5 Daily Steps to Connect with Your Purpose

Purpose is not a destination or a vocation. Purpose is how we show up in each day of our lives.

Take me, for example. My purpose is to be a healer; even before I founded Zenquility, I showed up in the world as a healer. When I worked in technology, I was the one who was always checking in on the team’s stress levels, and I possessed a certain knack for understanding the clients’ needs that my colleagues didn’t have.

Your quest for purpose isn’t so much about finding the job that’s right for you. It’s about feeling like your life has meaning, and filling your life with activities, interests, and people that help you feel fulfilled. Identifying them is a path of exploration.

Here are five things you can do in your daily life to navigate that path successfully.

#1 – Look within

One of the best ways to get knocked off your path is by seeking answers outside yourself. The world is full of people who will tell you what to do, but none of them knows you as well as you know yourself, and most of them will answer from their truth, not yours.

Meanwhile, you have an inner compass that knows exactly where you’re headed, in the form of your Higher Self and your Divine Guidance speaking through your thoughts and feelings. This is your true source of why, where, when, and how-to. Do you know how to hear them?

First of all, meditate regularly for the purpose of getting quiet enough to hear the wisdom from within. Because it never shouts.

Then, ask questions! So simple but so frequently overlooked. I learned from Melissa Kitto’s Inner Peace Movement Workshops to Guidance for one word, one phrase, or one image that offers guidance. Journaling is another way to hear; as you write, words of wisdom will start to merge with words from your intellect.

Certain crystals can help you hear your inner guidance, either by neutralizing the fear energies that block you (I love charoite for that) or helping you attune to a higher vibration (clear stones like quartz, phenacite, and herkimer diamonds).

#2 – Stay centered

Do you know the biggest thing that pulls you off course? Getting caught up in your mental space. If you stay there too long you’ll lose your ground and be at the mercy of the energies around you, like a kite that’s lost its tether to the Earth, being tossed around in the wind.

Staying centered, therefore, means maintaining your tether to the physical body that serves as your anchor. General ways to do this include grounding meditation, deep breathing, exercise, and conscious care of your physical self. You can also explore grounding to the element that you’re most attuned to – Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. (Don’t know which element is yours? Play with them and see what you discover. Also, you can look to your horoscope sign for a clue; each Sun sign is associated with one of the four elements, although the rest of your chart has a great influence too.)

#3 – Declutter your life

Think of this as making space for your purpose. Start to lovingly release commitments that ask for your attention and time but don’t offer joy in return. If your life’s full of obligations that you know are not part of who you truly are, it’s time to clean house.

Speaking of which, literally cleaning house can be a stepping stone toward decluttering your life. “As within, so without” means that your outer environment always reflects your inner environment – which also implies that you can change your inner environment by rearranging your outer environment. So if you’re having trouble letting go of obligations that no longer feed your passion and purpose, look around at what old things around your home or office you’re still hanging onto to. Empty those physical spaces and you’ll inspire your inner need for breathing room and boundaries as well.

A few of my clients laugh when I do this, because it seems like every other time they come in I’ve rearranged the office furniture. I see it as a side effect of all the growth I’ve been going through; I need a space that’s not only clean and clear but open enough to fit my ever-expanding energy field.

#4 – Stop comparing

One of the most dangerous kinds of clutter we can accumulate is expectations of ourselves based on external comparisons. There’s this inner gremlin I’ll call “path envy” that comes up when I see someone else who appears to be more in touch with their purpose. But it’s more than envy; I have moments of feeling like a failure because I’m not Doreen Virtue or Christine Kane or other people I admire. But how silly is that? Because I’m not either of those women, never could be, and I’m not supposed to be. There’s a Divine Plan for why they are them and I am me.

Do you catch yourself making comparisons like that? Comparing yourself to you causes distractions, too. It’s so easy to see where you’re headed and want to be there already. (Trust me – I have to pull myself back from this almost every day.) But there’s a reason you’re not “there” yet: You’re not ready – because if you were ready you’d already be “there.” The best way to get “there” is to focus on the very next step that you can take right now; in order to do that, you have to be fully “here” now.

#5 – Follow your bliss

Do you search for purpose as if it’s something you don’t have – as if it couldn’t be the thing that you already enjoy doing? Part of that is your ego trying to keep you safe by casting doubt, telling you that purpose couldn’t possibly be that simple. But it is.

That inner compass I mentioned?  Its magnetic north is Joy. You were meant to navigate your path by doing things that you enjoy. You intended to leave yourself little joyful breadcrumbs that would lead you along your life’s journey. Follow them and let yourself be happy and on purpose.

To look at it another way, why in the world would you be sent here to dedicate your life to something other than what you enjoy? What kind of cruel fate would that be?

Your turn

I’d love to know – did one of these steps speak to you more than the others?

And is there anything that you already do when you find you’ve gotten way off track in your life, to bring you back to center?

Please share in the comments below.