In this blog post, this one simple rule to finding your true purpose in life, will help you understand how to live a more fulfilled life. You will identify your passions that can be monetized and turn into a sustainable business by using the Japanese concept, Ikigai. In sharing with you my success tips and one simple rule to finding your true purpose, you can live a more fulfilled life while impacting others.

Some of the most important questions you can ever ask yourself on your journey through life are questions such as:

• “Why am I here?”,
• “What do I really want?” ,
• “Where do I want to be?”,
• “When I achieve my goals, what would it look like?”,
• “How will I get to where I want to be?”,
• “Who will I have to become to live a life with purpose?”

Some Success Tips for finding your true purpose

The most successful people are invariably those people who are spending the most time thinking about who they are and where they are going.

A consistent self awareness and a journey of evaluation about what you really want contributes to reaching your success goals.

The starting point of great success, in business and in general, is realizing that you are truly unique, extraordinary and different than anyone in the entire universe.

You do have remarkable abilities, skills, aptitudes, insights & ideas that contributes to your indifference. In some way, you are superior to all other people who have ever lived. Inside of you, you have the capacity to accomplish way more than you have ever dreamed of in the past.

You are engineered and designed to live a life filled with purpose, meaning and fulfillment.

The great tragedy is that most people go through life and die with their music still inside them.

They react and respond to:

• pressures and events,
• parents,
• bosses,
• bills and responsibilities

without ever taking the time to sit down and think about what it is that they really want for themselves.

I am a strong believer in purpose.

So it will not come as a surprise when I tell you that you were put on this earth for a reason. To do something wonderful, extraordinary with your life. But it is YOUR job to find out what that wonderful thing is and then find a way to doing it extremely well.

You even might only have a single purpose, like that of Mother Theresa of Calcutta, or your life may have multiple, sequential purposes. As you evolve, grow and develop into the best version of yourself, you will discover more things that leads you to living with purpose.

Using questions and prompts can help you finding your true purpose in life.

The ONE simple RULE to finding your true purpose

In any case, the one common characteristic of the most successful men and women is having clarity.

Having an absolutely clear understanding about what they stand for, believe in and how they will get where they are going are great attributes of success.

Let’s start at the beginning.

What is your heart’s desire?

To define your heart’s desire, you need to find what you believe you were put on this earth to do.

That something special inside of you that is unique and can only be done in the way you do it. Your job throughout life is to discover your true heart’s desire. Only then will you live a fulfilled life, reach complete success and like most say, find your “sweet spot” in whatever you do.

So, what is yours?

• Is it a passion to help others?
• Even a longing to write novels?
• Or teaching others how to bake bread?

The One simple rule to find your true purpose : Find Your IKIGAI

It does not matter how stupid, how unimportant or needless it sounds, you have a drive inside you to reach full potential. Finding purpose in life is one of the most fundamental human needs. By our very nature, we seek meaning and validation of our place in life.

Feeling like your life makes sense, feeling you have direction and that you are motivated by valued goals and feeling that your existence is significant (George & Park, 2016) is how we debate the meaning of life.

Thorough research proves that a high sense of purpose is associated with a reduced risk of all-cause morality, higher daily positive affect, lower daily negative affect and improved longevity across diverse cultures, genders and age groups (Cohen, Bavishi & Rozanski, 2016).

In Japanese culture, to find meaning and purpose in life is to find one’s ikigai (ee-key-guy).

Even though no definitive translation exists, ikigai, which is a combination of the Japanese words ikiru, meaning “to live”, and kai, meaning”the realization of what one hopes for”, can be understood as a reason for being, or that which makes life worth living.

Research suggests that having ikigai facilitates the integration of stressful psychological events from the past, present, and future with less conflict or confusion. (Ishida & Okada, 2011)

Further, ikigai has been shown to influence immune function and increase life expectancy (Hui & Fung, 2009), reduce anxiety and improve resilience (Ishida, 2008), act as an intermediary between flow experience and sense of coherence (Iida & Oguma, 2013) and enhance self-esteem and acceptance of adversity (Kamiya, 2004), amongst many other favorable outcomes.

Having ikigai means that each day is infused with meaning and reflects not only psychological factors, such as wellbeing, hopes and dreams but also an individual’s consciousness of their motivation for a living (Sone et al., 2008)

Your discovery of your own ikigai is attainable with:

• Patience
• Commitment
• Introspective exploration

The Four Ingredients of Ikigai

While this concept is personal and specific to individual self discovery, ikigai is consistently found at the convergence of four fundamental elements (Garcia, Miralles, & Cleary, 2017), namely:

• Passion (What you love)
• Mission (What the world needs)
• Vocation (What you are good at)
• Profession (What you can get paid for)

The goal with this tool, is to help you use the one rule to finding your purpose and meaning in your live.

By engaging in the Japanese practice of ikigai, you can explore and connect with what is most meaningful by discovering the point at which your passions and talents converge with what others need and are willing to pay for.

How to use the Ikigai Chart

Use these steps to help you complete your own ikigai chart:

• Finding one’s ikigai requires a commitment to action
• Determine what it is you value most – it is not likely to be discovered overnight
• Your ikigai is something that will unfold over time and changes as various aspects of your own life changes
• In other words, finding your ikigai is about lifelong self-reflection and experimentation
• Carefully consider each of the four circles and allow yourself time to respond to each question
• Answer as honestly as possible and writing down whatever comes to mind at the moment
• Use prompts to help you answer each question
• You can use your answers as a source of inspiration
• There is value to be found in any overlapping response
• Overlapping answers will provide clarity on other aspects of your life and therefore, lead you closer to discovering your ikigai
• Focus on active actions and activities that manifest in observable outcomes. For instance, activities such as painting or gardening should be prioritized over passively watching television
• You might identify more than one ikigai and discovering that your ikigai may change as your circumstances change.
• Revisit this exercise regularly as well as every time you feel a sense of misalignment between your values and your actions

The secret to a long and happy life is to live with purpose every day.

Living a life with meaning and value can make you happier, more content, more resilient through hard times and more likely to influence the lives of others.

You can find meaning from many different sources, such as:

• Relationships
• Work
• Religion
• Hobbies
• Your Job/Career

What gives you a sense of meaning or purpose in life?

There you have it! My ONE simple rule to finding your true purpose in life.

You now have a tool to start working on those hearts’ desires so you too can find your ikigai and start living a purpose-driven life!

Wondering how to use this one simple rule to turn your purpose into profits?

I show you how to find your purpose (ikigai), sweet spot, calling or “Zone of Genius” and also how to turn that into a monetized solution so you can even make money from living a fulfilled, purpose driven life.

I created a mini-course to help you find your Zone of Genius (ikigai) & monetize it inside the B.O.S.S Society, a business membership created for creatives, coaches and educators.

JOIN today to start finding your true purpose, turn it into profits and live a life of fulfillment!

I truly hope you will take this time, invest in yourself and truly live a life of impact!

To your succes!