What does living our life actually mean? Is it just waking up and going by the flow of the day? How much of the things that you have to do within the day is something you actually like to do? Do you do it for yourself or to please others? Are you doing this because you are serving your life’s purpose? Or you are still searching for it? Well today, you get to determine your life’s purpose in just 5 minutes.
Learning your ikigai guides you to set your life’s purpose in place. And having a purpose-driven life actually gives you a reason for all the things that you do. It is the fuel on how you react to things. Also, it is the reason you wake up in the morning. It could be the stronghold in every decision that you make. Why you take charge of certain things when you want something to be done. How you set a goal and just like how a simple yes or a no can be greatly supported by it. It sets your personality apart from the rest with your ability to influence others socially. It absolutely gives you direction.
But how do we find our life’s purpose?
Every morning, I wake up around 7:30 am (that is the truth!). It is the normal routine I have had ever since my first daughter came to this world. It had been automatic. I honestly don’t know how it happened. It may have been the instinct to tend to her, get ready for work, or to simply have that quiet time, (or all of it put together) where everybody is asleep and so I have a little time on my own.
Around 6 months, my baby developed a good sleeping pattern already (she sleeps the entire night without a fuss). So, sleepless nights didn’t last that long. I got to writing by this time while she can sit on her own unassisted.
When I wake up, shortly after I have typed a paragraph or two, my baby would wake up too because she would hear the laptop keys. This wakes her up or the idea that I’m awake makes her awake instantly as well. We’re very close so, she would just sit by me while I do my work. Not much of a time for myself then, because she would easily get bored and eventually would pull me into sitting down on the floor to play. And I would always submit.
COULD YOUR PURPOSE CHANGE IN TIME?
Now, that she had grown and is in kindergarten, her energy depletes significantly within the day. This makes her in need for more rest. Since she is in the pm session, she usually wakes up at 10. With that much time from 7:30, I get to prepare her stuff to school and then have extra time to write. So with that much leeway, I intend to use it purposively.
At first, I didn’t know actually how to do so. My baby is all tended by this age so I was at lost with my purpose a tiny bit. She can do so much on her own now that I get astounded sometimes. So as not to waste my time, I worked out for straight 3 months. Eventually, it drained me because somehow, it didn’t make me ‘ultimately’ happy. Of course, I felt a sense of accomplishment but with the kind of work I do, I ended up dreading it every morning. At the end of the day, I am too exhausted to even play with my daughter. It made me cranky. At this point, I decided to use my break time at work for it.
CHANGE OF HABIT
As I was led to determining my ikigai, I had time to write so much and finish tasks within the whole 2 hours at least. This made me reach so many people and was sought for help because of some of the posts I wrote. I’m sure there’s a lot of self-help books around somewhere. But information, specifically coming from a Filipina, in her 30’s when she bore her first child, who is a performing artist but graduated as a nurse; pursued a diploma in journalism, now juggling duties with her start-up business, a Samoan husband and daughter and her job, could come across as ‘interesting and informative.
Out of about 7.53 million people in the world, I have received 11 comments from one post alone. It’s not that much I know but my point is, there are people who had read my post and actually commented because they engaged in something I wrote. This makes me truly in awe that it reached that much people when I am just being true to my purpose. I guess I have served it well to at least 11 of them.
So today, allow me to help you figure yours with this 10-minute video from TEDx. But the speaker truly helps you in reality within 5 minutes sans the introduction and his own stories. Do, lend it an ear if you have spare time.
