Find your life purpose this year
The new year ushers in a feeling of hope and a promise of good fortune to come. With fresh opportunities and renewed energy, it likewise serves as the perfect time to reflect and reset goals, as well as to add a more defined direction to one’s life.
Well-being expert, consultant, and writer Tchiki Davis, Ph.D. highlighted how having a purpose comes with a sense of connectedness and satisfaction.
“You might feel that there is some ultimate reason for your actions and that you are contributing to the world in some important way,” she stated.
Davis is instrumental behind happiness programs, products, and services that have reached more than a million people worldwide. She shared four types of purposes: prosocial, creative, financial, and personal recognition.
Prosocial, or the propensity to influence the societal structure, is the best strategy to increase happiness. “Get involved in projects that help others and try to give back in ways that matter to you,” she advised.
Likewise, social connection, self-expression, excitement, impact, and personal growth serve as contributing factors.
Echoing Davis, the experts from the Benilde Well-Being Center (BWC) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) highlighted how having a personal purpose or mission statement can help one stay on track and make decisions aligned with their values and objectives.
To guide the general public, they shared several guidelines by Davis on the digital platform of Berkeley Well-Being Institute:
Start by thinking about who you are and who you want to become.
Consider your current identity. Identify your long-term personal missions. Make a plan on how to best achieve this.
Clarify your most important goals.
Think of how you can reach your self-imposed objectives. Aim for community-oriented results, rather than self-focused ones.
Identify your greatest strengths and how you can apply these.
Know yourself inside and out. By being cognizant of what you can do best, you can apply your greatest traits in a constructive manner.
Think about the mark you want to make on the world.
Ask yourself about the impact you want your objectives to leave. This may motivate you to reach them, no matter how big or small they may be.
“Finding your purpose feels a lot like finding yourself,” Davis stated. “You know who you are, what you are meant to do, and nothing can stop you from doing it. Pursuing this does not require that you be successful because it is the journey that matters more than the destination,” Davis opined.
“Living your purpose feels like walking a path that is only yours,” she concluded. “So you might have to step off the path you’re currently on. You might need to figure out your own special way forward,” she ended.
