This Daily Exercise Has Helped Me Find My Purpose

By Christine B. Whelan, PhD | Photo courtesy Christine B. Whelan

In my Consuming Happiness class at UW-Madison and in my new role as Purpose Professor at Emory University, I outline a roadmap to a more meaningful life — one that’s full of more energy and joy and awesomeness. It involves a new approach to understanding what living on purpose means to you in a five-step Daily Purpose Statement Exercise.

I define purpose as using your strengths, in keeping with your values, to positively impact the lives of others.

Purpose is a choice you make daily, and this bite-sized, visual exercise can turn that often-daunting choice into a pleasurable exploration of possibilities.

For each of the categories below, write down three answers to guide you today.

Values

Values are beliefs that guide and motivate our behavior. Do you want to focus on your values of ambition, wisdom and self-discipline? Or perhaps today you’re prioritizing social justice, unity with nature and inner harmony.

Strengths

What strengths, gifts or skills do you want to prioritize today? Think in terms of strengths you want to use, not just things you can do. Do you have a gift for building things? Does performance light you up inside? What about seeing possibilities, or solving problems?

Impact

Purpose is pro-social — it’s something we do with, and for, others. And while research overwhelmingly correlates having a purpose in life with greater personal wellbeing, thriving in this pursuit is the product of engaging with something larger than ourselves. Who do you care about impacting today? Your local community? A specific charity or cause? Your family?

Anxieties

What are the fears and anxieties that might hold you back from taking purposeful action today? This is a hard one, but I’ve learned that if you’re willing to look at these head-on, you liberate yourself to jump to a higher level of success because you’re not spending all of your energy trying to suppress or outrun your fears.

Commitments

Purpose-based commitments are goals with a purpose. A how to go along with the why. How do you want to take action? Since you are making commitments just for today, it doesn’t have to be huge, as you’ll see in my examples. The important part is that you aren’t just thinking about purpose, you are living it in your actions.

Put It All Together

Research finds that successfully completing smaller steps boosts our sense of self-efficacy and makes us more likely to achieve larger goals. So put these five parts together into your Daily Purpose Statement Exercise and see where it takes you:

Because I value _________, _________ and____________, I will use my gifts for __________, ____________ and ______________ to positively impact _____________, ______________ and ___________. I accept my fears and anxieties about _____________, _______________ and ______________ and still today make conscious, purpose-based decisions to _______________, ____________ and _____________.

And while my list of purpose-based commitments might seem mundane, or ones that I would do even if I didn’t write them down in this way, it’s been a great reminder that I am taking purposeful action even in the daily choices I make.

I’m on this journey of purpose, and I hope you’ll join me.

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