Let me ask you a question, can you tell me your life’s purpose? If you can’t respond immediately, you don’t have it. Finding out what to do about it…

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after.” Henry David Thoreau

The first question I asked, is not meant to hurt you. This to help you define yourself and find purpose. Henry David Thoreau was trying to say in his previous life changing quote, that you may go through life without knowing what was all about. If you think we are just born, grow, have a job, have kids and die, then, why are you living? Don’t you feel you would like to change your life?

Every living being has a purpose. For example, without bees, there will be no pollination. So what? Okay, this is what will happen in the words of an expert:

“If all the bees in the world were kill over tomorrow, a situation that doesn’t look entirely unlikely at this stage, it would take nature far longer to recover than our agriculture would demand. New technologies for artificial pollination would need to be introduced while the bees were pensioned off. Food shortages would immediately become an issue, as the available artificial technologies are nowhere near as efficent as the bees. There is no doubt that the industry would continue to function, albeit using a slower model of production. This would result in the hiking of prices for basics like fruit and veg, including anything that might be higher up the food chain.”

So even a small insect has a big effect in the world. Also, look how bees work toward their purpose. Think about when you say to someone “you work like a bee”, what do you mean? You are saying that working as a bee, means working hard, putting effort, and staying focused.

So here is what we can learn from the bees about finding purpose: they are doing something that affects the surroundings or the world; they worked hard on it; they stay focused on what they do.

So to find your purpose and change your life, you need to think about how you can make a difference in your community. It doesn’t have to be a great difference. There are few leaders in world history, that we tend to measure with. What they really left us, are not their ideas, but they’re examples. For example, Dr Wayne Dwyer philosophy is this: “My belief is that the truth is a truth until you organize it, and then becomes a lie. I don’t think that Jesus was teaching Christianity, Jesus was teaching kindness, love, concern, and peace. What I tell people is don’t be Christian, be Christ-like. Don’t be Buddhist, be Buddha-like” So, again, they were teaching us how to make a little difference, which at the end, can make a huge difference over time.

You also need to think about finding your purpose, by following your dreams. Don’t think about dreams, like you are sleeping in an unreal idea. Dreaming is about getting to a desired state of life. For example, my dream loss to become a rock star. Even though I didn’t have the support from my parents, I tried with a few bands. However, I never gave up. I just focused more on my dream. By being in bands and playing live on stage, I understood I didn’t enjoy playing live. So, I decided to start writing music, and becoming a composer. The music business is hard, and I haven’t sold a song. However, I don’t give up, and I know that day I sell a song and might hear it on the radio, I would know I left something to the world.

I regret that nobody teaches us about finding a purpose. We had to find neat by ourselves, experimenting and having new experiences, almost as trial and error. So, we need to fail at first to find the answer. This is where most people get stuck on. At the first attempt, they give up their dreams.

My best advice, to find your purpose, is to think about your dream, and focused it to your reality. For example, if you want to be an actress, maybe you can do it, by acting on your community plays. Or maybe you want to be a movie director. Maybe you can start by making some videos and putting them on youtube. Like Lao Tzu said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

I’ll be writing more on how to find your purpose. Right now I’m working on my book, and one of the chapters is about purpose. I’ll let you know when it’s available. Join the change your life phenomenon, it has been a great source of education, motivation and tools for a lot of people to change.

image credit: opimentas

About the Author

Anton Cela is a self development author and consultant. Phillip Cela is a recognized university teacher and speaker on motivation, leadership and self help. Find more about their work on “The Change Your Life Phenomenon”, a world-wide-movement to help people change their lifes at Change Your Life Phenomenon.com You can send us an email or follow “The CHYL Phenomenon” on Twitter.