What Is A Life Purpose? Simply put, life purpose is what motivates you to get out of bed every morning. This purpose guides your life decisions, influences your behaviors, shapes your goals, and creates meaning in your life. Every person has a different life purpose.
Some find their purpose is connected to vocation. Others find their purpose in their responsibilities to family and friends. While others find their purpose through spirituality and religious beliefs. There is no right or wrong when it comes to finding your life purpose.
Life Purpose And Satisfaction – We consider ourselves to be happy when our needs and desires are satisfied. However, this happiness is fleeting because, in our consumer-driven society, we are always trying to attain more.
A study in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that while negative events decrease happiness, they tend to increase the meaning of life. The study also showed that people who had purpose rated their life satisfaction higher, even when they were personally unhappy.
Essentially, having true meaning in our lives means that we can work through past grief, abuse, and failures and find resilience, resolve and growth and use those learning experiences to give back in some way.
People who have life purpose are the most satisfied with their lives, even if they don’t have everything they want and are unhappy.
Finding Your Life Purpose – To find your life purpose, you first must let go of the idea that you only have one purpose in life. Finding your purpose is going to require that you let go of a lot of things that you believe to be true. You need to let go of what society tells you is your purpose. Let go of what your parents and teachers and friends have told you is your purpose.
Think about what brings you joy. Consider what things make you feel fulfilled. The things that you want to share with the world. The things you are proud to be a part of. Finding your purpose is going to be your own unique journey, and there is no step-by-step guide to lead you there. However, when you discover your purpose you will know it based on the satisfaction you feel being true to your purpose.
The Importance Of Finding Your Life Purpose – There are many reasons you should find your life purpose. A study done in 2009 looked at over seventy-three thousand Japanese men and women. The study found that of those men and women, the ones who had a strong sense of purpose tended to live longer than those who didn’t.
A second study, done in 2008, showed that Japanese men who had a lower level of purpose experienced an earlier death and higher rates of cardiovascular disease. A final study published in The Journal of Pain found that women who had a strong sense of purpose could withstand hot and cold stimuli applied to their skin better than those who didn’t have a strong sense of purpose.
There is more to life than just being happy. In fact, the search for happiness is often futile. Instead, finding your life’s purpose can lead you to a life of ultimate satisfaction.
Try these tips and the additional tips in this video to discover YOUR life purpose! If you already know it, comment below and let me know what it is! If you don’t – tell me how you’re going to find it. Share this post to help share the love! It’s good karma.
Or, just watch this YouTube video.
Angela Atkinson is a Certified Life Coach and the author of more than 20 books on narcissism, narcissistic abuse recovery and related topics. A recognized expert on narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder who has studied and written extensively on narcissistic relationships since 2006, Atkinson was inspired to begin her work as a result of having survived toxic relationships of her own.
Atkinson offers trauma-informed coaching and has certifications in life coaching, level 2 therapeutic model, CBT coaching, integrative wellness coaching, and NLP. She is a certified trauma support coach and certified family trauma professional. She also has a professional PTSD counseling certification. Her mission is to help those who have experienced the emotional and mental devastation that comes with narcissistic abuse in these incredibly toxic relationships to (re)discover their true selves, stop the gaslighting and manipulation and move forward into their genuine desires – into a life that is exactly what they choose for themselves.
Along with her solution-focused life coaching experience, Atkinson’s previous career in journalism and research helps her to offer both accurate and understandable information for survivors of abuse in a simple-to-understand way that helps to increase awareness in the narcissistic abuse recovery community. Atkinson founded QueenBeeing.com Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support, the SPANily Narcissistic Abuse Recovery Support Groups and the Life Makeover Academy. In her life coaching practice, Atkinson’s clients enjoy her personalized approach that allows and encourages them to become the best possible versions of themselves and to succeed in doing what they love most. She offers individual and group coaching for victims and survivors of narcissistic abuse at NarcissisticAbuseRecovery.Online and NarcissismSupportCoach.com.
