Living a Meaningful Life
Embracing a sense of purpose in your life.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and founder of BestPsychicDirectory.com. You’re reading his articles on Bob Olson Connect.
Last week, I told you about a book I wrote for my niece and nephew for graduation about my twelve secrets for a joyful, successful, and fulfilling life. I gave you the first secret of life, which was all about passion. If you missed that article, you can read it here. I LOVED the responses you provided in the comment section. This week’s secret is all about having a sense of purpose. I think you’ll like it, and I look forward to hearing what it brings up for you in the comments.
Secret #2: Develop a Sense of Purpose
“The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” ~ Mitch Albom
Developing a sense of purpose is about discovering new aspects of yourself, recognizing which discoveries give your life meaning, and then cultivating them to create greater fulfillment in your life.
Some people confuse passion and purpose, but they are quite different. While passion involves your interests and enthusiasm, developing a sense of purpose gives you deep motivation that aligns with your values and ambitions, guiding you toward a meaningful goal.
Finding meaning in what you do is the secret to feeling a sense of purpose, and this is accomplished by first discovering what feels meaningful to you.
Developing a sense of purpose begins by exploring new interests. You try new experiences, meet different types of people, and expose yourself to challenges and situations you’ve never known. By exploring these new interests, you recognize what feels right to you—what resonates with your core values and beliefs. Over time, as you gain new experiences, you’ll learn which activities and goals bring you the most joy and satisfaction. Ultimately, this process teaches you what feels meaningful and fulfilling.
Think about what you enjoy for a moment. Do you enjoy lifting people up and celebrating their successes? Do you like making people feel seen? Do you feel good when you console someone? Do you enjoy being the person others come to for advice?
Having a sense of purpose is often associated with helping others. It’s usually driven by a desire to positively impact others or the world.
Do you feel driven to improve the environment? Do you prefer to enhance the lives of animals? Does it feel meaningful to assist older adults? Or are you drawn toward helping people heal from physical ailments or injuries? Maybe you’re compelled to discover a cure for cancer through scientific research. Any of these desires would help you develop a sense of purpose in life.
You may have several interests, so how do you know your true purpose? The good news is that we can have more than one purpose. Since you’re a person with such an abundance of passion that it flows out of your pores, you might find that you also have more than one purpose in life.
Your purpose might stem from a challenging experience you have in life and later overcome it. I’ve seen many people struggle through life's challenges, come out the other side through perseverance and commitment, and later find purpose in helping others get beyond those same challenges. Some have written books to inspire others. A few have become doctors, therapists, or coaches, specializing in the challenges they overcame. Still, others help people in their community by volunteering their time, facilitating support groups, or managing nonprofit organizations related to the struggle they once knew.
Having a sense of purpose can be something other than a career. While it can be wonderful if your work is related to your purpose, many people get deep meaning and fulfillment from helping others outside their jobs.
Let’s explore a few examples.
Parents feel satisfaction and joy in raising children, while caretakers of aging parents find meaning in helping their loved ones deal with the physical and mental challenges of getting older. They don’t earn money for their services but feel a sense of purpose in their role as parents or caretakers.
Some people find purpose through small actions. Author and humorist David Sedaris picks up litter in his hometown in England. He believes he’s making the world better by picking up trash. Others find purpose by helping people with challenges that they have experienced themselves. Jaylen Arnold is an anti-bullying advocate who started a nonprofit foundation at the age of eight that educates children on how to prevent bullying. He was bullied early in life and was compelled to use his experience to help others.
I’m sure you know famous actors and musicians who make their money in front of the camera or on stage but find purpose in using their fame to help others. Some become philanthropists who share their wealth with charities and organizations that help people. Others give their time by appearing at fundraisers or performing for children in hospitals. Still, others use their widespread influence to change minds and bring awareness to important topics.
Today, you might have more than one interest in helping others. Yet, one day, you might discover that one interest stands out far above the rest. You may find that it’s rooted so deep within you that it will keep returning even if you try to ignore it.
Once you discover your purpose, it will drive you from unrecognizable depths, making your soul burst with inspiration and motivation. With age and experience, you may find new ways to fulfill that purpose you were unaware of as a younger person. This won’t necessarily change your purpose, but it may present differently than you expected initially.
You’ll know when you’ve discovered your purpose because you’ll jump out of bed excited about your day. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever feel tired or want to sleep a little later. It means you’ll feel like you’re making a difference in the world, making at least one other person’s life a little happier, more peaceful, or more comfortable. And that, my dear graduate, makes for a wonderfully fulfilling life.
You’re in this world for a purpose. You can take my word on that. Nobody’s here just to hang around. Although you don’t have to know your life purpose at your age, learning to develop a sense of purpose is important. By understanding that you’re here to make the world a better place in some way, you’ll be better prepared to discover your purpose along the way. You might make people laugh, help them feel better, coach them toward improvement, teach them to see beauty, fill them with joy, hope, or peace, or explain something new to them.
As a final word on the value of purpose, I’m going to quote a wise sage named Patanjali, who I feel described purpose perfectly:
“When you are inspired by some greater purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”
~ Patanjali
How Does This Written Piece Make You Feel?
Looking back at my own life, I struggled with clinical depression in my youth and wrote my first book about how I overcame it to inspire others. When that book was published, I began speaking at mental health hospitals and support groups and was interviewed by newspaper and magazine journalists and radio and TV show hosts. Helping people who were struggling with depression gave meaning to my past struggle, and sharing my inspirational story gave me a sense of purpose.
That sparked my path as a writer in the 1990s and taught me what it feels like to have a purpose, but the subject of my focus changed when my father died. Suddenly, I became curious about where my father went, so I began using my skills as a private investigator to seek evidence of an afterlife. Once I began gathering evidence, I shifted from writing and speaking about depression to writing and speaking about life after death.
I’ve been on that path for twenty-seven years. Yet, over the past year, I’ve found myself writing and speaking more about life, especially what I learned about life while investigating the afterlife. You never know where your next sense of purpose will begin. It unfolds as you live your life, keeping life new and exciting.
I would love to hear how purpose has shaped your life. I invite you to share your experiences with me in the comments. I’ll give you some questions to ponder as you contemplate where you have known purpose and how it has changed over the years.
Where have you felt a sense of purpose in your life?
Did you find purpose outside work, perhaps as a parent, caretaker, or friend?
Did you feel purpose in your work?
Did you feel purpose in your hobbies, interests, or creativity?
It’s never too late to develop a new sense of purpose. How might you gain one in your life today?
Is there a purpose that was unfulfilled that you still feel driven toward?
Is it possible to live a new version of a purpose you once had now that you’re older?
How might you gain fulfillment and meaning in a new way that fits who you are today?
Are you drawn toward a sense of purpose today that you’ve been ignoring?
Is there anything keeping you from expressing a purpose and feeling the satisfaction and meaning that comes from it?
Finally, when evaluating purpose in your life, see if these questions bring a smile to your face.
How did your purpose in life help others?
Who benefited from your sense of purpose?
Did your purpose change entirely over time, or did it appear differently?
If you felt a sense of purpose in more than one way, think about the different ways that your purpose helped people, animals, the environment, industries, the economy, your community, or the world.
This second secret of life is a helpful prompt to get you thinking about purpose in your life. If you’d like to share what it brought up for you, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section. If you prefer to self-reflect privately, I respect that. Feel free just to say hello. I wish you a joyful and fulfilling week ahead.
Much love,
Bob
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers about the Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the top directory of psychics, mediums, and animal communicators, BestPsychicDirectory.com. This is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.
Recent articles you may have missed…
Death Is Just the Beginning
- Exploring the second phase of life.
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys
- Sage advice from a famous Polish proverb.
What’s Your Story?
- Rewriting the personal narratives you’ve been telling yourself for years.
Mortality as a Motivator
- Embracing death as a catalyst for living fully.
My life has taken me in many varied directions, but lately I’ve been working to marry two of them.
Genealogy is a long-time passion. I run a genealogy club in my town and I often offer to help others with their genealogical journeys.
Another pursuit in my life recently is psychic development.
Voila! Now I’m looking to merge the two with psychic genealogy. To that end, I’m enrolled this fall in a mediumship class to hopefully learn what I have to offer.
As always, I enjoy all of your writing, and I thank you for listening. Janet