Executing Your Life Purpose

This is part 2 of a 2 part series on life purpose. Please read part 1 first – How to find your purpose.

Now that you know what purpose is, why it’s important, and how to find it, let me talk about how to execute it in 2 easy steps.

1 – Clearly define a purpose statement. You need to clarify your vision and tie those to some specific missions and goals.
2 – Take action – take that first step, stay motivated, and don’t give up.

Step 1 – Clearly Define a Purpose Statement

Ok, so if you haven’t defined a purpose statement yet, do so. You have to be clear on your purpose, or as Stephen Covey says, you must begin with the end in mind. You have to have a vision. Think deeply and honestly about where you are and where you want to go. Think of who you are and who you want to be.

Without setting a course, you simply won’t get there, so this step is crucial. It won’t be perfect, but just get a purpose statement down on paper. You can be tweak it later (and likely you will).

Here is mine as an example:

My purpose is to ass value to the lives of others, love others, live to my potential (self-actualizing), live a balanced life, and pay it forward.

Next, look for specific missions that are in alignment with your purpose statement and passions. You identified your purpose and passions in the first video, now tie those to specific goals. What are some specific goals that are in alignment with your purpose? Write those down as well. Take the time to explore ways in which you can fulfill your purpose.

Again, here is an example of mine. It’s easy, just get it down on paper.

Once you clarify your purpose, missions, and goals, and stay focused on them, guess what happens? Steps start appearing along the way in the form of new ideas, opportunities, internal guidance, and so on. Once you set an intention and really go with it, things start happening – pay attention to your intuition in these moments.

As you progress, make sure you don’t let your limiting beliefs, fears, doubts, and negative self-talk get in the way. Squash those thoughts like the turds that they are!

I suggest you carry your purpose statement/missions with you – this will keep you focused on what’s important and meaningful to you. This will keep you on track and fired up!

Step 2 – Take Action and Keep Going

Wishful thinking and dreaming about where you want to be won’t get you there. Writing goals down won’t get you there either. Although they are necessary steps, they aren’t enough.. to get to your destination, you have to be proactive and take action to reach your goal.

Sounds easy enough, but this is where a lot of people stall. They have all the right intentions, but many fail in actually taking those first steps. Those first steps really get the ball moving and build your momentum.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

Lao Tzu

This means taking steps towards what you want, and removing those things in your life that you don’t want. Take a huge leap if you can – ask, is there any way that you can turn your passion, your mission, your purpose into a career? Is there any way you can make a living from it? Explore that question very deeply.

How can you get paid doing what you love? If you can find a way to make a living doing what you love, then you will never have to work a day in your life! If you can, take that leap and go all in.

If you absolutely can’t do that right now because you have a family to support, bills to pay, and so on, then find a way to grow your passion.. grow the time for that activity. Take one step at a time toward what you do want.

How can you work towards making it a bigger part of your life? Try and organize all of your activities around it. If an activity or goal doesn’t fit into your purpose and missions, then simply don’t do it. Don’t waste your time with it. Focus on growing and cultivating your passions.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stuck – feeling like you have this great vision, but don’t know where to go, then work backwards. How you ask?

Ask – where do you want to be in 5 years? What do you need to do to get there in the next year? What do you need to do to get there in the next month? What do you need to do to get there in the next week? What do you need to do to get there in the next day? What can you start doing today? Do that.. right now. Break it down into bite sized chunks and focus on that one single task.

Don’t try and go in too many directions – focus on one thing at a time, do the one thing you can do right now. That’s it. Don’t overwhelm yourself with the huge amount of work you have to do – start small. If you’re writing a book, get yourself to write one paragraph or one page at a time. Don’t make it complicated. Staying motivated is all about staying on your purpose moment to moment and when you get sidetracked, getting back to it as soon as possible.

Sometimes, discovering what you’re passionate about in life and what matters to you is a trial-and-error process. Some of us are so lost that we have no idea what to do. In that case, stop looking and start doing. Start taking action – the more we act, the more we explore and experience our different passions, the more we get clear on things.

This applies to everyone to a certain extent. Your purpose and missions will change over time as you grow and evolve – so be ok with that. It’s normal to pause and reevaluate regularly. Again, as you try things, as you explore, experience, and live life, you will change and so will your missions.

Also, don’t over think it. Don’t get paralysis analysis. Get out of your own way and get rid of the negative “what if” questions. What if I don’t succeed, what if I can’t do it, what if I can’t make it work, what if I don’t make any money? As I said earlier, make sure you don’t let your limiting beliefs, fears, doubts, and negative self-talk get in the way. Squash those. This is a constant battle at first.

Just keep your vision in mind and press forward, keep taking action. As you take action, you may get more clarity on what you actually like. Follow Mel Robbins 5 second rule – If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill the idea. The what if fairies come in and stop you from change.

So, take those initial actions. Act, don’t react. Take the first step – just do it!!

Staying Motivated

The second area people stall in is staying motivated. How do you keep yourself motivated while continuously executing your missions and purpose?

Well, if it’s something you truly love, then you should be motivated and you’ll be much more likely to stick with it versus something you don’t love doing. If you love it, you won’t have to force yourself to do it all the time.

Occasionally it will suck – not everything is fun all the time – sometimes you will have to grind, but for the most part it should feel exciting. If it’s not, then maybe you’re not really loving it and you need to explore some other potential passions.

If you’re sure it’s your mission but you are still falling out of the zone, look at the why. If you don’t have a strong why behind it, then you won’t stick with it through the tough times, so again, you’re not on the right path. Ask, why are you doing this? This ties back to the first article – find something bigger than yourself.

Are you trying to contribute to the betterment of human kind? Are you sacrificing your time for something you really care about? Who are you helping and why? What problems are you trying to solve and why? Reconnect with the why behind what you’re doing and you will be highly motivated.

To help you stay on track, you can also try something called Ikigai (icky guy) cards. Ikigai comes from Okinawa Japan, and means reason for being. What’s your reason for being? What’s your reason for getting out of bed every morning?

Again, write down your purpose and goals and read them every morning. Carry them with you and read them throughout the day. If you read it every morning when you wake up, you will be dialed in to your purpose every single day – now that’s powerful!

RECAP

1- Clearly define a purpose statement – clearly define your vision and tie it to specific missions and goals.
2 – Next, take that initial step – take action! Jump in head first or at least find a way to include it in your life more often.
3 – Make sure you have a strong why – This will keep yourself motivated and will keep you going through the tough times. Don’t give up.

Release your Fears

Now, while you’re on the road to fulfilling your mission and purpose, you need to release any fears you have – fear of judgement, fear of failure, fear of you name it. You must face your fears head on.

You will fail from time to time. I have a whole video on failure. In short, failure is a good thing – it’s there to help us grow. You will stumble and fall from time to time, but that’s to be expected. When we try something new, we aren’t going to be experts… we’re probably going to suck.. but keep trying and you will get better.. then fail again, and get better, and on and on.

We fear failure so much that we don’t try anything new out of fear of embarrassing ourselves. That’s no way to live. Be ok with embarrassing yourself and failing – that’s actually the path to achieving greatness.

Enjoy the Journey

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Enjoy the journey! The purpose of life is to be fully involved in living, in being present for the journey, and embracing every turn. Treat your life as a daring adventure and don’t hold back. Just go for it. Discover, learn, grow, experience, teach, help, serve, empower, and add value to the world. Find your gift and then give it away.

Thanks for reading! 🙂 Now go out there and execute your purpose!