Most people know their purpose. They just don’t know that they know.
Let me explain that a bit.
Think back to when you were 5 – 10 years old. There were things that you loved to do, right? Maybe it was getting on your bike and cycling around, or roller skating, or ‘doing the crab’. Physical stuff. Perhaps it was setting up a den under the dining room or kitchen table.
It could be that painting, plasticine (yes, I am that old), or colouring in was your thing. Possibly it was going to the park, or for walks in the fields at the back of your house. Nature was what you loved.
Reading, playing with others, baking, getting dressed up for a party, planting seeds, singing, dancing – putting on little shows for your family.
Whatever it was – you did it because it felt good, and you loved it. You didn’t worry if your show was terrible, or your plasticine farm looked like someone had puked up, or you fell off your bike. You were living on purpose and loving your life.
So, what happened to your purpose?
Maybe it starts at High School. Perhaps that is where we start doing stuff that we have to do, rather than what we love to do. Certainly, by the time you get to be an ‘adult’, there are so many things you have to do, just to keep the wheels turning, money coming in, and a roof over your head – that there is little time left for “purpose”.
You are lucky indeed if you have a vocation – if you can actually earn money whilst doing something that has a higher calling. If you are a doctor, a vet, a priest – something you feel compelled to do, then you are fortunate indeed.
Calling or Clawing?
Do you have a calling, or are you clawing your way up a career ladder somewhere and wishing you were somewhere else?
Most people have an idea of what they would like to be when they grow up, which is slowly and inexorably crushed out of them by the time they hit the job market. For most, they fall into a job and then don’t know what to do, except to just keep going.
I was that person. I was sleepwalking my way through my life. Getting into destructive relationships. Working in a job I really didn’t love, and that is putting it mildly, working for Dracula – the job was literally sucking the life out of me. At the time I didn’t realise that I was hiding from life in a bottle (Stella or Gordons or both).
I didn’t think I had a purpose – but here’s the thing. I did. I just didn’t know it yet.
Your Purpose Can Change or Appear Later in Life
As I said earlier, some people are born knowing their purpose. But for most people, their purpose is something they cannot achieve or even discover until a certain date or time in their life.
If that sounds like it doesn’t make sense, let me explain.
Imagine your purpose is to help people in their 50’s + with bereavement. How would you do that as a 20-year-old? You have to learn about the world, about people, about yourself. So, the purpose is always there but emerges at the time that is right for you.
For me, the right time was at an event with an inspirational speaker in my 40’s. I often wish I had met this guy earlier, but to be fair – things happen at the right time, and I wasn’t in the right place to understand that I was in control of my life. I was a victim. In my own mind anyway.
I came to my purpose at the right time for me. And as a result of someone asking the right question at the right time. And that is the common path. Something happens. Someone asks the right question. Someone challenges the norm. And that is the turning point.
Is it Time To Find Your Purpose?
Maybe it is your time – time for you to discover your purpose. I say discover – because it has always been there – waiting for the right time to come out! Perhaps it is the right time for someone to ask you the question that produces the lightbulb moment. If you feel that there should be more for you. If you are at a crossroads in life caused by a big change in circumstances. And if you KNOW – you just KNOW – you are here on earth to achieve something. You just don’t know what. Then maybe it is time to reach out to someone who knows what questions to ask to bring your purpose into focus and to set a new direction for living your life with purpose.
Book a free discovery call with me by emailing me at cheryl@cheryl-chapman.com