What is your superpower's purpose?

Purpose | Part 2 | 9 exercises to help you find out

Discovering your purpose

My last post addressed the “why?” for discovering a changemaker’s purpose. I illustrated the compounding value of purpose (aka mission, calling, or mandate) on the example of Kamala Harris, the US Democratic Party’s nominee for President. In this post, I share 9 practical ways of discovering one’s purpose. See if they let you tap into the superpowers of your loved ones, teams, and communities.

I finished my last post with a question:

If I could magically strip you of all hang-ups, what would you want to say?  To show?  What would you want the world to heed? To know? And to do with that awareness?

The answers tend to start with, “If there was one thing I could make this world believe, it would be,” “If I could remove one problem from this world, it would be,” or “If only I could show the world that…”

Today, I show you 9 converging paths to discovering your purpose. Push yourself to answer, “Why is that?”, and it may also come out clad in your origin story. In case it helps you, I have shared mine.

9 converging paths to your purpose

Image credit: Kanenori

I have converted into exercises several pathways I have explored.  They do all converge, so you are welcome to take as few or as many as you need to trust the outcome. 

As important as the pathways themselves are three aspects of this journey. 

1. This is not a purely a left-brain journey.  You must sink into emotion.  Be prepared to go deeper than you have gone before and to feel exposed, perhaps even a bit disoriented.  Like you need a minute.  Or a few.  Or a walk.  To write or paint or make music.  To tell a friend or to keep it to yourself for now. 

   You will know that you have shown up fully for discovering your purpose if the outcome seems to recast your life in a new light and you need time to adjust.

2. It is important to create the right environment for this work.  Making time matters, even if it is a long bath or a few dog walks.  There is a reason why “aha” moments — when you suddenly realize what was previously elusive — happen when you don’t expect them, such as in the shower, on a run, on a walk home, or during a coaching session.  Look at it another way:  they happen when you have the space to digest them. 

   While finding a way to protect your process from interruptions may seem challenging, doing this in bits and drabs may make it harder than it needs to be.

3. Get whatever help you need for this.  Life’s big truths seem to know that we’re too fragile to be sprung upon.