Life purpose seems to be a big topic these days, very different from back in the day where you just took up the profession of your parents rather than considering whether you were on track with your life purpose.
But life purpose doesn’t just relate to career or work, although it can. Life purpose to me is the overall mission of your life, what you’re here on this planet to do as you with your particular skills being born at a particular time, and who you are here to be. I also think we’re living our purpose in every moment.
Each day when I work on this blog, or write in my journal, or take a course, I feel like I’m fulfilling my life’s work as it pertains to ‘career’. In general, I feel like I’m fulfilling my broader life’s work when I:
- show patience and kindness to people and animals
- create artworks and knit
- spend time in nature like at the beach or in a lovely forest walking
- garden and tend to the land
- tidy my home space and simplify my life
- bring joy to other people
- look after animals
- am loving, creative, nurturing, relaxed and calm
These are just some of the ways that I feel like I’m living out my broader purpose. What would your list look like? When do you feel like you’re on purpose or fulfilling your purpose?
If you’re interested in asking some questions and doing some journaling, check out these two blog posts about uncovering your life purpose, beginning with Part One and then going on to Part Two.
For the longest time I had no idea what my purpose was (or what life purpose even meant).
Once I’d noticed when I felt on purpose, what lit me up, and keeping a journal of what lit me up the most every day to start recognising when I was on purpose and when I wasn’t, I was then in a position to get on track with what I identified as my purpose.
A valuable resource is Robert Holden’s work, particularly his book Higher Purpose.
Now that I’ve found what I’m here for, the following are five things that I’ve noticed in life and in myself that I think are signs that I’m on track with my life purpose and may signal that you are too. Then I’ll take you through five signs that signalled to me that I was off track with my purpose, and maybe you are too.
Let’s get started.
5 Main Signs I’m On Track
1) I can feel it
Throughout my life I’ve been heavily influenced by other people and other people’s opinions, and societal expectations and what I felt I was ‘supposed to be doing’.
As I started listening to my own soul and inner nudgings, I realised there were things I gravitated towards naturally, activities and ways of being which lit me up a lot more than what I was doing. I also rediscovered a couple of things I was enthusiastic about like writing and crafting for animals.
There’s an overall feeling of deep ‘rightness’ with certain things that definitively says to me, this is it, this is what you’re here for (even if some days my writing activities feel like a bit of a slog).
2) Deep sense of calm
Despite experiencing a general anxiety about life, after listening enough to my own inner nudgings and north star guidance system, I noticed that certain activities and experiences elicited a deep sense of calm. This happens for me most when I’m engaged in writing, spending time in nature or with animals, creating, and reading or learning.
Even just thinking about certain activities or myself engaging in them helps me feel a sense of calm sometimes.
If there are activities in your life that make you feel a deep sense of calm, and I mean really soul and bones level deep rather than superficially calm momentarily, then that’s quite the clue that you’re doing activities aligned with that higher purpose and that you’re on track with your life purpose.
3) Opportunities arise and synchronicities occur
Whether it’s a book that falls off a shelf, a comment by someone in your life, or some other sort of offer, when opportunities arise and synchronicities occur, this can be a sign that you’re on track.
For me, I often find that passing comments and ads on TV or social media are the most common ways that it seems as though the universe is conspiring to help me. Almost as if, because I’ve committed and shown my dedication to the craft or thing, that it’s then that the universe goes, “Right, well it looks like she’s serious so let’s send her some things that could really help.”
I’m sure we’ve all had moments of synchronicity in our lives whether we’re aware of them or not, and seemingly unusual opportunities have been presented to us that seem to perfectly align with that thing we’re pursuing.
Be on the lookout for and learn to recognise synchronicities. Pay attention and stay aware of everything happening for you as it could be a signal that you’re on track with your life purpose.
4) Things flow
Similar to the last point, I find that when I’m doing things that light me up that I believe are in alignment with my purpose here on the planet, I find that things generally flow. There’s a nice flow to everything that unfolds, and even setbacks or blocks or things that seem to go wrong will eventually point me in the right direction.
This isn’t to say that everything will be super easy once we’re on track. There will still be challenges, a need to readjust plans or expectations, and sometimes having a bit of a re-evaluation.
And sometimes, I feel like the difficulties we experience when pursuing our purpose seem so grand because we’re here to do grand things. The universe is possibly testing our resolve and our determination.
Despite this, when I’m on track, even if things are a little difficult and I feel stuck sometimes, overall I can feel a flow and broader purpose to the purpose.
5) Increased focus & decision making
Once I’d sussed out what I naturally enjoyed and what lit me up, where I spent my time, money and energy in fulfilling ways, and what I truly valued in life, then a lot came into focus, and I made decisions with greater ease (I’m still a bit indecisive and can get unfocused sometimes, but I just take that as an opportunity to get back on track again).
I put this down to being aligned with my natural inclinations and values, so making decisions in alignment with those seemed more effortless. Getting clearer on my mission here and my values, my focus increased.
5 Signs I Wasn’t On Track (and what I did about it).
Before I discovered my path and purpose (and can tell that I’m on track with the signs above) I wasn’t on track at all. Now that I am on track, sometimes it’s easy to be pulled off track, and when the following five flags pop up again for me, I know it’s time to get grounded and get back on track.
1) Feeling a bit unfocused and scattered
Oh mate, when I was off track I perpetually felt frazzled, ungrounded, unfocused, and completely scattered. This played out in my bold statements of, “Right everyone, I’ve decided that [insert whatever career of the season I’ve decided I want to dedicate my life to here] is what I’m here to do with my life,” only for my enthusiasm to fizzle out after a few months and leave me realising, “actually this isn’t for me” (unfortunately after putting money, time and energy investments in in some cases).
When I started paying attention to all the personal signs going on around me and within me, and really listening, then things became clearer and I found myself becoming calmer, settled, focused, and clear about what I was doing and who I was being.
Get still, shut up, and listen.
2) Using coin tosses and asking way too many people for advice to make decisions (putting more emphasis on other people’s opinions and what I ‘should’ be doing than listening to me)
Now there’s nothing wrong with a good old coin toss to make a decision for you, or getting the advice of other people; but when it becomes excessive, this is a sign that you’re not paying attention to your inner nudgings and wisdom.
I used to rely on external sources and validation for so much of my decision making, because I was disconnected from myself. As it regards life purpose, other people don’t know what you’re here for or whether you’re on track with your life purpose. Only you know what you’re here for, how things make you feel, and what you truly value. Someone might be able to be a guide to you, ask questions, get you thinking about the deeper important stuff that will help you discover your purpose, but it’s up to you to follow what’s in your heart and soul. No coin or person can tell you that.
My advice and what I did would be to start listening to your inner nudgings and wisdom, try things out and start relying on your own guidance and whatever higher thing you believe in. Focus inward rather than outward. Exercise that like a muscle. Use coins and other people’s advice sparingly, like salt to taste on a meal – too much is going to obscure the flavours of the meal. Your purpose is the meal, other people’s advice and opinions are the salt and spices.
3) My gut feeling ‘scrinched’ or other bodily sensations that are saying “NO”
Have you ever had a situation where your body has spoken for you? Maybe it’s a social event that you don’t really want to go to and you have excruciating back pain, which means you can’t go to the event, sorry. These kinds of situations are a type of “secondary gain”, which is when an illness or disorder leads to some kind of gain, whether that’s not going to an event, getting sympathy and attention (mostly the case for extroverts) or having some much needed alone time (mostly the case with introverts).
I mean sometimes these things just happen. We get sick. We get better. Such is life. Not all illnesses mean that you’re not on track with your life purpose.
But I’ve noticed when I’m making decisions that aren’t aligned with my purpose or if I’m getting sucked into other people’s stuff too much, then I find that my body signals danger by way of a ‘scrinching’ sensation – not fear, or the normal discomfort of travelling outside my comfort zone or trying something new. This is my body saying, “Warning, you’re about to go off-road, are you sure you want to continue?”
Start listening to your body if you resonate with any of the above. I know it can be difficult for some autistic people to know what’s going on in their own body (a concept called interoception), whereas others like myself have a kind of hyper-interoception.
If your body is talking to you, it’s best to listen.
4) Bouncing from one thing to the next and not finding fulfilment in anything
I’ve spoken before about achievement addiction, which I had for a long time and still occurs at times to this day, that led me to being unfocused, mentioned above, and deciding every season or even every month that my “life purpose” as it related to career had changed (honestly I had a hard time keeping up, I can’t imagine how loved ones around me dealt with all these whims and flights of fancy).
Whether it’s bouncing from one relationship to another trying to find fulfilment, or job, or task, or project, or whatever, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s phrase and title of his book “Wherever you go, there you are” comes to mind. I’ve realised that looking externally to relationships, jobs, tasks, projects, and things for deep soul fulfilment is a lost cause. None of these external things is going to fully satisfy the soul.
If you’re doing things that feel flat and unenthusing, examine why. Are you doing these things because they truly light you up but you’re just having a normal slumpy phase, or are you doing these things and committing to certain things because you feel you “should”? Have a think about it.
I mean sometimes things that I love feel unenthusing, and that’s normal (with hormonal fluctuations and life happenings). It’s when we’re doing something that consistently doesn’t fulfil us and we’re still searching for that next thing that’s a potential sign of being off track.
What does satisfy my soul is not necessarily excitement, but contentment. Sipping a cup of tea outside on a sunny winter day, writing, all the things I’ve mentioned above bring me a quiet settled contentment, and that’s what truly fulfils my soul.
If you’re bouncing from one thing to the next, ask why, what are you looking for? What are you hoping to feel? Is what you have and are doing now enough? If not, why not? Just gently ask yourself some questions and get to the root of things.
If you’re perpetually unsatisfied, the next relationship, or job, or task is highly unlikely to solve the problem. You need to look at you.
5) Engaging in lots and lots of addictive behaviours (ranging in severity)
When I start filling more of my day with to-dos to get that achievement high, or ruminate (especially engaging in imaginary conversations with others that are unlikely to ever happen in real life), and get through an alarming number of digestive biscuits in one sitting, I know I’m not on track. I’m trying to numb out something.
The sooner I pay attention to what that something is rather than resorting to numbing out behaviours, the sooner I get back on track and settle down.
For some people, numbing out might look like solving everyone else’s problems (which deep down is a refusal to look at your own problems), busyness, drugs like alcohol and coffee and maybe even some of the other fun ones, food, overdoing things or underdoing things, whatever. It’ll look different for everyone. For me it’s achievement, ruminating and being stuck in my head, and biscuits (and junky sugary or salty foods in general).
I’d advise you to do some gentle investigative work at your own pace to see what you may be numbing out with your behaviour or substance of choice. Once you’ve cleared away those patterns, getting on track with your life purpose should be easier.
Related Reads
- Questions to Discover Your Life Purpose Part One
- Questions to Discover Your Life Purpose Part Two
- ‘Higher Purpose’ Book Review
- What Lights You Up?
Final Thoughts
Did any of those resonate with you? Are there any that you would add?
Do you think that you’re on track with your life purpose?
How do you know you’re on or off purpose?
Does anyone else hit the biscuit jar as hard as I do to numb out?
Let me know in the comments below or email me at [email protected]. I’d love to hear your quiet thoughts and have a discussion with you.
Lots of love and fulfilling travels,
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