One simple exercise that tells you if you are living your life purpose

A fun exercise I like to do that usually assures me if I am on the right path in life is to visualize myself 10 or 20 years down the road. I like to imagine what type of ‘me’ I would like to be by then. I like to call this the Idealized Me. From that point, I visualize the actual path (often like a little dirt path!) from the present ‘me’,  and see if it is leading to the Idealized Me. If I see that my starting point i.e. the Present Me is NOT leading nicely to the Idealized Me, or if the path from the Present Me is going somewhere else altogether, then I take a step back and reassess.

See, the thing is.. Oftentimes, we get too caught up in our present lives. We have full-time jobs, an education, and the world’s concerns on our shoulders. We are so busy making a living and earning money and paying bills and taking care of loved ones, that we rarely have time to reflect or assess. You are living your life, but the concept of ‘living your dream’ falls by the wayside.

But what does ‘living your dream’ really mean though?

You see, within all of us are passions, talents and characteristic that are absolutely unique to us. These are our unique intrinsic qualities and talents. Maybe you are an adept problem-solver and you LOVE working with your hands. Or maybe you are someone who sees the beauty in everything. Perhaps you are someone who loves to dive deep into people’s minds, analyze situations, behaviours. Or perhaps you are someone who comes up new crazy ideas to change the world everyday and are just itching to run with them.

Whatever your own intrinsic talents are, they give you immense pleasure and make you feel pretty good about yourself, since well, you are just naturally good at them. Right? Now, if you were living a life where you had the freedom to flaunt and utilize your intrinsic talents on a regular basis, how spectacular would that be? And by regular basis, I mean as a career. Just think about this for a minute. Indulge your imagination.

If our passions and unique talents align themselves with what we do for a living, the potential for pure happiness, the potential for innovation, the potential for impact, and the potential for RICHNESS.. would be absolutely THROUGH the ROOF!

And THAT, is what I mean by ‘living your dream’. It is, simply, a heightened state of consciousness where you are truly in tune with WHO YOU ARE and what your life purpose is.

So if you have never really given any of this much thought, go to the top of this post and do the little exercise. It takes a few minutes, but it can be profound. It gives you a lot (of exciting things) to think about.

Now, tell me. Have you been able to carve out a life for yourself that gives you the privilege to live your purpose every single day? Shout out in the comments below. I would love to hear it.

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Thanks for reading UnPsychology!

Do you feel like you are not living your life’s purpose? Know that you have a lot more to offer and want to make a real difference in your life as well as the lives of others.. but just have not yet figured out HOW?

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‘Happiness’ – not a shiny utopian unicorn

Today at the onset of a work meeting, our manager decided to show us video about how ‘happiness leads to a better work environment’. It was a TEDx video and I was quite impressed with the speaker. It was not merely his style of speaking, which I did find quite captivating, but also the subject of his talk. This was something I had thought about many a times, so I mentally nodded the entire way through his talk.

He talked about how being happy leads to a better work environment. But more importantly, the point he was trying to make was, happiness nowadays seems to be a ‘concept’, almost like a utopian place we can one day hope to find ourselves at when – and if – we achieve what we set out to achieve. If we meet conditions A and B, or if we finally attain object C. Once we meet A and B, and then attain C, we then set ourselves another goal – Goal D! – and now our ultimate happiness all depends on when – and if – we attain Goal D!

Do you see the pattern here? It is like we are bent on putting our happiness on hold until we reach this moving target far off into the sky. Don’t get me wrong – having goals are extremely important. In fact, hope itself is what keeps us going from day to day. But we all know those people, who are completely convinced that they cannot be happy until they attain a certain something they have laid their minds on. Or until they change a certain something in their lives. Until then, happiness is on hold!

What is up with that?

If you need me to break it down for you, then here it is: Happiness is not ‘the attainment of a certain object/goal/person’. Happiness is not what happens to you once you reach your final destination. If you think of it that way, you might as well be chasing the proverbial shiny unicorn while he gallops on into utopian land! I.e. its not gonna happen! There is no guarantee at all that once you reach your destination, ‘happiness’ is going to be waiting for you wrapped up in a shiny bow! Quit living for the future. Stop treating happiness like a unicorn. I assure you it is not!

Happiness is simply a state of mind you CHOOSE to be in. In the present. And who better to control your state of mind than your own awesome self? Happiness therefore, is a conscious choice. A choice you can make every single day when you wake up, or when you go for your afternoon walk. Happiness is choosing to ignore obstacles along the way to your goal, and focus on the help you received from strangers. Happiness is choosing to ignore the fact that you are in a crowded subway train, but concentrating on the fact that you did not have to drive and fight traffic today. Happiness is not only deriving pleasure from the small things, but from the journey to your destination ITSELF. Heck, look around you for a second – there is no much to be happy about!

It is perfectly healthy and natural to come up with ambitious goals for yourself. But don’t base your happiness on the attainment of it. Revel in the feeling of striving to achieve your dreams. Indulge yourself in the pursuit of the exciting journey to your destination. Surround yourself with beauty, passion, dreams, and beautiful people who are passionate about the pursuit of their dreams. Breathe in the now, dream of the future and fall in love with the present.

Just be. This – now – is happy.