Since I’ve been home recuperating from illness, I have had nothing but time on my hands to contemplate the meaning of life. Mostly, the PURPOSE OF MY LIFE. I sit here day in and day out trying to figure out why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing other than taking up space and breathing air? Do I have a purpose at all? For me, these have been burning questions that I have desperately been trying to answer.
Back in January, when I set up my daily bullet journal, I added a goals page to the beginning of the journal. I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I figured having a few goals for this year wouldn’t hurt. The purpose of my goals was to have small milestones to aim for throughout the year. Things that were achievable. One of my goals was to figure out my purpose in life. I wanted to really put some thought into figuring out the answer to this question. I was praying that if I figured out the answer, it would also allow me to work on another goal, which is to find a new career that I love.
After I created my list of goals, I would revisit it each week. In less than a month, a light bulb went off and I had my “Ah Ha” moment. It took me by surprise because I thought it would take much longer for me to figure it out. After 44 years of living, I realized that my purpose in life is to make other people happy. When that thought was put on my spirit, it felt right. I wasn’t uncomfortable with the idea of it being my purpose in life. I was actually relieved at the thought. Not only had I come up with my purpose in life, but I received a random text from my mother which stated that she thought that my purpose in life was to make other people happy. It was just a coincidence because I hadn’t mentioned my thoughts to my mother at all, yet she texted me the very same answer that I had concluded just days before. It was a sign that I was on the right track.
Now that I was at peace with my purpose, the only thing that I wasn’t quite sure of was how that translated to other aspects of my life. I’m not really a people person. So how was I suppose to accomplish my purpose in life when I’m a bit anti-social? Trying to put my purpose in life in action seemed to be harder than figuring out my purpose in life. Was I suppose to heal the world the in some way, shape, or form? Was I suppose to do protests and rallies? Was I suppose to donate money to charities? None of these ideas sat well with my spirit. None of them fit my persona. So what was I suppose to do next?
I struggled for a bit of time trying to figure out how to put my purpose in life in action. After a few weeks, I realized that was doing my purpose in ways that felt right for me without even knowing it. I realized that I didn’t have to do anything grandiose to achieve my purpose in life. I was making other people happy by doing the little things I do for my family and friends. By being helpful, showing up, hanging out with them, checking on them from time to time, giving a random gift, and trying to be a good relative and friend, I was achieving my purpose without even knowing it. Being helpful to others not only made them happy, but it also gave me a warm and fuzzy as well.
Even though I try to live in my purpose in my own little way, I do from time to time feel like I could be doing more. As the year moves on, I will continue to work on living in my purpose. Eventually, I would like to be more helpful to people who are not just family and friends. In the meantime, I have a few ideas of how I could do more to be helpful. In time, I hope I will put some of those ideas into action and help more people that cross my path in the future.
