7 Steps to Discovering Your Purpose

As the brilliance of orange, yellow, and red leaves blanket the landscape and chilly mornings begin, it feels like a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. But where should you invest your time and energy as you step into the fullness of Your Refreshed Life in this new season?

You need a compass, direction, and the ability to compare each new endeavor to decide if it fits your intended plan and path. God speaks these words, and they are as important for you as they were for Jeremiah, “For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 Amp).

Do you know the plans and path God has for you? This month we are going to look at ways to identify God’s purpose for your life. In a recent article by Jo Ann Jenkins entitled, “The Power of Purpose” she writes, “…the benefits of finding a purpose in life-that those who do can live longer, healthier, and happier lives. When you are living a life of purpose, neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta says in an upcoming film, ‘you are signaling to your body to make sure that your immune system in functioning [at] its best.’”

So, let’s re-examine our purpose to provide a standard to compare our future endeavors to decide if they further fulfill our purpose or simply pose a distraction. Here are the seven ways we will identify our personal purpose in life and we will attack each one week by week for the next seven weeks:

1. Mission Statement – Mission statements aren’t only for organizations and corporations. They are essential in clarifying who you are, what your objectives are in life, and how you plan to achieve them. Creating something concise and powerful isn’t as easy as it might seem. Next week we’ll list the steps to designing a personal mission statement.

2. Vision Statement– Often confused as being the same, mission and vision statements are different. Your mission statement describes what you are doing right now while your vision statement summarizes what you hope to achieve in the future. Begin thinking about your future desires and hopes in preparation for designing your vision statement.

3. Core Values- Identifying andstating your core values is one more step in determining if an upcoming opportunity is the one for you. Is it consistent with your core values? If honesty and integrity are core values for you, joining a company that is manipulating people by withholding some element of information necessary to make a decision so as to cause them to purchase a product, then this company’s work is not consistent with your core values. You can then determine this is an opportunity you choose not to pursue.

4. Culture- What kind of relationships do you hope to foster in your home and community with family, friends, and neighbors? What is important to you? When I was young, the wife of one of my father’s peers at work would call my mother daily to gossip about others. Cultures where people gossip about one another was non-negotiable with my mother. So, she explained to me one day why, though kind to the woman when they were together, my mother refused to take her calls. Creating a positive culture of warmth, kindness, and peace was essential to my mother.  What kind of culture are you creating?

5. Gifts, Skills, and Abilities- As you consider your life experiences, what are the areas where you have excelled? Are you excellent at math? Do you love creative ventures like music or art? Have you experienced something few experienced and others may not understand but gives you special abilities to help others? We will be listing these attributes in coming weeks to help determine God’s unique plan and purpose for you.

6. Passion- What excites your passions? What interests you the moment the subject arises? What do you enjoy that engrosses you for hours? Identifying your passion is a very integral part of determining God’s purpose in your life. An upcoming quiz will assist you in recognizing “the one thing” that most captures your interest and attention.

7. Purpose- Finally, after identifying these very unique elements that make you the person God created you to be and evaluating each of these carefully, we will culminate this exploration with a clear roadmap for fulfilling God’s purpose and plan for your life as you prepare for this moment and anticipate a new year rich with opportunity and hope.