Becoming Purposeful
photo credit goes to http://www.flickr.com/photos/daly3d/
*Note: This is the third in a series of posts leading up to the launch of Sokanu. In this series we will be discussing the core purpose behind the Sokanu vision as well as outline what our product does. For a full list of posts in this series see the left hand column of the blog.
In our last post we talked about the four types of individuals that make up the majority of people today. After examining each of these people in more detail, we explained how it is our goal to help everyone achieve the fourth type of person: The Purposeful. Why is it so important to enter into this category? Do purposeful people become happier people? And how do we get there?
A purposeful person is one who has found what it is they want to do and can sustain this over a long period of time. They generally do not jump around from idea to idea and are very committed to their mission in life. They have a sense of why they exist and use this guiding principle to help them in their day to day decisions.
Let's first start off with what happens if we do not fall into this category (most of the world). Most people that do not fall into this category do not know it exists. They believe that "those" people that are successful or happy have been born with extraordinary luck or skill. Those who fall outside of this category will reach a point in their life where intrinsically, they know that something is missing. They begin to ask questions like "why do I exist?", "what is the meaning of life?" and "what am I meant to do?" These deeply philosophical questions are impossible to answer, as it 100% depends on the individual. But the short term answer is that unless you find a driving force in your life, you will never be able to answer these questions.
Those who do not fall into the purposeful category are not bad people, have lower intelligences, etc... They are the exact same as those in the fourth category. The difference is that the environment that people are raised in is not condusive to answering the question "what is my purpose in life?" As a child, dinner discussions may have been about how terrible work was rather than the unlimited possibilites that this world employs. Career advice may have been given from parents who were deeply unsatisfied with their own careers, and instead of trying to help their children, they teach them that "life is tough" and they weren't born "lucky" like those other people. The teachers they may have had growing up were sub-par, not opening up their minds to the wonders of the world. There are a number of factors that contribute to the fact that most people don't get a chance to think about "their purpose".
While this is deeply unfortunate and a systemic problem, it doesn't mean that these people can't one day find their purpose and move into the fourth category. They just need to go through some introspective thinking and change their environment to be condusive to the act of becoming purposeful. And in our opinion, there is no more important decision than finding what it is that you are meant to do with your life. After all, how can you become happy if you don't know what it is that makes you truly happy in the first place?
Getting to this point takes time and a lot of thought. There is no single answer to the question, but I am going to attempt to break down finding life purpose into four categories. Three of these categories fall outside of the realm of Sokanu but I think it will help to give you a better picture of what it is we are trying to do.
To start, I believe that most, if not all, human lives can be broken down into four categories:
- Education & Career
- Health
- Spirituality
- Relationships
Think about it. What major decision or action in your life does not fall into one of these categories? Sure we have things like entertainment & leisure, but are they core to our existence? Is that how we define ourselves? Probably not. Looking at these four categories, we can see that no one quadrant is more important than another. They all need to co-exist properly in order for us to have balance. But the point I want to make about purpose is that it can come from any one of these four categories.
By now you know that Sokanu is going to almost singularily focus on category #1: Education & Career. We always talk of finding your passion in life when it comes to your career. What do you want to be when you grow up? These are extensively important things to consider, and because so much of our time is taken up during our career, we truly believe that there is nothing more important in life than finding your passion. But it is important to differentiate between passion and purpose. For many people, those two things are one and the same. But not for all. Let me explain.
If you find your passion in a career, no matter what that career is, you define yourself by it. If someone asks you what you do, you can proudly say that you are an "electrician" or "teacher" or "woodworker". You put 16 hour days into your career, and you define yourself by it. The TV shows you watch relate to that career, your friends and family are probably interested in that career, etc... Your passion is your purpose. We want to help people find this correlation.
But there are other alternatives. While society may always define people by the career they are in, many people find purpose in other aspects of life. Health is a major factor that many people don't talk about too much. If you lose your health, nothing else becomes important. All of a sudden your sole purpose in life is to get better. The same goes if a person very very close to you gets terribly sick. Even though it is not talked about too much, health and wellness binds together and creates purpose for many people. They define themselves by the fight that they have to get better, or when they are better, helping other people in that same fight.
Spirituality, often talked about in similar circles, is probably the single greatest source of purpose for people. Note that spirituality does not just mean religion, it also means faith or whatever principles you choose to live your life by. Many people turn to religion as a reason for existing (sometimes this leads to malicious intent, but very often it is good) and this guides them throughout their life. They may use category #1 to pay the bills and to facilitate #3. Human's are made up of all four of these categories, not just one. They need to work in harmony and unison in order to properly provide purpose.
The last category, relationships, almost is never talked about. This is mainly because it is impossible to measure. But those who have had incredible parents or friends know that some people find purpose in their relationships. Some people are born to be amazing parents. Just because we don't pay parents money doesn't mean that their career choice of being a stay-at-home parent is not equally or even more important. They are raising an actual human being, crafting their mind, and helping that person do amazing things. And many people know that their main purpose in life is to start and raise a family.
--
This topic is one that could go on and on, but I just wanted to nail down the point that becoming purposeful is not only from careers. While from now on out, our blog posts will be related to finding passion and purpose in careers, I thought it was important to examine the different facets of becoming purposeful. Those who do become purposeful are on a path to achieving true happiness, which we have spoken about before.
Becoming purposeful acts like a ship's rudder. It allows you to point yourself in one direction, and set a course for it. Regardless of what other people say, you are able to answer "why do I exist?" for yourself. It doesn't matter what other people think or believe, because you know that you have found your purpose. Remember, you can find purpose in any or all of the quadrants of your life.
