What Is a Purposeful Life and How Do I Get One?
The 3 primary elements of building a purposeful life
Are you searching for more purpose in your life but don’t quite know where to start? Or have you tried bringing more meaning into your life but continue to feel like you’re falling short or that you were meant to do more? Or maybe you’ve even found something you really care about, but you’re still not happy or feel burned out? Or maybe some bizarre combination of all of these things? It’s all good, my friend. You’re not alone. I’ve felt one or more of these things multiple times in my life.
So, how do you begin to move past these feelings and create a more meaningful life — a life that feels filled with purpose and that actually brings you joy? It all starts with intentionally designing a purposeful life.
Let’s Define It First
But what do I even mean when I say “a purposeful life”? My personal definition is “using your unique gifts to make consistent contributions toward a worthy cause(s) while intentionally building a life that you love.”
The 3 Components
When I break this definition down into the three primary components, here’s what a purposeful life looks like:
Using your unique gifts: This means spending the time to get clear about not only what specific skills you have, but which ones you enjoy using. Many people fall into the trap here of assuming that just because you’re capable of doing something, that means it’s a skill you should fall back on to create life with purpose. For example, I am capable of budgeting and forecasting, but I sincerely don’t enjoy it. For me, this means not looking for roles/projects/initiatives where I am budgeting and forecasting all day long, because I know I will eventually get bored or burn out if I am regularly doing something that I don’t enjoy.
To make consistent contributions toward a worthy cause(s): A major component of living a life that feels purposeful is to feel like you are making a positive contribution to a worthy cause. My personal definition of a worthy cause is “a cause that inspires you to action in pursuit of building a better world.” Identifying a worthy cause or causes that truly inspire you and then identifying ways that you can use the unique skills that you enjoy to contribute to said cause is mission-critical to building a purposeful life. For me, one of the worthy causes that I have found that lights me on fire is helping others understand what conscious business is — I find so much meaning and feel like I am positively contributing to the world every time I help someone understand that there is a way to do business that is good for everyone and the world.
While intentionally building a life that you love: This is one area where I see many people stumble. A lot of people do the first two things — identify things that they are good at that they can use to contribute to a worthy cause — and call that a purposeful life. While this method will likely bring more meaning to your life, it falls short when it comes to long-term sustainability. I know so many people who are using their gifts to run social enterprises who are deeply unhappy and burned out because they haven’t spent any time identifying what a life that they would love looks like. A truly purposeful life needs to include elements that light you on fire, bring you joy, and are sustainable over the long haul.
Once you’re able to articulate and consistently act upon these three key areas, you will be well on your way to building a purposeful life.
Ready to take the leap toward building and leading a purposeful life? Download your FREE 3-step plan to building more purpose into your life this week, or join The Purposeful Life Lab, where you’ll take a deep dive into answering these three questions and then get guidance on creating your own custom, actionable, accountability-infused Purposeful Life Plan.