To live a purpose-driven life, you need to make it a habit to instil everything you do with purpose. To do so, ask yourself the following six questions:
Framing everything you do with purpose—from the next meal, vacation, to the next 10 years plan—will give you guidance, achievement, and fulfillment making you effective and doing things that are meaningful.
So far, we have learned that purpose has more to do with intentionality than with a magic formula that solves all your life's problems. This means that, before you start doing anything, you have to be aware and explicit about the reason why you want to do something (why Statement), how you want to approach what you are going to do (mission statement), and what the desired outcome should look like (vision statement). You can read more about this in this blog entry.
Since everything we do can be instilled with purpose, the decision we must make is whether we want to do so, or not. Many times, I find people struggling a lot with purpose. Much of the struggle is based on confusion between purpose and calling. In this blog here I give an explanation of why they are not the same and how to differentiate between both of them. To sum it up, there is good news:
To start doing things on purpose, you need to start framing your decisions with six key questions. To make it a habit, you have to do it regularly. I will now give you an example of how to approach even mundane tasks with purpose.
First, you need to decide what you want to do next. Try to pick something that already requires a bit more intentionality from you to make things easier. For example, it would be possible to frame your daily teeth brushing with purpose but it would be a little of a waste of your intention and mental energy since you already have created a habit of brushing your teeth (hopefully).
Preparing dinner for a couple of friends you want to invite over on Friday evening, on the other hand, would be a good occasion. So let's stick to this example: Let's suppose you want to invite your schoolmates for dinner next Friday. How do you frame this occasion with purpose? I will now give the questions you need to ask yourself and how the answers might look like.
Answer: I have not seen them for a while and I would like to catch up with them to see how they are doing. Also, I just like to spend time around them. It is always fun. I can clearly see how fun the evening is going to be and am already looking forward to the deep conversations we will have.
Answer: I am someone that values loyalty and, although I have not seen my school mates for a while, I know these are the people I value in my life.
Answer: Although there are many people I get along well like my colleagues or many other people in my sports club and church, I want to invite only people with whom I relate not on the basis of any random event but because we have committed to this relationship a long time ago. I can blindly trust them and do not need to guard myself in their presence.
Answer: Since my friends and I work hard and long hours in our jobs, it would not make much sense to do it during a weekday. Rather, I should schedule it for a Saturday afternoon/evening so my friends and I have enough time to do our chores and look forward to the evening. The preparation of the dinner itself shouldn't be too complicated since this would consume my energy unnecessarily and, in the end, I might not be able to enjoy it myself.
Answer: Looking at my week ahead, I could arrange to do the groceries on Friday after work. I could even leave work an hour earlier so that I still have time to out for a walk, as I usually do. If something unexpected happens, I still could buy the ingredients online.
Answer: First, my friends I invite over will have a pleasant and fun evening will good food, wine, and meaningful conversations. Second, doing this will put me in a good mood. I already am looking forward to the event and am certain that I will be more fulfilled after Saturday night. This will have an indirect positive impact on my working environment since I will have replenished my emotional and spiritual energy.
As you can see, it takes a bit although not much effort to plan a dinner with friends in such a way that it becomes purposeful. Answering these six questions gives clarity, motivation, and helps you deal with your limitations in such a way that you still are able to get the outcome you desire. When answering these questions, you notice how your motivation levels will rise even to the point that you cannot wait to execute your purpose plan.
Some of us might find this task too mundane and easy to do. But the goal is not to do things that overwhelm us but to do them with purpose. If you find this too easy, just figure out what might be the next big thing you want to tackle. It could be the next family vacation, a training programme for the next three months, or even your next career decision. Everything you do can be framed by these six questions and your answers.