Do you have the feeling that you are taking action? You are motivated but things are just not moving forward and you keep falling back into that vicious circle? Just completing a lot of actions and feeling busy will not get you anywhere in the long term.

Your purpose is required to move your actions towards the goals you have in mind. In this article, I explain the importance of having a vision. So you can create a direction for yourself.

But how to find your purpose in life? Some call it seeing the light, others call it finding the spark. I’ll give you 5 steps that helped me to find my purpose.

1. Be grateful

Be grateful for what you have. Be thankful for being able to go to sleep and to wake up. This enables you to see the positive side in negative situations. You will see more paths opening up, which will only benefit you.

2. Be with yourself

Everyday take at least 10 minutes of your day to just think and be with yourself. You can do this using breathing exercises, meditation, and walking. I do the latter. I take a 45 min walk outside, every evening. It clears my mind and the next steps in different aspects of my life are taken in that walk.

3. Engage in physical activity every day

Whether I go to the gym, do some kettlebell exercises at home, or go for a run. I make sure I get physical every day. The stress I put on my body and mind helps me to put things in perspective, makes me think clearly and stay focused.

4 Follow the path

I’m a firm believer that these steps complement each other. Exercising activates the brain. Being with yourself with an active brain is something magical. It’s almost like the whole path is drawn out for you. You see the next step so clearly. You will progress towards your goals so fast it is almost scary. I only experience this when I apply step 2 and 3 consistently.

4. Execute, focus and trust in the process

When you take action on your thoughts, make sure it is focused. Check out my article about Deep work here: increase-productivity-by-being-bored. It’s about quality, not quantity. Spend the whole evening doing one task perfectly and complete it 100%. Instead of 5 tasks, 60% finished. It’s simple math: 1 task complete vs 0 tasks complete. Also don’t focus on the result, trust the process of consistent hard work in the right direction. Like I mentioned in this article: The secret to success.

5. Stay true to yourself

This is very important. It is your purpose, so stay close to yourself. If your moving in a certain direction that requires actions that don’t feel right. Reconsider your purpose and revisit your vision and remind yourself of what you stand for. If those are still valid you find another way to get there. Never betray yourself, because the one who loses, in the end, will be you.

Conclusion

I want to close this article with a powerful quote:

“To begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones, who make all the conditions serve them, who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.”

James Allen, As a man Tinketh