How To Find Your Purpose

How To Create Desire When You Don't Know What You Want

Living a purposeful and intentional life makes life feel meaningful and exciting. In this blog, I’m sharing with you how to find your purpose so you understand who you are and what your soul’s journey is here on earth.

Since we are Nomads with a Purpose, we get asked all the time, “What is your purpose?” For us, it’s living each day in search of adventure or what the dictionary defines as “unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.”

After starting a business at the age of 20, getting married at 21, and having my first kids at 22 then 4 more kids over the next decade, I decided in 2012 to redefine my purpose.

Being self employed and a mom was great, but there had to be more to life than just that.

I chose to step into the unknown regularly and that eventually led our family into being full time nomads and traveling the world in search of epic hikes and beautiful destinations where we could rock climb, mountain bike, surf, and ski.

That was my purpose, but it might not be your purpose.

If you are like most people, you are just doing your best to survive your day and get to enjoy some part of your work week.

These 10 questions will help you find your purpose so you can have clarity on your future and live each day in alignment with your highest self.

1. What is NOT your Purpose?

In 30 years of coaching, I’ve found that it’s easier for people to know exactly what they don’t like, but they aren’t quite sure how to define what they do want.

Start by journaling what things weigh you down, what you wish you could do less of, and the things you’d like to avoid.

2. What Sparks Joy?

Look at your schedule, your past, your stuff, what are the things that give you joy, stoke, and excitement?

Notice what things make you eager to jump out of bed early. What get’s you to stop caring if the house stays messy?

Between sports, friends, kids, etc, I have a lot of things like that, but I’ve also noticed that what brought me joy and excitement has changed with age. If you aren’t sure what lights your fire now, try asking yourself, What did I used to enjoy?

What things did you used to do that you found fun and made you feel happy?

Now, partying all night might have been fun to do in your twenties and may not be so in your thirties and beyond, but there are probably a lot of other great things you use to do. Pick a few that you haven’t done in a while that you’d like to try again and go do them. Or, see if there’s a common theme or feeling that you could recreate in a different way?

What about that did you like?
What about that would you dislike now?
Who did you like spending time with?
Do you want to do that again?
What’s preventing you from doing more of it?

3. Describe Your Perfect Day

I love trifecta days! They are days when I get to do three sports in one day, and it’s even more perfect when I get to do it with my family.

I might surf with Gabi in the morning, take all my kids indoor rock climbing in the afternoon, and finish with yoga with Victor and then a huge European style dinner afterwards.

Sure there’d be some work in there, but the work I do with blogging is so fun that it doesn’t feel like work.

What would your perfect day be like? Maybe you have multiple versions of your perfect day, that’s okay too. It’s better to list all the possible scenarios that would leave you feeling happy, satisfied, and fulfilled.

Breck Gondola, Things to do in Summit County Winter — Riding the free gondola up Peak 8 in Breckenridge

4. Who’s There With You?

Knowing who you like to surround yourself with is also important after all, we tend to be a reflection of the 5 people we spend the most time with so part of fulfilling your bhavana is surrounding yourself with the right people.

I am a strong believer in surrounding yourself with the right type of people. People who you look up to and who will inspire you and motivate you. If you have trouble finding your own desire, maybe look for people you admire or are even jealous of and notice what it is about them that you wish you had or did.

5. If Money Weren’t an Object (IMWO)

My older kids and I do IMWO talk all the time when we hike. There’s something about time on the trail that allows your mind to wander and dream up scenarios that may seem crazy and far fetched, but if they happen to you, don’t dismiss them.

I can’t tell you how many great things have happened in my life because of these moments of IMWO thought that I choose to hang onto, run through my veins, and eventually manifest through sheer will and persistence.

Find your bhavana- if money wasn't an object

Maybe your IMWO is less MONEY and more of something else…time, companionship, responsibilities, guilt. What is that one thing, something big that you’ve always wanted to see, do, experience, or be, that, if you could remove your IMWO obstacle, would finally be a possibility.

Want it with all your heart, believe it will happen, and it will.

6. Who Do You Want To Be?

Look past who you are now or who you use to be and ask yourself, “Who do I want to become?”

What do you want the adjectives of your life to be? How do you want to describe yourself? Can you align the actions of your day to mirror these adjectives?

For instance, I like being challenged on a daily basis and I really dislike routine. Which means I have to create engaging things for me to fill my days with. I tend to obsess too much about being productive and having fun, but that’s just me.

I see myself as a wife, mom, homeschooler, coach, nomad, author, traditionalist, food snob, adventurer, athlete, questioner, and smiler and it’s what I hope others associate me with.

I feel confident that most days I represent some combination of these. Every so often I catch myself being resentful, angry, frustrated, selfish, and instead of beating myself up, I stop and recenter my actions to better align with what I want to be aligned with.

What about you? Do you need organization, cleanliness, adventure, movement, calmness, conversation, quiet time?

Then, spend a few more minutes thinking about how often you feel like you get to demonstrate those adjectives to the world on a daily basis. If you feel like it isn’t as often a you’d like, then think about what you can give up, let go of, or prioritize better in order to create a life that represents those adjectives.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. Know Your Talents

We all have specific talents that are unique to us. A huge part of discovering your bhavana starts with really identifying where your talents lie. Ask yourself:

What are you good at?
What comes easy for you?
What doesn’t feel like work?
What do people ask you about often?
What are you known for?

8. Know Your Passions

Knowing what you love to do is at the root of finding desire. When you combine talents with passions, you are certainly on your way towards bhavana.

Focus on finding ways to let your talents fuel your passions and vice versa.

Finding a career that matches what you are good at while allowing you time to do the things you love, will defintely make you a badass.

9. Align Your Values

What values are most important to you? How do you apply your core values to your life? Identifying your values will help you figure out what desires and goals you want for yourself.

In our group coaching community, Be The Hero Academy, we guide you though aligning your life with the values that will help you live your purpose.

My most important values are adventure, challenge, competency, determination, freedom, momement, growth, happiness, love, security. Full time travel has certainly helped me live more in alignment with my values. I want to be happy but I need adventure in my life and I need to feel inner harmony and personal growth with it.

It’s also important that I feel competent and people around me are competent. Some values are your core values and some form a support system that help you meet your other values. The things in your life that align with what you value are the things you are going to want to do more and prioritize.

You want to feel like people could guess your values just by watching how you spend your days. Remember, they are your values and they are the right values for you. Don’t worry if they don’t align with everyone else’s and certainly don’t feel guilty for wanting to be different. It’s your life.

10. Know Your True Self

When looking at your personality, make sure you are identifying your true self and aren’t confusing it with self image.

Self image is what we think of ourselves and try to portray, but when you talk about your true self it’s more of what you would be like if you spent more time following your heart and spirit and less time your mind or social constraints.

When my daughter was young, she was very shy and hid behind me and rarely talked to strangers until she was about seven. When we’d meet people, or even people she knew, she’d immediately hide behind me and I’d cover for her by saying, “She’s shy.” I was trying to save face and not seem rude to the person who was trying to be nice and interact with her, but in reality I was doing her a disservice because I was defining her identity. By hearing me repeat over and over that she is shy, she just got more shy.

The point here is that maybe growing up someone repeatedly called you shy, loud, grumpy, nervous, lazy, etc. You start to believe it. But it’s probably not even true. I know my daughter really didn’t want to be shy. She just didn’t know how not to be. (And now she runs this blog!)

In retrospect, I wish I had helped her more in how to handle situations and create a plan to act not shy.

I like to use the hovering outside my body analogy. Imagine if you could float outside yourself and observe your actions and reactions throughout the day.

What would you notice about yourself? Would you be happy with what you saw or would you ask yourself “Why am I acting like that? Why do I feel like that?”

When I catch myself behaving not the way I want, I try to visualize a different scenario that I would be more proud of and think about what the root emotions are that were causing me to act like that. Then I use that as a starting point for working on modifying factors in my life that are leading me to behave this way.

In my case, when I catch myself overreacting or being mean, it almost always means I’m overextended and trying to do too much. It’s time to see what things I can let go of and what is worth expending my energy on.

What do you want to be described as? What actions do you want to be defined by?

Be your own thesis statement. Knowing your personality type and what your true self is looking for out of life, what things can you do to set yourself up to meet the needs of these two qualities?

What actions can you take that align your personality traits with your true self? There’s a saying by Marwa Rakha from The Poison Tree-Planted and Grown in Egypt,

Someone once told me that human beings have three dimensions: how you see yourself, how others see you, and how you want others to see you. The closer the distance between the three dimensions, the more at peace you are, and the more stable you become.
Marwa Rakha, The Poison Tree-Planted and Grown in Egypt

Whether you feel stuck and need help uncovering your purpose or know your purpose but need help actually living and embodying it, we can help. Be The Hero Academy is personal development coaching for people who want more in life.

More love, more joy, more connection, more confidence, more fun, more adventure, more health, more wealth, and more purpose. If you:

Are you tired of feeling meh, STUCK in the same rut, or repeating OLD PATTERNS that take you to dead end roads.
Wish that you could wake up tomorrow and feel like a total BADASS?
Are you ready to LET GO of all those self limiting beliefs that are holding you back and instead, embody confidence and clarity?
Want to write a new chapter in your life? Are you ready to be the hero of your own

Then join us for FREE on Be The Hero!