Guidelines for Defining Your Purpose:

There is no specific format or structure you need to use in writing down your purpose. What it looks like is up to you. For some people, just a few words can capture the essence of their purpose; others find it more helpful to use a series of short phrases or sentences. A good place to start is to simply write down notes and thoughts that come from the purpose-related questions and prompts in the exercises that follow, and look for themes that emerge. Continue to revisit these themes and make refinements to the wording as you see fit. Remember, this isn't to be chiseled in stone, and your purpose may never be "finished." You will know you're on the right track in articulating your purpose when you read it and it generates strong feelings of satisfaction, authenticity, motivation, and resonance.

To illustrate a few options in terms of format, I’ll share with you a few versions of my life purpose that I've used over the years. Most recently, I've used the following:

My Purpose is to:

• Live Mindfully and Wholeheartedly

• Learn, Create, and Savor

• Cultivate Peace and Flourishing

• Nurture my Love for Life

At other times I've used a longer set of more descriptive phrases. For example, I have a lengthy 9-point version, but for the sake of brevity I'll include just a few of those points:

To live courageously; to act in accordance with my values in spite of fear, discomfort, fatigue, or self-doubt. I will face whatever I fear.

To persistently nurture growth in myself, my family, and others.

To nurture meaningful connections with others, appreciating oneness and interdependence.

To notice and appreciate the beauty in the world and in other people, and to help others appreciate that beauty.

To savor this moment of life.

Finally, in the past I've also often used just this short one-line purpose:

To grow, and help others to grow.

Once you've started with some of the exercises in the following section, pause every now and then to review what you have and ask yourself:

• Is this really me, or is it more what I think others want from me?

• Do these words provide me with a highly valued direction for living my life?

• What would my life be like if I lived precisely according to these intentions? (Pause and notice how you feel as you imagine living that life.)

Is what you've written highly motivating? Does it fuel the fire within you to want to live this way? Does it have Heart and Power for you? Parenthetically, Steve Pavlina has a purpose exercise in which the instructions are essentially to sit down and write phrases that summarize your life purpose, and to keep doing this until you write the answer that makes you cry. He estimates that this should happen for 80-90% of people within one hour. It didn't work that way for me, but why not give it a try? The point is that there should be some kind of emotional, visceral, spiritual, and/or highly resonant response in you that says "YES!!! This is what I want my life to be about!"

One last thought related to the specificity of purpose: You might notice that a broad, all-encompassing life purpose emerges for you, but also have one or more "sub-purposes" related to your current life phase or circumstances. This is totally fine, of course. For example, I would say that a current sub-purpose for me is to: Help others make use of the best available resources to live a rich, full, meaningful life. What you want to avoid with this is turning a purpose into a goal (setting goals is a different process, outlined here). Purpose is like a compass needle; it points you in a valued direction, but you'd never really say you've "arrived." Goals are like physical landmarks that you target along your journey that are in line with your intended direction. A goal is something that can be completed and checked off a list; however, while there are daily applications for purpose (and values), we're never really "finished."