Method to Finding Purpose

There as many things to talk about - I feel the perfectionist need to present them in an orderly fashion, but so often "hold of for now" becomes "hold off forever"... To avoid this - I'll post as things come up, but I know my short term goal is to find my true purpose in life - so I will focus on that topic of discussion. We can talk about diet and sleeping after the new year.

It has been asked how I am pursuing the discovery of my true purpose. First and foremost, I set a clear goal - and time line. Then, to create external motivational pressure, I announced my intentions to my friends - and potentially the world via this blog. Not only that, but it allows me to gather input from others about purpose. It makes for a great topic of conversation / way of getting to know someone / personal motivator. Writing to this blog serves another purpose as well. It is an extension of my broader practice of writing for at least an hour a day on purpose and the evaluation of myself.

The one technique that I use offline is an exercise suggested by Steve Pavlina. It is very basic - involving free-writing to answer the question "What is my true purpose in life?" and simply continuing to write until you cry. Now, I don't know if I will be driven to tears by my final answer, but I know the true answer will toll a deep resonance within me. I have had many statements come from this writing that were candidates for my true purpose, but I found that I often could not effortlessly remember what they were hours later. I realize that my real answer will be immediately rememberable. That is the challenge to this method. You feel like you have a breakthrough - it feels like the ultimate answer, but maybe a day later, you have a hard time remembering exactly what it was your epiphany was. That information isn't lost - it is incorporated into your realm of knowledge, but it isn't the "one true answer". So you must drive yourself to keep going - to keep writing. There is one phrase that has stuck with me in memory - but it hasn't transformed my outlook - and no tears. I think I'm in the ballpark of my statement of purpose, but I have to push forward and dig deeper.

My approach boils down to clear focus on my goal of finding my purpose and brute-force writing until I run out of false words and finally let slip the real answer. As I go I also find new angles to approach the writing from - such as listing my strengths, or everything I "like", or "If I had no limitations whatsoever, what kind of life would I have".

Time to depart for now... Later today I will take a step back and explain what identifying your true purpose means and _why_ one should bother in the first place.