Attaining clarity about the future is a challenge in and of itself, let alone while living through a pandemic.
In Volume 46 of this guest series, psychotherapist Dr. Francis L. Battisti and nutritionist Dr. Helen Battisti address the importance of understanding our purpose in the context of creating a meaningful future.
For over 10 years, they have worked closely with us on aging concerns and have presented many webinars and in-person workshops. Their newsletter, The Zone, is a weekly mental health and nutrition tip sheet during times of change.
Looking at the future and all the possibilities, challenges, and dilemmas that can lay ahead, it can be useful to think about what our purpose is for our tomorrows. Knowing your purpose offers you a reason to get up in the morning, helps guide life’s decisions and shapes goals. Our purpose may come from our family and friends, from our spiritual, or our work life. It may also involve a combination of all aspects of our life. Formulating our purpose is a unique process for each of us and we may find that our purpose can shift and change during our lifetime. Also, major occurrences throughout life may also cause us to reformulate our purpose. An example of how major occurrences may change our outlook is how we may be looking at our world differently today than we did before the pandemic.
The quest, in the exploration of our purpose, has existed throughout the ages. While there are many questions that can be asked, the following five questions, by John Maxwell, can provide us with a starting point.
- What do you do well?
- What do your friends say you do well?
- If you could do or be anything, what would you do or be?
- What gives you results when you do something?
- How can you get better?
As we think through these questions, we may find it helpful to write out our answers. This will not only reinforce our process of thinking, it will also give us a reference point to see how our purpose may evolve with time.
- Understanding our purpose of life provides clarity for our tomorrows.
- Our purpose can be constantly evolving.
- Knowing our purpose adds the spice to life.
- Research indicates that knowing your purpose can add seven years to your life.
- Getting a good night’s sleep helps us to wake-up with a clearer focus on our purpose.
- Writing the answers to the questions you ask also adds clarity to purpose.
- Procrastination.
- Aimlessly moving into our tomorrows.
- Thinking that you have no impact on your life.
In summary, refining our purpose enables us to better share our gifts and passions with the world. As Mark Twain asserted, “the two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
Quote of the Week
“The mystery of human existence lies not in staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
-Fyodor Dostoyevski
