What's Purpose?

What's Purpose?

by Daniel Ferguson


Purpose. The word that gets thrown about quite a bit, what's your life purpose, why are you here, what are you doing all this for? Something we feel we should know, but it's not easy. I often hear from friends and just in general, why do I need to decide what I need to do with my life by 18? Typically the age when people are deciding what to do after full time education. Perhaps even 16 too, with that decision of sixth form, work, college or an apprenticeship. 

A lot of people struggle when they don't feel like they have a purpose, a report by Harvard Education discovered 58% of young adults they studied experienced having no/little purpose in the previous month and 50% of young people said their mental health was negatively influenced by, 'not knowing what to do with their life." Can you relate?



When you google the definition of purpose it says, 'it's the reason something is done or created' and, 'it's a person's sense of determination.' Now looking at the image, purpose provides a sense of direction right? Us humans like to know what's coming next, we like to predict: the unknown is a scary place. 

My purpose perspective

I'm lucky. At 17 years old I had a very strong idea of what I want to do with my life: I want to be a sports psychologist. Some people discover this at 14, 21, 35, 42. From what I've experienced a lot of people feel pressure to know what they want to do with their life in terms of their career. This is very understandable since as young people we are required to make decisions, such as sixth form or college, university or an apprenticeship and the career vision of these things. But we aren't all going to know this just yet? That's okay.

In the modern world we see so much media with various people telling us how to live. Focus on you. What do you enjoy? Can you remember a time when you felt great doing something, what was that? Give yourself time, there's genuinely no rush. Even when you are retired you won't have it figured out. It's all about how you perceive purpose, is it going to be the looming pressure of what you do for the rest of your life, or can it be the direction and steps you take each day towards the things you enjoy and towards the things that feel right for you?

Have those discussions, explore and always be open to learning. Purpose is a direction right? So try your best to take those small steps towards a life you enjoy. Remember: it's okay to take steps backwards, in order to go forwards.


What do others think?

When I asked my Instagram what purpose meant to people, a friend replied, "Doing something that has meaning to me" and another said, "Helping those that are close to me."

We all live different lives, we all live with various views and opinions and we don't all live the same path. The journey of being on yours is the greatest thing we experience, please, if there's something for you to take from this it's, do you, find you: no matter how long that takes. I believe in you, your purpose is your life, how you see it and what you do, go be great. A good friend of mine once said, "We aren't all on the same level playing field." So be conscious of comparing to other's journeys, if you do, which you most likely will, do it in a productive way: "Okay they are doing that, but how can I focus on my journey and my next steps?" Like I say, it's your journey: you shape it. 

Take care.



Find Daniel Ferguson on:
LinkedIn: Daniel Ferguson
Instagram: @danferguson_sp
Twitter: @DanFergusonSP



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