What's your Purpose?
I am sure, we all will be able to define purpose, literally. We know the meaning of purpose, we all have grown listening this word in our homes, schools, organisation and every where else.
Amazing, that there is some purpose we are bound to and probably happy about, that is why we are doing what we are doing. Else, we as humans are empowered with power of choice. We would start looking for alternates if the purpose doesn't bind us. Isn't it true? You work of Army, the purpose is not to let enemy disrupt the harmony in our country, not to let them infiltrate. You work for a technology company the purpose is to create value for people by virtue of technology. You study in school, the purpose is to pass with good marks, become a good citizen of the country. In short, every organisation or institution we are associated with binds us with some purpose. It feels Fantastic, when you achieve some goal towards this purpose. You feel like a winner. WOW is the feeling. Great !!! Nothing wrong with it, rather this motivation is must to have.
My only question is, "WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL PURPOSE? " I tell you, 90% of the people whom you ask this question, will be clue less. TRY IT? Some people to satisfy there ego, will come up with fancy ideas as purpose just to up keep their image. But, why is it that most of us do not have a defined personal purpose? What are we heading towards, we don't know.
Even if you ask a question like, "where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?" to senior people in interviews, they would not sound convincing as they haven't thought of their own purpose in the organisation or they are not sure about it. But, they haven't even anticipated what might happen and where they want to be. I myself struggle with these questions.
My understanding of purpose is, it is like a lighthouse and I am a small boat in the ocean. This lighthouse needs to keep guiding my course towards my destination. There will be a 1000 times you will move away from right direction, but this lighthouse, this purpose, will make you re align your course towards where you are heading to. In practical, realignment of your priorities is very important. If you ignore re prioritisation in life or in profession, trust me life won't respect you.
So, What to do? How to find our purpose in life?
It is actually easy said than done. When we try to define purpose or identify purpose (long term), we realise that our vision is too bloody blurry. That is when, we as individuals apparently start working towards clearing our vision, identifying our top priorities out of 100 things which we might have in our mind. Is there an easy way to go about it? ABSOLUTELY NO. Here are a few steps, which probably can help us to define our purpose,
1) Read Maslow's hierarchical theory (google it). Once you have fulfilled your basic needs such as biological, physical, safety etc., you need to get to the next level, which is about self-esteem and here you must start thinking about the Self-Actualisation/ realisation which is all about the purpose in life
2) List down your priorities, give them weightage to help you zero down to the most important priority in life.
3) Set short term goals & long term goals based on your own priorities
4) Religiously track the progress towards your goal achievement, identify if you are on right path, else do realignment or the course correction which leads you to your destination
Can it get easier than this. YES, the answer is NO....
So, find a purpose and be self motivated, self guided. You don't need a guru then, you are the guru if you are amongst 10% of people who know their purpose of existence.
Good luck INTROSPECTING...
Rohit