Do you like your life exactly as it is now, or do you feel that there should be a lot more into life for you than what you already have? Do you have a great passion or hobby that you like and invest a large sum of your time and energy in? Have you found THE purpose of your life yet, or are you still on that ever-going quest?

Since I was 9 years old, I have surrounded myself with all self-improvement literature. My idea of a celebrity was a bit different from that of my peers; because mine were names like Tony Robbins, Brian Tracey and Stephen Covey.

I have spent countless hours trying to decipher the puzzle of my life hoping that I could eventually reach a satisfying answer for the one and only question; what is my purpose? I tried almost every formula there is and bought every book, e-book and audio book that I could have a grasp on. You name it – I did it! Today I have more questions than when I started the purpose-quest, I have changed course more than I can count, and I have got the feeling that I am still where I have started years ago!

If you’re into self-improvement stuff -like me- and you enjoy consuming as much information as you can, I’m sure you’ve heard the term “Your Life’s Purpose” many times before. Personally, I have heard it and repeated it so many times by now that the term itself lost its charm and even its meaning. It happens often when you keep on repeating a certain word, after a while it loses all meaning and it starts to sound weird! Try “Chair” for example. . “Chair” “Chair” “Chair” etc. the same thing happened with me repeating the word “Purpose” over and over; it somehow becomes vague.

On the other side of the equation, constantly thinking about your life may have made you more eager than ever to unveil the mask off your purpose. In either ways this means you haven’t reached there yet – the shores of purpose-land are still out of sight!

We’ve all heard about the importance of defining your life’s purpose, setting short-term, midterm and long-term goals, being clear on your passions and true desires, being discipline in your approach and last but not least, being grateful for having done all of that! And I bet you have bought one of those famous goal-setting books, sat down and tried to figure your life out.

Do you know someone who’s discovered their lone talent early on, or somebody else (say; a parent for example) has discovered it for them and they held on to it without ever revisiting the idea again? That 8 year-old violin addict that chess genius in 5th grad, that brilliant 12 year-old painter or that 10 year-old ballet artist and the list goes on and on. We’ve all have encountered those among us who seemed to have figured it out and acted accordingly. Did they really figure anything out at all?

Well, you might be one of them; which is great for you. However, I know for sure that I wasn’t. I used to look at those friends with admiration and jealousy at the same time. After all, I just wanted to know my sole singular passion too! I tried sports early on – I forced my father to sign me up for karate training when I was 7 years-old. I lasted only to the yellow belt hooray! I went for reading books and tried to force myself to become a reader, but the problem is I get bored too easily and I couldn’t stand sitting with a 300 pages book till the very end. I then went for music; I signed up for the school musical band when I was in 6th grade and tried to learn to play the piano; I was disciplined enough to learn to play the national anthem and that was pretty much it for my career as a pianist before I quit out of boredom and lack of discipline.

I went again for sports and tried to enter the school’s basketball team when I was in 7th grade, after 2 weeks of general fitness training we got to the real business and the coach started auditioning for the district’s schools tournament. Out of 60 shots I was supposed to through at the basket from different distances I miraculously scored 2; Needless to say that I didn’t make it to that team! One year later, it occurred to me that playing the guitar was my passion –or at least it seemed a good classy passion to stick to for a while; so I convinced my parents to buy me a classical guitar and then to register me in a guitar summer school at my home town. And the list goes on and one until this very day! I tried acting, teaching, repairing bicycles, drawing, writing peotry and even singing. But still, without actually satisfying my quest.

So is it me, or there is something wrong with the singular passion formula? In the past I used to put all the blame on myself; after all, how could you blame Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey or even Deepak Chopra for your misfortunes?! It didn’t make sense at all.

Later I began to doubt the whole singular-passion life-purpose paradigm and shifting toward what’s felt right to me. I started asking a different question. This new question shifted my whole focus and energy to a brand new level which has totally changed my life.

The new question was: what do I really want – a purpose of life or a purposeful life?

What if the one purpose or one singular passion are nothing but fancy bla bla bla?! What if we are meant to have several passions and fulfill more than one purpose in a single lifetime? What if you are not the one who should be searching for his life’s purpose and it is the other way around – your life’s purpose should be searching for you?
What if your life’s purpose is –as simple as it sounds- to be happy and joyful in every single moment? So whenever you’re not happy or you don’t feel joy, you are contradicting your purpose in life?

Forget about being a part of a huge master plan. Forget about 10 years, or 20 years goals. Think of 1 day goals i.e. today I am going to be as happy as I am ever capable of being. That’s it, no more or less. When tomorrow comes I’ll worry about it then. For now I only have today to enjoy. After all I might not be given a tomorrow!
Every moment, we are being bombarded with a tremendous amount of information coming from everywhere. This does more harm than good because it annoys us and puts us under constant stress to keep our focus and sanity. Overwhelm is the new common dilemma nowadays, where you are encouraged to do more, be more, achieve more, read more, and think more – but at the same time you feel helpless and hopeless somehow!

Don’t waste your time in extensive planning for the future. There’s no such thing as a 20-year plan or 10-year plan or even a 5-year plan. The best you can do is to draw a rough direction for yourself – don’t sweat yourself off trying to curve this direction into solid rocks; because you will change it many times over the course of several years. Just live today to the fullest and it will move you forward one step at a time.

If you look at life as a game, where you come to it with a certain outfit (your body) and a certain set of circumstances, abilities and disabilities, then you have one chance to play it right. The fun part is that you don’t get to see the whole map in advance; you are able to discover each part of it as you approach it. Then the best you can do is to do your best at every single step.

If you are a student, be the best student you can ever be. If you are a parent, be the best parent you can ever be. If you are a janitor, be the best janitor you can ever be and if you are a president, be the best president you can ever be. Regardless of where you start your journey, make sure to make the end worthwhile. Walk slowly but surely towards your vision even if you don’t have one yet; make your vision to be the best person you can ever be in this world. The game will step up a little bit each time and you’ll soon develop strong sense for what you want and what you don’t.

I remember a rule I learned during one of the entrepreneurship workshops I attended, it was given to us after the end of a long strategic/business planning session when the instructor paused and said something to the extent that: you can through away the detailed business plan you’ve just made, the plan is worthless but the planning process is invaluable. What you’ve learned along the way of planning with remain with you although that the plan itself might become obsolete the moment it is finished!

Therefore, we can project this on our lives and conclude that life itself isn’t that important. What’s really important is the process of living. Living is action, movement, regeneration, development, vitality, energy, persistence, joy and laughter. Life is the obsolete sheet of paper that we call; the business plan. It is a record of wins and losses and it doesn’t mean anything by itself.

Don’t spend much time in thinking and wondering. Rather use that valuable time in LIVING. One of my all times favorite quotes is by Les Brown when he said:

“Leap and grow your wings on the way down. Put all your bets on you, and on your ability to achieve your goals. Throw caution to the wind! If you have a catastrophic set-back…know that you have the power to overcome it.

If you lose a job, you will find another one, or create one. If you make some mistakes…learn from them, and come back again. This is a time to use your talents, skills, and resourcefulness to make a radical change and take your life to the next level. Remind yourself everyday…that you’re in it to win it. You are your most valuable asset. Do what you need to do to make it happen! You deserve.”

So go ahead and take that leap of faith you’ve been waiting for so long to take. And remember, the best you can do is to do your best.
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Photo: Irene Mei

Have you encountered similar experiences? What was the thing/concept you liked the most in this article? Did it resonate with you well? Are you encouraged now to take action on what you really want? Do you have anything to share with us? Please join the conversation and comment to this article.