The traditional approach to finding life purpose includes questions like:
- What are your dreams?
- If you had a million dollars what would you do with your life?
- What do you most love to do?
While these are important questions and they’re very inspirational, I wasn’t able to uncover my purpose through these questions. My answers were all over the place. Have you struggled with this too?
An unexpected approach:
If you have struggled to find your purpose with the traditional approach, perhaps this could help. I discovered my life purpose by thinking about life beyond my own lifespan. I asked myself, what would I want people to remember about me? And, what is the most important impact I can have on the lives of others?
About three years ago, while mourning the loss of a loved one and thinking about the impact they had on my life. I wondered, what would my gravestone say about my legacy and impact?
What I came up with, was: “Here lies April, look what she’s done for corporate America as a workaholic who missed out on the important things in life”. It wasn’t a happy thought. But, it motivated me to find my mission and purpose.
A few years after making some significant changes, my gravestone might say something more like: “Here lies April, the impact of her life-work continues through the visionary women she inspired to confidently pursue their dreams and lead from within.”
Once I knew the legacy I wanted to leave, I was able to reverse engineer my life purpose.
In closing, I’ll leave you with two questions, so you can begin to reverse engineer your purpose.
What might your gravestone say about your life? And, does it reflect the impact that you want to have?
P.S. If you’re still stuck, I offer personalized one-on-one leadership strategy coaching to help you uncover your life purpose.