Self-Growth Podcast: Episode 128 - Finding Your Purpose

Welcome to the Wise Business Podcast, a show dedicated to making you a better entrepreneur through the latest digital marketing strategies, trends, and advice. Hey everyone, this is Carmen. Welcome back to the Wise Business Podcast. And in today's episode, I want to talk about finding your purpose in life because I think it's one of the most important things when it comes to living a really happy, successful, fulfilled life.

It's obviously you want to wake up every day excited about what you do for a living, about how you spend your life, your lifestyle, and everything in between. And it's really important no matter if you're an entrepreneur, you're in a corporate career, or no matter what you do in between, it's something that you really have to think about because a really interesting statistic is that 50% of workers dislike their job. And I really believe that has to do something with not having a real purpose or mission.

Thus, you're going to the wrong field and industry, right? You end up just kind of getting a job or starting a business to make money and it doesn't really fulfill you. and you end up kind of just going down the rabbit hole, going through the day-to-day life. You're not really enjoying it.

And it's something that's really important to me because I'm really big on just having fun, enjoying life, being successful, achieving your goals, but just being really happy and fulfilled along the way. And now when it comes to what a purpose is, just put simply, really it's the reason why you exist and do what you do. It's the thing that gives your life meaning and makes you unique. And everyone has their own individual purpose.

There's really no one size fits all answer. And it's something that you have to do a lot of digging to find. And it can take a lot of time. For me, I think I was very lucky and gifted that from a young age, I always liked entrepreneurship.

I liked marketing, business, technology. I was very self-aware. So it helped me get into my fields at a very young age and become successful in them. But it doesn't happen for everybody.

You know, it can take you years. It can take you months, decades. So just know that everyone's path and purpose is different and you gotta be really patient about it. When it comes to actually finding your purpose in life, the number one thing you can do is just reflect on your strengths and weaknesses because I want you to think about what you're good at, what you enjoy doing, what you find difficult, and then answering these questions can give you some clues and insight into what your purpose might be.

For example, maybe if you're really good at problem solving, maybe your purpose is to help other people solve their problems and be maybe a coach or something like that a consultant You know if you enjoy spending time with people maybe your purpose is to connect with others and build relationships Maybe you like health and fitness You like you know something any kind of hobby or field or interest Just take some time to think about what you're good at and also where you need to improve.

And it also brings me to the point of taking time for yourself because especially when you're going about, you know, the day-to-day life, sometimes you don't really stop to smell the roses and reflect and be introspective, but it's one of the most important things when it comes to finding your purpose and being happy. And actually 40% of what contributes to happiness is something called intentional action, which is actually taking the time to relax and pursuing things you enjoy.

For me, and what I recommend is meditation, journaling, spending time in nature and around good people and positive friends, uplifting people. They're all really good ways to relax and clear your mind. And then when you are feeling calm and relaxed, it's easier to listen to your intuition and your thoughts. And that's when you can actually start really digging into what you wanna get out of life, where you are, where you're going, where you've been, and you kind of get that information out of the deeper part of you.

And then also what I want you to do is pay attention to your desires and your dreams, because for a lot of us, we kind of just, you know, maybe go to school, we get a job, and we think that's kind of it. And maybe there's something that you really want to do deep down, but your family and friends and society think that's unrealistic. Now, you shouldn't go for it, but I say screw that, you should be going for it. Like, no matter what, you know, brings you fulfillment, no matter how unrealistic it might seem, you need to go for that, because that's actually what's going to make you fulfilled and happy because sure you can have that great job that business that career but if it's not actually what you want to deep you know do deep down and you're just doing it to please other people and to kind of fit a certain mold then you're not going to live a very happy fulfilled life for me for example for some background I always loved business I was that kid that was opening up lemonade and card stands when I was really young I was selling trading cards I was learning about internet marketing when I was a teenager And then the rest was history, right?

Like I always knew what I wanted to do. And yeah, sure, when I was going through the process, I had family and friends that told me, you know, maybe it's better just kind of go get a job, you know, do this, do that. You know, it's too risky. It's going to spend too much money.

And hey, in some ways they weren't wrong, but I knew what was right for me and I pursued that. I pursued my dreams, my desires, no matter what they were in terms of my career, my hobbies and I ultimately you know so happy and fulfilled because of those decisions And then something I talked about in my last episode is developing a growth mindset And this is really important with your purpose too because a growth mindset essentially is the belief that no matter what you can grow and improve.

And for a lot of people, they're afraid of failure. You know, they don't really want the spotlight on them. And they kind of just like laying low. But if you really want to get the most out of life, you have to be setting goals.

You have to be challenging yourself, pushing yourself further, doing things that make you uncomfortable. And once you do do those things enough, that's now your comfort zone. You know, maybe you're really scared of like public speaking. Maybe you're scared of going to the gym and working out.

Whatever it is, if you go and do those things enough, eventually it just becomes a habit. It becomes a part of you. It's internalized. And now that's just a part of you and it's your comfort zone.

Those things don't make you uncomfortable anymore. And you kind of keep pushing the limit with different things. And then kind of related to that and other things I was talking about is failure, but not letting failure holds you back because 90% of businesses fail. It doesn't stop them from launching new companies or products and then winning later on.

Even myself, I've had failed channels, failed products and businesses, failed services, you name it, but it never stopped me. And like they say, you don't need to win all the battles to win the war. You are going to have some losses along the way, but really a cool way to look at it is that it's not you win or you fail, it's you win or you learn, right? Take those losses and learn from them and improve, and then you won't make those mistakes again, and it's going to improve your success over time.

It's going to really compound. And then something I like doing every day is practicing gratitude. Every morning and evening, I try to read a list of things that I'm grateful for, you know, for my health, my businesses, my career, family, friends, my dogs, my happiness. Because like I said earlier, it's kind of easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of what you're doing.

And then just kind of not even like really think about how awesome life is. And it doesn't matter where you are, what stage, if you're just starting out, you're figuring things out, or you're making, you know, a million dollars a year, you can really be grateful for just, you know, having a cup of coffee, reading a book, getting a compliment. So write those things down, and then just review them every day, or, you know, once a week, however often you can, because it's actually been found in a study that a daily gratitude journal can notably increase your happiness.

And it's a really small thing you can do every day, whether you write it down fresh every single day in a journal, or you kind of write it down like I do on my phone and then I just review it however often I can And then something I also getting back into that I recommend when it comes to finding your purpose is giving back to the community in a different way And I like volunteering specifically I try to find volunteer opportunities locally. There's like a soup kitchen, different things.

I'll go to that, I'll help out, and it just makes me feel really good. And it's one of my purposes, I think, to give back. It's also why I like putting out so much content and kind of doing this side of my business and my marketing is because it just feels good. I like giving back, I like helping people, and it's a part of my purpose.

But you can also volunteer. You can do things like cleaning up parks, you know, consulting and doing mentorship for free, being a big brother, big sister and so on. There's a lot of different ways you can give back. But, you know, try considering that because it can help you find out what really matters for you.

But last but not least, when it comes to finding your purpose is taking ownership of your life. Because at the end of the day, it really just comes down to you and what you're trying to get out of life. And you have to take the action. You have to plan out your goals.

You have to take the steps. And nobody's going to do it for you, no matter what you think, no matter what you've seen. or believe, you have to go out and take those steps and actually take action and get what you want out of life. And if you want to find your purpose, you know, you have to do all the things I kind of reviewed in this podcast episode.

You have to research it, watch more videos, listen to more podcasts, read books, you know, really go through the journey and put in the action. And then you're going to get rewarded tenfold or even greater. But you really have to first just understand that ultimately it's up to you to take control of your life, find your purpose, get the most out of it. and that's the first step really before you can do anything because a lot of people constantly point the finger, they think other people should do it for them, but it's never the case.

If you look at any really successful, happy person, they really take the reins over their life and they do everything they wanna do, when they wanna do it, and they've put in that action that helps them get that kind of success. And if you wanna learn more about self-development, business and marketing, make sure to subscribe to the podcast, check out my other episodes, but also go to the show notes and check out my website. I have blogs on there, free courses, a lot of other resources.

I have my YouTube channel as well that I'm getting back into, and plenty of other things to help you learn about self-development and business. But other than that, thank you for listening. Hope you're having an awesome week, and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Wise Business Podcast.

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