What to Do if You Doubt Your Life Purpose
If you’re a spiritual person or interested in personal development, you’ve been encouraged to find and manifest your life purpose.
But what happens if you have a life purpose in mind and you’re not sure it’s the right one? Perhaps there’s a career you’re interested in, yet it doesn’t seem to be the right fit, or you have a passionate hobby you like pursuing, but it seems to be taking up too much of your time.
We’ve all had big goals and then changed our minds. Or we’ve been forced to change because of circumstances beyond our control.
What Happens Next
Not being able to manifest a particular life purpose can lead a person to feel confused and frustrated.
The good news is that you have free will. Although the universe has a divine plan and has set certain things into motion, we have some freedom in the equation to follow our needs and preferences.
So take a deep breath and say this affirmation to yourself: “my life purpose can be something I choose.”
Yes, your natural gifts and talents will influence this, as well as the circumstances we find ourselves in, but what you do next is up to you.
And your life purpose is all about the next step in your life. It’s not a program you have to follow. It’s the path you choose for yourself.
My Own Story
Like many of you, I’ve struggled with my life purpose. As a child, I don’t ever recall having a dream or aspiration for myself. Not even stereotypical ones like being a veterinarian or astronaut. This became a problem as a teenager and in college that left me restless and unfulfilled.
And then when I finally chose a life purpose for myself and went through all the expensive training to achieve it, teaching, I became disabled with a rare sleep disorder. Now that life path is physically impossible for me to pursue. Talk about whiplash.
Yet now I’m happier than ever as a tarot reader. What changed?
I approached my life purpose with a framework of self-empowerment and autonomy. Here’s how you can do the same.
1. Look Within Instead of Copying Others
We’re often influenced by our environment and pushed to live in ways that may not personally resonate. Generally, this push is done with the best of intentions to help us be happy and successful.
This is why you may struggle to identify your life purpose – because you’re trying to live out someone else’s. Every individual has their own needs and preferences. Most of the time the standard path is right for us, but not in every instance.
Here’s an example: a parent may tell their child they need to study a good program in college to help them have a career. And you know what? They’re statistically right. But there’s more than one way to build a successful career. Their child may have the natural talents that could help them be an artist.
Your goal to find your life purpose is to look within. What makes you distinct from others? That’s a competitive edge you can use to define a life purpose of your own.
Try meditation, journaling, and other self-reflective activities. Write down any traits, life events, interests, or anything that comes to mind which seems important in defining who you are.
2. Look at Your Now
Current behavior is an excellent predictor of one’s life purpose. We’re naturally drawn to our highest goal in life even if we can’t manifest it fully. An aspiring artist will draw in their free time, a hopeful personal organizer will keep a clean home, and a future astrologer will study their horoscope.
It’s not a matter of how well you do something, but how often you choose to do it.
Grab a piece of paper and write down any activities you’ve done that were meaningful in the last three months and that you’ve done frequently. If you struggle with this exercise, try writing down what you enjoy doing over the next few months.
Eventually, it’s going to be clear what you prefer to be doing most of the time. That is going to be related to your life purpose.
Just remember that a life purpose isn’t always related to a career. Be open to the idea that your career or how you make money may only support your life purpose instead of directly manifesting it.
3. Understand Resistance
If you’re pursuing your life purpose, you won’t feel internal resistance. That’s not to say you won’t face obstacles and challenges, but that you won’t feel like giving up so easily.
Of course, you’ll have moments of doubt, but it shouldn’t overwhelm you. Internal resistance is usually a sign of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is when a person has internal thoughts and feelings that don’t match their actions.
When it comes to a life purpose, this would be someone making a particular path their life’s goal even though on the inside they secretly hate it. They’re being influenced by their environment rather than their heart.
How do you know if you’re experiencing a moment of doubt or internal resistance? A moment of doubt is transitory and usually soothed by approaching your life purpose from a different angle or finding a way to improve your actions. But internal resistance is never soothed by this. Instead, your misery only grows.
You deserve to be on a life path where your joy increases rather than your negative feelings.
What to Do If Your Life Purpose Changes
There’s good reason to believe that your life purpose now may change at least once more in your life. When this happens, that doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning everything you’re doing to make a radical change.
Many people who have a life purpose related to their career have different priorities once they have children. Their life purpose often changes so they can care for their small children. But, once the child becomes more independent as they age, their original life purpose returns.
Also, it’s important to note that you may not love your life purpose more than anything else in your life. Generally speaking, you’ll prefer your relationships over any life purpose. And some people are driven towards a life purpose even though it may not be their favorite thing to do. However, they will at least derive personal fulfillment from it.
Don’t fear changes, even transitory ones, because your life purpose is a reflection of who you are in the moment as well as who you want to become. A life purpose is a journey and sometimes there are detours and many paths you can take. Allow your curiosity to roam.
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