Are you living your purpose? Do you know your mission?

“What am I here for?  What is my
purpose, in this lifetime?” You may be asking yourself these
questions.  More and more people are these days. There have been
hundreds of books written on this important and debatable subject.

Suppose I told you that your purpose
on this planet was to serve other people?  What does that mean to you?
How does that make you feel? Does it bring up more questions in your
mind? Does it make you nervous?  Or does it make you feel important?

I believe our purpose on this planet is to do the things that make us happy.
If you doubt the validity of this concept, consider the following: 
Have you ever been to a restaurant where your waiter or waitress was
not happy working there? You can tell immediately and it affects your
experience for the whole meal.

The same goes for your personal life
with your spouse, kids or significant other, co-workers, etc. Did you
ever feel completely stressed out (because you weren’t making choices
that reflected your values) and yell at your kids?  Did that make you
happy? Or them? Probably not.

If your purpose is to do the things that make you happy, then your mission is how
you do it. How you execute your mission is influenced by your
personality, your gifts, and your beliefs. Many believe that serving
others is the road to happiness. Doing something that contributes to
making the world a better place can give people a strong sense of
purpose, and often dictates their mission.

Follow these steps to learn your purpose and follow your mission –

Step 1 – Decide to Live Your Purpose

Look into your heart. What is the
thing that makes you happiest? Can you conceive of a life purpose which
is designed around that?

My purpose in life is to be happy.
In order to be happy, I must live congruently with my values and goals
and make good choices that honor my personal values.
When I honor my values, I am happy and living in integrity, which
fulfills my purpose and mission. It will do the same for you.

Step 2 – Decide to Live Your Purpose and Mission

Have you thought about it and come
to a conclusion about your purpose in life yet? And was your mission
revealed as a result? If you think about it for a while, it will be.
The secret of happiness is to live your purpose and the mission you’ve
adopted.

I made my mission in life to serve
others. In order to serve others, I must discover and gain knowledge in
the areas that interest me. Areas in which I may be able to pass on
knowledge to others with the same interests, but who have less of the
knowledge for which I’ve strived. By learning and doing things in which
I have interest, I am fulfilling my purpose and can best serve others.

Step 3 – Develop Your Gifts

What are your unique gifts? Ask yourself. Don’t be modest.

You are a special and unique human
being, and you bring something to this place that no one else can
bring. Your job is to discover those things that are uniquely your
gifts. For some people, their gift is obvious. Children who choose
early in life to play an instrument, dance, draw or develop some other
gift or skill may cultivate that throughout their entire adult life.
They seem to instinctively know their purpose and have clarity of
mission.

Many of us are not inherently born
with the focus or the ability to pinpoint exactly what makes us
special. Or perhaps we’ve been taught that to see ourselves as special
is tantamount to bragging, and unacceptable, so we’ve trained ourselves
not to recognize what makes us unique. We learned to reject the very
things that would have brought us the most pride, and possibly a life
direction.

Those who have not accepted or
recognized their gifts may fight to develop some skill that they think
will bring them better results, either personally, professionally or
financially. The truth is that when you discover your values, really
know yourself and develop the gifts that are congruent with your
values, you can find greater peace and energy in being happy. And, if
you choose to serve others, you’ll discover a constant inflow and
outflow of energy – energy that you both give and receive from those
you serve. That will create greater harmony and happiness in your life
than you could possibly have achieved through any other method.