Self-Purpose

Why is having a Purpose in life important?

Having a purpose has been shown to benefit health and overall wellbeing. There are many research papers that have studied the effects of self-purpose on health and wellbeing, a couple of which are linked below:

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224996/

 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1037/a0017152

However, many people question how purpose is linked to health or have not comprehended the link or importance.

 What is a purpose?

A purpose can be defined as a central, self-organising life aim that organises and stimulates goals, manages behaviours, and provides a sense of meaning (Knight and Kashdan, 2009).

A purpose can give us direction in life.

This can look different for everyone.  Some may question “what is my life purpose?” or “what is the meaning of my life?”

For some, a purpose might be very career driven, for others it may be to raise a family, or later in life it might be to spend quality time with grandchildren.  Some may know very specifically what they want to do i.e., helping others or being able to enjoy a leisure pursuit.

Quite often though, when people are asked what is your purpose or what do you want to do?  their answer is ‘I don’t know”.

When we don’t know our purpose, we leave ourselves open to outside influences that can affect our circumstances, behaviours, or choices. Almost like getting into a car but not knowing where you are heading or how you are getting there.  You don’t know what directional choices to make on route or being able to course correct if you get into difficulty. Before you know it you are stuck in a huge traffic jam.  This is analogous to feeling stagnated in life which can result in us reaching for short term comfort or pleasure.

How does a Purpose Help?

When we know our purpose, there is something bigger than ourselves to live for, whatever that reason might be. This can help us in many ways:

·      Motivation to get up each day

·      Helping us make consistent optimal choices

·      Positive mindset

·      Giving us a sense of control or direction in our lives

·      Fulfilment

·      Satisfaction

Life will always bring us challenging times and whilst we at those times may reach for short-term comfort or less than healthy choices, if we have a purpose, it gives us something to anchor towards. So we may have to temporarily deviate or pause, but it gives us something to carry on moving forwards. Similar to a sat nav in a car re-directing you to avoid a huge traffic jam. The destination still remains the same so we don’t want to sabotage that by heading in the wrong direction. It gives us the motivation and incentive to overcome challenges, keep positive, avoiding chronic feelings of hopelessness and potentially giving up.

In terms of health choices, to fulfil our purpose, we need to be healthy to fully experience the fulfilment of our purpose.

If your purpose is to spend time playing with the grandchildren, you need the mobility, energy, and base fitness to do so.  If your consistent lifestyle choices involve a sedentary lifestyle with poor food choices leading to weight gain and joint problems, this will inhibit your purpose.

If you are career driven, but your lifestyle involves continuous late nights, skipping meals, reaching for short term energy boosts and caffeine late in the day to work long hours, eventually you run the risk of insomnia and a cascade of metabolic health disorders which will effect your ability to work optimally.

Maybe your purpose is more leisure driven but your lifestyle choices are affecting your ability to fully enjoy them.

You see, having a purpose gives us a reason and motivation to do something.  This can then affect our consistent lifestyle choices. If we don’t know our purpose, we run the risk of living for constant instant gratification which whilst ok in isolated moments, long-term can affect not only our health but inhibit us achieving our full potential.

If you know your purpose, ask yourself if your consistent choices or lifestyle is helping the fulfilment of your purpose or making it harder to achieve or enjoy?

How to find your purpose

Each of us has a unique set of talents, personalities, personal experiences and skills that can help shape our purpose in life. It doesn’t matter if you are extroverted, introverted, logical or creative.  There will be something within you that you can combine with the things you enjoy to find a purpose.

If you are struggling to find your purpose, ask yourself the following questions?

 ·      What did I love to do as child?

·      What personal experiences or character traits do I have that would be suited to a career?

·      If money was no object but you had to spend the rest of your life doing one thing what would it be?

·      What hobbies, passions or interests do you have?

It is important to develop a connection to self, identify a purpose, a set of values that you live by (what is important to you) and then use that to live more purposefully and make more optimal choices.

As part of my wellness coaching I can delve more deep into helping you find your purpose and align lifestyle choices that are supportive of fulfilling that.

Please email lee@leeransomcoaching.com if you are interested and would like some help.

Thank you for reading.