What is my purpose?
What do I really want to do with my life?
Those questions haunted me for years.
I always had big ambitions, but not much clarity.
Until I found my exact purpose at the age of 25.
This was 4 years ago and a lot of great things happened since then.
Today, I live a life with lots of freedom, fulfillment, and doing work I love.
This wasn’t always the case but finding my purpose or passion as some people call it, unlocked my full potential.
That’s why I want to share the key framework that helped me find my exact purpose and how you can too.
Before I do that, let me take you through my early days of struggle and confusion.
I’m confident that you’ll relate to my experience because a lot of ambitious people are stuck at that stage right now.
The Harsh Reality
I always knew that there was more to life.
It simply can’t be to go to school, get a 9-5 job, retire in old age, and then start enjoying your last years.
If this path would lead to fulfillment, then why are most people unhappy?
My observation of the people who followed this path led me to believe that there was another way.
There had to be another way.
But I had a big problem – I lacked clarity. Too many ideas. Too many opportunities.
I couldn’t figure out the “thing” that I could commit to for at least 10 years.
I always thought: “Once I know my exact purpose, I could unleash my full potential and make big things happen.”
All I wanted to do is to live a life of total freedom with a business that I love.
Sounds familiar?
But I had to face a harsh truth – I never seriously tried to find my purpose.
You see, I was always into self-development and thought I did the right things by reading books like The Alchemist, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and Think & Grow Rich.
Until I found the Japanese concept of IKIGAI.
This changed everything for me.
Since then, I taught this framework to many people and it impacted their lives too.
Essentially, there are 4 components to your purpose.
If one part is missing out of the equation, you won’t get the clarity you desire.
Pull up a notebook and block 30 minutes of your time.
What Do You Love? (Passion)
List out all the things you love.
No matter how trivial it seems.
Think about your hobbies, interests, and obsessions.
A good way to do this is to ask yourself: “What are the things I can’t stop talking about?”
For me, it is personal development, business, philosophy, psychology, and history.
Look at your YouTube history – what content are you consuming most?
These insights will give you a lot of clues about what you truly like doing.
What Are You Good At? (Skills)
List out all things you think you’re good or interested in learning.
Ask 5 people who know you well about what they think you’re good at.
You will be surprised by what they will say about you.
It’s crucial to get outside opinions because how you see yourself is often different from how other people see you.
Ten eyes spot more things than two.
To give you personal examples, I’m good at persuasion, and thinking strategically, and I have a lot of drive which helps me get things done.
If you don’t know what you’re good at – think about what skills you are passionate about learning.
For example: content creation, copywriting, sales, public speaking, and coaching.
You can learn most high-income skills through 20 hours of focused practice.
20 hours of deliberate effort will put you into the top 5% category of that skill.
That’s how I learned the skill of content creation.
I posted over 1,000 pieces of content on social media in 10 months.
You just need to believe that you can learn a skill and put in the hours.
What Can You Be Paid For (Career)
List out all the things you think you could be paid for.
It’s important to use your creativity and let go of limitations.
The world is changing so fast which will birth the demand for new skills.
In 2020, I thought no one would pay for “personal development”.
Until I saw people making over 8 figures selling stuff like “hypnosis” or “meditation”.
If you are still stuck on what you can be paid for, list down the skills you’ve acquired at your job or business.
Even if you are not passionate about them – they are paying or have paid your bills.
For example, I spent almost 10 years in sales and have learned a lot of related skills in this career.
Skills like talking to strangers and making offers.
If you don’t overthink it, you’ll come up with a lot of skills/services you could potentially get paid for.
Those skills will come in handy later in this guide.
What Does The World Need (Mission)
This is the part where most people get stuck.
The major reason is that the current society we live in errs on the side of extreme individualism.
“What can I get out of life?”, “How can I maximize my life?”
All valid questions and desires, but when you have developed yourself beyond materialism, you’ll know that there is something deeper.
The most successful people in life know that you have to give before you get things.
And if you give enough – in other words help enough people get what they want, you become rich externally and internally.
It takes a real shift in focus and perspective to arrive there.
We all have heard stories of billionaires and celebrities who have it all but are miserable.
I’m not claiming that I’m always there, but I learned that your purpose is to serve other people.
Now, enough of a moral lecture. Back to the exercise.
List out all the things YOU think the world needs, not what other people tell you the world needs.
It doesn’t matter if you think it’s just your opinion.
If you have strong opinions of how things should be – good!
That’s how the most successful companies and movements got started.
They had a strong position – often a deep frustration with something very important to them.
For me, I believe the world needs better education, I believe people need to have the tools to live a fulfilled life and I believe the world needs more of the truth.
What do you think the world needs?
If you’re stuck at figuring out what the world needs, you can do more research on Google.
Just type in what the world needs and you’ll see lots of examples that spark your inspiration.
Passion + Skills + Career + Mission = Purpose
The last piece of the puzzle. Your IKIGAI. Your Purpose.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs
It’s time to finally connect the dots.
Your purpose sits at the intersection of your passion, your skills, your career, and the mission you care about.
It must be something you love, something you’re good at or passionate about learning, something that other people need, and something you can be paid for.
Now here’s the truth – your purpose is unique. No one can put the pieces together for you.
You must have an emotional (heart) and a logical (mind) connection to your purpose.
First, we use our heart and intuition to guide us to the right path.
Your intuition or heart so to speak is the most important component of your purpose.
I can’t stress this enough – you must have a strong emotional connection to your purpose.
When you are trying to put the pieces together, and you feel the inspiration, you know that you’ve found something deep.
Second, we need to use our minds so that our purpose makes sense.
Because we humans tend to make decisions emotionally and justify them with logic afterward.
Look at all the things you’ve listed out from this exercise.
What does make sense to you?
Especially on step 3 (what you can be paid for) is where most entrepreneurs get it wrong.
Typically they have skills or services in mind that are not really needed in the current market.
Yes, hypothetically you can be paid for anything.
But if you are an entrepreneur or aspire to be one, you want to get paid for skills and services that people actually want.
The fancy word is product-market-fit.
Entrepreneurs get paid by solving real problems for other people.
Think about your purpose that way.
For example, I knew I could be paid for sales because every business needs to sell something to survive.
And the great thing about sales is that it can be translated to other high-income services.
Like public speaking, marketing, and business.
A final warning – the biggest mistake you could make is trying to “perfect” your purpose.
Here’s the reality – your purpose won’t be 100% clear and that is fine.
Use the moment of clarity and inspiration to take action immediately.
Your purpose will get clearer as you commit to the journey.
I refined my purpose many times as I stepped on the path.
The latest version of my purpose is to help ambitious entrepreneurs live the lives of their dreams by mastering themselves.
What is yours?
