How To Find Your Life Purpose By Listening to Your Tummy

Are you a die-hard self-help junkie? Do you love to read books about how to find your life purpose, how to find the perfect career or how to live your best life? If so, you’re not alone; there are a lot of us “junkies” out there, and we are all striving to create the happiest life, the best career or the most meaningful view on life. No matter how much you read, though, something doesn’t seem right – you aren’t getting from the books everything you’d like – and you don’t know exactly what that “something” is. But sometimes what you are looking for is closer than you can imagine.

Who am I to make such claims? I am a self-professed self-help junkie who has done nearly everything to try and find my specific path towards enlightenment, career fulfillment and life purpose. I’ve never smoked cracked or done any hard core drugs, but I can only imagine that being addicted to self-help literature is along the same lines, no pun intended.

Are you staring your life purpose in the face, and perhaps you don’t even realize?

Let me start by asking you three very simple, yet important, questions. Take a moment to ponder each one, and don’t forget to be completely honest with yourself. If you’re not, you are only hurting yourself by not opening up your mind to the possibilities that may exist for you. And you wouldn’t want to spoil that for yourself, would you? And – now, this is very important – go with your gut instinct on these questions; do not think too long about any one of them. Go with what comes to mind first and write it down.

1. What do you spend most of your “down time” doing?

2. Why do you choose that activity (or activities)?

3. If you didn’t have to work and had all the money you ever needed, what would you do (after the initial month, of course, in which you would probably veg out for days on end, travel to faraway places and shop until you drop. I promise … that gets boring after awhile.) If something doesn’t come to mind immediately, give it a few more minutes. Type or write it out until what you’ve come up with feels right.

These questions are important because they force you think about why you currently do what you do, how you spend your time and also what you would do if you had more time. Activities will surface that you may have put on the back burner because your job requires long hours, your social life is crazy or your family life is too demanding. Whatever the reason, remember you’re reading this article and taking the first steps toward rediscovering your passions. That is very powerful stuff.

There are a plethora of self-help books, e-books, websites and activities out there to help people like us find that one thing (or things) that makes us tick while time stops – some books call it “flow” (that is part of my self-help junkie lingo) – but it can be simpler than you ever imagined just by closing your eyes, thinking of the activities that you enjoy most and aiming for that feeling you get when you are doing that activity. You know that feeling I’m talking about – that excited feeling in the pit of your stomach, almost like a mild stomachache that makes you have to poo – it’s excitement. It’s the “Christmas morning” feeling that you may have gotten as a child. Am I saying that finding your life purpose is as simple as closing your eyes and imagining what you enjoy doing? Of course not. But I am telling you that it’s a start toward rediscovering the things that make your heart go pitter-pat. Now, going back to those three questions from before and thinking about your answers. Ask yourself why you chose what you chose. There is a reason you said what you said. Think about it.

Then, as soon as you can (today, if possible) do that activity. Do that activity whether it is five minutes or five hours and see how you feel afterwards. Do you feel exhilarated? Worn down? Utter joy? Relief? What did you learn about the time you spent doing that “thing” that you claim you love? You may feel like you found what makes you “flow”, or you may have just realized “not so much”. But that is a good thing too because that narrows it down for next time. Just mark it off your list and move on. Write down your feelings and reflect on them tomorrow. And keep doing this activity once a day until you find that thing (or things) that make your tummy ache!