of time and money speaking to various experts, reading books, attending events and doing research.
And eventually I stumbled across the answer (or rather that’s how it felt at the time – though now I believe the universe showed me what I was looking for at the exact time I was ready to find it).
Since then, my life has changed out of all recognition (for the better) and I am living with purpose and ON purpose. And what’s even better is that I have been able to help many other people to find their WHY, live their WHY and share their WHY.
And I have created a large community of WHY’s Women, who are living and sharing their WHY with the world and making a huge impact and difference in the lives of many others.
I’d love to hear from you about your WHY and the difference you are making in the world. And yet, if you are still looking for your WHY, a really good place to start is to get a free copy of your genetic blueprint.
This detailed document, identifies what type of person you are, and how you operate in the world. Which is the first step in understanding who you are and what you are here to do. It makes a fascinating read, and I guarantee there will be ‘AHA’ moments and ‘now that makes sense’ realisations!
For example, I am an Architect. I can take an idea and turn it into a plan. I can see immediately what is needed to make this idea into reality, and the path of how to get there. There are 5 main archetypes and hundreds of shades of grey within each one (no smutty references please!). And it is a real eye opener for most people.
Click here to order your free copy.