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In the search for purpose is driving force actually useful?

I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous to answer the question ‘what is your purpose’. I’m introspective, but dedicating time to understand “why I was put on this earth” is a little daunting.

At first, I did what I always do – avoid the question and move onto something easier (did you know building a website from scratch is a great way to procrastinate…?). Knowing the life you’ve built doesn’t serve your purpose is terrifying!

But, I’m determined to discover my personal self, which means finally answering the question. As always I began with research. My research suggests there is more than one approach to find your purpose so over the next several posts I’m going to explore a different technique to answer the following 3 questions:

  1. Will each approach lead me to the same answer?
  2. Do we all really have a purpose?
  3. What is my purpose?

For this post I decided to start with what Tony Robbins calls your ‘driving force’.

What is your driving force?

According to Tony Robbins, if you don’t know where to start, go back to the Six Human Needs. Robbins believes these needs are fundamental to every person and shape how we live our lives. As these needs inform our goals, desires, values, morals and dreams they are important to understand first as:

“your top need [aka driving force] – certainty, significance, variety, love/connection, growth or contribution – affects every decision you make. Lack of awareness about your own needs can leave you with a false sense of purpose – one that is actually based on others’ expectations.”

I’m honestly skeptical, but Robbins is an expert in self-development so I will trust him (for now).

Discovering my driving force

Conveniently, Robbins has created a quiz to discover your driving force. Unsurprisingly my driving force is growth, again confirming the first thing I ever shared with you (and explaining why I started this post in the way I did). I’ve long understood my personality is the definition of nerd, and yet, I don’t understand how this is linked to my purpose. This is particularly relevant as I completely remove my professional self, as I tend to associate learning and knowledge with work, which on reflection is probably how I ended up here…

If I were to take this theory and apply it literally, then perhaps this blog and encouraging others to discover their authentic self is my life purpose? Technically, I’m learning new skills and knowledge and part of finding your purpose means:

  • understanding and incorporating your strengths – 10/10 on this one;
  • sharing your purpose with others – does a public blog documenting my progress count…?; and
  • reaching a state of flow – I was so engrossed writing this article I missed a comedy show I was really excited about…

I’m going to ruminate on this, and next consider the Japanese concept of Ikigai. I also need to start thinking about my core values because apparently they are important (*eyeroll*).

For those joining me, here are the resources which got me to this point:

Your turn…

Let me know in the comments:

  1. What is your driving force? Do you think it’s accurate?
  2. If you found your life purpose, what is it and how did you discover it?
  3. What ‘find your purpose’ techniques should I try next?
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