Your purpose may reveal itself to you at the most unexpected moment in your life. Maybe you find yourself in a situation where a thought occurs to you and it suddenly clicks - I could do this for a living. I should do this for a living. I would be happy doing this for a living. Epiphanies are exciting and should be embraced and explored, but they can't be conjured up with will alone.
But what you can do is understand the reasoning behind your interests and thoughts and beliefs. You can put in a bit of reflection in the self-awareness department to arrive at conclusions that may lead you to a possible pathway for your future.
While there are many angles from which you can attack this soul-searching exercise, one way to do this is to ask yourself the following four questions.
Let's start at the surface and dig deeper as we go along.
What are your skills?
This may help you uncover a particular function or role that may align with your interests and the path your career has taken you thus far. Once you identify your skills, you can decide whether you are utilizing them to their full potential, if you want to pivot your functional path, if you want to hone new skills, etc.
Example - My skills include individual & team leadership, creation and delivery of vision and mission, strategic planning, and project management / organization. I may look at that list and, if I enjoy those things, consider leadership coaching, strategic consulting, or lecturing on one of those topics.
Example - You may be good at social media, but you may not enjoy it. Does this need to be a part of your arsenal moving forward? Why are you good at it? How can you apply those skills in other areas? If you zoom out, maybe you uncover that you are good at community engagement, or that you enjoy whittling down a content asset's promotions into a few sentences. Pulling back the layers and becoming more aware of the underlying currents beneath your skills and the reasons why you are good at certain projects or enjoy certain tasks may help form a picture of your potential future.
What are your values?
Your values are deeply rooted and, consciously or subconsciously, drive the way you approach life. If you have ever found yourself struggling with a situation such as having to deliver a message you don't agree with or feeling ethically unsure about an assignment, you may find that at the root of this internal conflict, your values are colliding or are at risk of being compromised. When our priorities embody our values, we feel a bit more harmonious and comfortable with our choices and actions. When they don't, we may feel uneasy about the way forward. If we never address the root issue, we may find ourselves burnt out, indifferent towards work, or feeling lost professionally. In order to prevent or reduce that uneasy feeling when it comes to our career, we can work backward and start by identifying our values. Once we have a list of our values, we can explore whether there might be a career that allows those values to be manifested in our work - or at least a place where they might not be compromised.
Example - If I am in a leadership position where I know something bad is going on at the company, but I am told to put on a happy face and tell my team members everything is fine, I may do it because it's my job, but I'll feel uneasy about it because my values include trust and honesty. I could try to make my current situation better by asking whether we can be more transparent with our employees. If I cannot affect change internally, I might look for a situation where my values better align with the company's values.
What motivates you to act?
Unfortunately, at first, this one may surface in a more controversial or negative way -- jealousy. When you hear about someone else accomplishing something great, hopefully your main reaction is happiness for that person. We should be celebrating each other's successes, not putting each other down. BUT being human, sometimes you can't help but feel a twinge of jealousy, or maybe you think, "why can't I do that," or "I wish I did that," or "I'd love to be able to do something like that." Those thoughts are natural and are okay to acknowledge as long as they do not become toxic to ourselves or others. Even better, instead of jealousy, we can label it yearning for a similar outcome, if only you had organized your time and resources the way that person had. Better yet, we can look at it as motivation to change our lives for the better. It doesn't have to be a competition; identifying what bothers us can be a way for us to realize what matters to us and thus how we should spend our time. We can only do so much with the time we are given, and everything has an opportunity cost. While we chose to spend our time one way, someone else spent their time another way, and those two paths likely yielded two different outcomes. If we can identify someone's success as something we would like to achieve, instead of wallowing in jealousy, we can turn the situation into a positive one by viewing that person as a role model or their pathway as something to learn from. Who do you admire and why? What accomplishments inspire you? Using self-awareness in those moments may help you realize how you want to spend your time.
This one may also manifest in situations that arise in the world around you that bother you and make you wish you could do something about them. Perhaps you read a news article that shakes you to your core and you realize you have the skills necessary to help. You may not have been able to identify what that was until you felt emotion stirring within you as a result of reading an article or watching the news or hearing a story. In these moments, we should listen to our hearts and, at the very least, explore why we feel bothered and what we can do to help.
Example - I have always wanted to start a writing community, but I admittedly spent my time in other places - my day job, my family, my puppy, supporting my parents' businesses, health and fitness, social endeavors. Then, one day, I saw on LinkedIn that the inimitable Ann Handley had published a post asking if such a writing community existed! My insides lit on fire! Comments poured in, with hundreds of people responding that they want to run one, or that they have done one before, or that they would love to be a part of one. I could have felt sour and resented the way I had chosen to spend my time up to this point, but instead I felt inspired - I could clearly see that there was a need and demand, so if I could shift some time in my schedule to allow myself to work on this instead of something else, now would be the time to do it! The key is to turn jealousy into inspiration for a positive mindset shift that will yield better results for all. What do you feel you can impact?
What situations do you find yourself in when you feel you could make it better? Maybe sometimes it's not in your jurisdiction to do so, whether it is outside your scope at work or you are simply a guest or customer at an event or restaurant. But when you identify an opportunity, even if you can't achieve it in that moment, that may be a clue into a better way to utilize your talents.
Example - I recently was picking up a takeout order at a beloved local breakfast spot. When I arrived, the side room designated for online order pickup was completely empty. I could see one lone bag in the back of the room, and it had my name scribbled across the front in huge letters. No one came into the room for ten minutes, so I entered the main dining area to alert a worker. I went back to my spot and waited another fifteen minutes. Someone finally wandered in, did not apologize, had me sign a receipt, and sleepily handed me my food. When I got home, the food was cold. I could have been upset. But instead, I wondered how I could have helped the situation from a professional perspective. Do they need leadership training to help managers better be on top of the workflow around orders, or to help workers communicate with customers more effectively? Do they need a better organization system so they can be on top of orders and allocate their resources appropriately? When you start to think outside of your personal situation and look at ways you can positively impact the lives of those around you, you may uncover your purpose in the most random of places - like an empty side room at a local breakfast shop on a Saturday morning in February.
Bonus: A theme you may have seen weaved throughout the above questions and examples is the concept of a positive mindset shift. In many situations, we may want to let ourselves feel aggravated or annoyed. But what if we looked at negative experiences as opportunities for us to impart wisdom or help positively impact the community? Instead of taking to social media, for example, and complaining about a company's poor operations, what if you wrote to a leader at that business and offered your services to help make them better? When we shift our mindset to think more constructively, collaboratively, and positively, we help bring society together into a better place for all involved. Somewhat selfishly (or perhaps unapologetically!), we may benefit from that, but the best part is that others will benefit from it, too.
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