What’s my life purpose? How do I find it?
Hell of questions, huh? Steve Pavlina offers one method for How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes. Here is my take - find your strengths first to discover your life purpose.
Find your strengths
J.D. Meier recently published great post - Finding Your Strengths - where he distills “Now, Discover Your Strengths” book by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. It offers the list of 34 key strengths.
Go over the list and pick 5 that resonates most with you - not those that you like, rather those that you are the best at. Got 5?
Find your life purpose
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it [is] he who is asked.” - Viktor Frankl
Now that you know your strengths think how you can apply it to make the most of it. What is the biggest impact you can make using your strengths? Use 4 Dimensions Of Personal Power to maximize your strengths.
My strengths
Achiever - You have a relentless need for achievement. You feel as if everyday starts at zero and you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out.
Analytical – Your Analytical theme challenges other people. “Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true.” In the face of this kind of questioning some will find that their brilliant theories wither and die. For you this is precisely the point. You do not necessarily want to destroy other people’s ideas, but you do insist that their theories be sound.
Communication – You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid.
Focus – “Where am I headed?” you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a clear destination. Lacking one, you life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass, helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don’t are ignored.
Arranger – You are a conductor. When faced with a complex situation involving many factors, you enjoy managing all the variables, aligning and realigning them until you are sure you have arranged them in the most productive configuration possible.
My life purpose
As it seems to me my key strengths are results and communication. Create and share the knowledge, the how-to. That is it. Create and share.
9 comments ↓
I think two additional points to call out are:
1. Your short list of strengths should be the ones that really stand out — not just strengths, but real advantages
2. Have a friend help you identify your strengths. Friends helped me see strengths I took for granted and actually undervalued.
Thanks, JD!
Wikipedia seems to have a good summary here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man’s_Search_for_Meaning
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