How To Discover Your Life Purpose

I’ve been doing intuitive work professionally since 1994, and full time since 2002. I’ve counseled thousands of clients over the years and in those sessions I’ve had questions come up that I’m happy to handle.

But there is one question I’ve gotten countless times and always refuse to answer: “What is my Purpose?”

Would you go to your first Russian Literature class and tell your professor, “I know I’m supposed to read War and Peace, but why don’t you just give me your Cliff notes and all the answers to the midterm?”

Asking a psychic to tell you your Purpose is like trying to get your hands on the teacher’s manual to ace the test.

What have you learned when you were handed all the answers without exploration? Zip, zilch, nada.

There are no shortcuts to discovering your Purpose.

Your Purpose and the Sentence of Passion that frames it form your rallying cry. They are the vapor trail you leave behind you in every encounter.

When you go skidding into Heaven — on bald tires and fumes in your gas tank — what will you say to God when he hands you a drink (beer, tea, Red Bull) and says, “So tell me how it was down there?” At that moment, your life of passion and Purpose is what you’ll gleefully hold up in both hands, declaring, “Wow! Let me tell you all about it!”

Your Purpose has to engage your passion.

Your Purpose is what you look forward to every morning.

Your Purpose is that soul-satisfying companion that sits with you every night and says, “We had fun today, didn’t we?”

So why can’t someone tell you who (or what) that companion is? Because no one else has lived your life, developed your interests, walked through your challenges, or pondered your questions. No one else can know the pattern of your existence. No one else knows your dreams and fears. It is these unique experiences that shine a light on your Purpose.

How do you find your Purpose? Examine your life, and ask yourself the following questions.

What has my life been about?

We all come into this world with themes, and specific paths and challenges. When we sketch out our blueprint in our pre-birth planning session, we know there will be lessons and roads that come to us in periodic waves. How we handle them determines how we succeed or fail.

Here are some examples:

If you’ve always had a roller-coaster relationship with money, how has that shaped your idea of prosperity? Do you feel you’re doomed to a marginal existence? Does it make you want to make money no matter what? Does it inspire you to live more simply, so the feeling of lack transforms into having enough?

If you’re always the one standing up for the underdog — whether or not you win — how does justice look to you? How do you want to create it on a daily basis?

If you always get overlooked for awards, disqualified in contests for odd reasons, or feel cheated out of what should be yours, does that make you bitter or better at being self-empowered?

If alcoholics and drug users surround you — but you stay clean — what does that tell you about your strength of will? How do you feel about those who use? Are you holier-than-thou? Do you wish you could help them get clean? Or do you ignore their existence?

Where does my happiness live?

To answer this question, let yourself relive your happiest moments. Think about the folks you admire. Give yourself time to think about what’s truly good in your life. You may think of things or events. Others may think of people and structures. When you recognize how you “shape your happy,” you’ll get definite ideas about how to engage your Purpose.

Then, look at how you take care of yourself and others from day to day. Do you put yourself first? How do you like to gift people — with your time, a sentimental gesture, or simply an object? When do you feel valued? When do you feel taken for granted? Each answer will have a Truth about who you are and what makes you tick.

Where do I find comfort?

We’re not talking potato chips and video games here. Comfort means finding solace in things that bring you balance, joy, and stability.

I find joy in wordcrafting. When I can shape phrases, sentences, and paragraphs like so much brick and stone and steel, I get to create wonderful structures that move people’s minds and hearts. I’m centered and exactly where I need to be when I am with my words.

My friend Rina is a natural comedian. When she gets people laughing, whether it’s at the water cooler or on a local stage, she’s firing on all cylinders.

My beloved stepmother, Shirley, was never happier than when she was digging in the dirt, tenderly planting moss plugs under shady trees, and connecting with Nature down to her own roots.

We all took what comforted us and made it our Purpose. As a teacher and intuitive, my words inspire and educate. Rina’s comedy has made her a sought-after trainer helping people think outside the box at work. And Shirley went to college in her late 50s to get a degree in landscape architecture and work with nonprofit arboretums and conservatories.

It’s never too late to embrace your Purpose.

Interests that always come forward, no matter where you are, send a signal to you.

Do you often donate your spare cash to an animal shelter?

Are you always the first one volunteering for your public radio station’s pledge drive?

Do you look into the eyes of the homeless person on the corner after buying them a sandwich, and make a compassionate connection?

These are all clues to the personal treasures that bring you comfort.

What crises changed my life?

Not everyone has experienced a life-altering event, but if you’ve dealt with a crisis that was a serious turning point, find the riches it contains.

Living through a hurricane or tornado may remind you of the fragility of life and the importance of not wasting it.

Responding to those caught in a major disaster (earthquake, rioting, warzones) may bring forward talents and strengths you didn’t know you had.

Think back on these situations: What marked your experience most strongly? What did you come away with regarding personal growth? If you faced a life- threatening illness and beat it, or survived a horrific accident, your will to live is worth examining and embracing.

How do I learn or work best?

This question is vital! Do you learn by seeing, hearing, or doing the thing? Are you a big-picture person or more detail-oriented? Are you more left-brained or right-brained? Do you run towards or away from change?

Until you understand and use your best working methodologies, you may inadvertently short-circuit your Purpose by trying to fit in into a life that can’t succeed.

If you are “right-brained,” your Purpose will wither and die if you try to shoehorn it into a data-entry job.

If you need stability and routine to feel centered and balanced, then a constantly changing job will exhaust you.

If you thrive best working with a team, then being cooped up in an office or working from home with no human contact for days at a time may not be your cup of tea.

If you are a solo act, you do your best work when you don’t structure your Purpose around people who want to give advice, provide input, or demand being part of your process.

What do I want to be remembered for?

This last question is what sums up everything. We are all meant to leave this place better than we found it; the best way to do that is to pass on our Purpose and passion in some form.

When you imagine yourself gone from this body, and you’re looking down from the Celestial Balcony, what do you want to see? Watching those people whose lives you’ve touched, what echoes of your teaching, inspiration, or knowledge do you want them to carry on?

How is the world different for your passing through it?

For me, that answer is easy: I want to inspire people to be more than they thought they could be. I want them to laugh when they remember how I taught them.

If I can leave people with those gifts, I‘ll have fulfilled my Purpose with joy and satisfaction.

So how about you? Are you ready to get clear on your Purpose, to carry it forward from today?

If you answer these questions honestly and with careful consideration, your life’s best companion will be standing in front of you — grinning with its suitcase packed and saying, “Allons-y! Let’s get going!”