A Sense of Purpose
As part of my spiritual journey, I have often been contemplating the concept of purpose. Do we all have one and if so, how does it manifest and become part of our lives? Will the right circumstances cause it to show up? Or is it something innate to be discovered within?
My psychological training typically led me to the conclusion that it must somehow be a combination of the two. But it never fully removed the underlying question of how? When one day coming across following simple quote by American writer and theologist, Frederick Buechner, this added important pieces to my puzzle:
“Purpose is the place where your deepest gladness meets the world’s needs”
Like Buechner, my sense of purpose emerges when I am contributing to something greater than myself and doing something that I am passionate about and feel good at. To me living purposefully is about figuring out what it is that I want and how my talents and personal values intersect with the needs of others. When I am capable of doing this, my sense of who I am and why I am here automatically grows stronger and makes my life seem more meaningful.
Science shows that people with a strong sense of purpose typically live longer and healthier lives. The presence of purpose not only provides our existence with direction and meaning. It also helps us in day-to-day decisions. To some people their purpose is closely tied to what they do, but mostly your purpose has to do with who you are being.
Purpose-driven companies are generally more attractive to employees, investors and society at large. With a mission greater than their own profit and success as a business, these companies allow their people to take active part in this and are often fostering a different kind of engagement. In order to stand out companies must be making a difference to be different, and those who do typically evolve faster and outperform those who aren’t.
In spite of my theoretical knowledge of all of the above, I nevertheless recognize times in my life where I have tried to adapt to circumstances and be successful but without taking my personal desires into any real account. Whether it had to do with too much focus on the expectations of other people or not paying enough attention to my own inner voice, these are stages where I have felt most out of balance and without a clear sense of purpose.
Committing to a life governed by purpose can be challenging and not always easy to figure out. The noise from the outer world can easily distract you, and sometimes leave you torn between external expectations and the truth you feel inside. For me this is always the time where I need to (once again) ask myself: Who do I want to be in this life? And what does it take for me to be this person?
To tackle somewhat big questions like these, I keep returning to the Japanese concept of Ikigai. Translated by some as the reason to be, it is generally referring to having direction or purpose in life. By intersecting what you love with the things you are good at, what you think the world needs, and what you know you can make a living from, I find Ikigai a great way of creating a holistic overview of what should drive my overall objectives.
When creating From Balance, and inspired by Ikigai, I asked myself: “How can I combine the things I enjoy doing the most with what I feel good at and apply this to something I see a need for, while also making a living?” Deciding that to me the answer was: “Empower individuals to gain clarity and move into flow”, I am wondering: What would be your answer to these important questions?
Love,
Sille