1: Research shows that people who have a clear life purpose “lived about seven years longer and had a higher quality of life than those who did not,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth.
Another study links “a strong sense of purpose with a lower risk of all-cause mortality after age fifty,” Sahil notes.
Yet, the idea of creating a life’s purpose can feel intimidating.
However, Sahil explains that it doesn’t have to be.
To make it approachable, we can discover our purpose by reflecting on a set of simple questions.
Our life purpose “sits at the center of the three overlapping circles,” he notes:
- What we love: The activities that are life-giving
- What we are good at: The activities that feel effortless
- What the world needs: The activities that your current world needs from you
All we need to do is take out a blank sheet of paper and answer the following questions:
What we love:
- What activities create joy in our lives?
- What are we doing in the moments when we feel the most natural happiness?
- Then make a list of life-giving activities.
What we are good at:
- What feels effortless to us that may be difficult for others?
- Where do our natural and acquired skills stand out?
- What do other people seem to recognize as our attributes or skills?
- Then, list the activities we uniquely excel in.
What the world needs:
- What activities does our world need from us in this season of life?
- Then define our current world and list the activities it requires of us.
2: One important realization? Understanding that how we define our world will vary across life’s seasons.
Our “world may be defined narrowly by the inner circle of ourselves and our family at certain points, by the broader circle of our community at others, and by the broadest circle of the actual world,” Sahil observes.
“It may begin focused on the self and family in the earlier years,” he notes, “expand to focus on the community and grander scale in the middle years, and then go back to the self and family in the later years.”
Once we have fulfilled the needs of our current world, we naturally expand our definition of the world to the next level.
This is a fundamental reason,” Sahil writes, “why financially successful people who were driven by a purpose to provide for their families in their early years will likely need to adjust to a broader world to maintain a sense of clear purpose.”
After answering these questions, we can then explore where the three lists intersect to uncover our higher-order life purpose.
Another important learning?
“Remember that our purpose does not need to be connected to our profession,” Sahil writes.
Working through this exercise will help us clarify our values, strengths, and passions, guiding us toward discovering our life’s purpose.
More tomorrow!
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Reflection: What patterns do I notice when I honestly list what I love, what I’m uniquely good at, and what my current world most needs from me?
Action: Take 30 minutes this week to fill three separate lists—what I love, what I’m good at, and what my world needs—and then circle the overlapping themes as a first draft of my life’s purpose.