7 Easily Doable Actions That Get You Closer to Your Purpose

Live the life you must.

People who tell you super difficult and complicated methods to live a happier life are lying to you.

Happiness is supposed to be our state of being naturally. Not always, because shit happens — but most of the time.

And it’s not the big events that bring in big changes.

It’s the little acts and events that bring about big changes. Think: a lesson you learnt from your grandparent growing up that you’ll never forget.

See, that’s what I’m talking about.

Here are seven acts that’ll help you get closer to your purpose. It’s time for you be happy more often.

“The future depends on what you do today.” — Mahatma Gandhi

1. The Method of Elimination

When I quit my job at 24, people told me they were so happy I know what I want from life. The truth is, I don’t know what I want.

But I know what I don’t want, which was:

slow increments and promotions
8 hours of working
uninspiring work
licking a$$
So I knew what I have to let go of, and then figure out later what I want to attain.

This is an underrated method for finding what you want.

To do

Write the things you don’t want in whatever area you’re trying to improve. Work on letting go of whatever you can, and see where that takes you.

2. Learn to Learn

In the Indian education system, we ‘study’ to puke out all that we learn for an exam and forget about it after that.

I don’t know about how stuff works in your country, but a trend I notice is that not everybody learns to learn. They learn with an ulterior motive (marks, university, etc), which is okay and essential as its how the systems of our society work.

But just once, learn to actually try your hand at something new to see where that takes you. Learn for the joy of learning because it’s so much fun.

And maybe that’ll help you get closer to where you should be.

To do

Find a fun skill that interests you and learn it. There are plenty of resources online, so no excuses.

3. How Can You Be of Service?

The biggest lesson I’ve learnt in 9 months of being self-employed is that contentment comes from adding value to other people’s lives.

When you solve a problem and improve people’s lives, that will make your soul light up like never before.

And yes, that makes money too.

The reason I create free products or write so much is for this reason. The only reason I started my cohort-based programme was also because I saw the impact it made.

Think of all big businesses. They worked on solving a problem and are reaping its benefits.

This will also help you get closer to your ikigai.

To do

The famous Japanese philosophy of Ikigai prompts us the answer four questions to get closer to our purpose:

What is something you’re good at?
What is something the world can use?
What is something you love?
Lastly, can you get paid for it?

While this itself is a holistic method of finding your purpose, I mention it here to give you a ‘service’ lens to it.

4. YouTube is Free

Most answers to your questions already exist on the internet.

Whatever problem you’re facing, it’s likely that somebody, at some point, has experienced it before. And they’ve put that information for you to learn from.

Want to

start a side hustle?
learn a skill?
know more about an industry?
The information is already there, and free on YouTube. You have no excuses for not educating yourself about it and not feeding the answers to your curiosity.

I binge watch Ali Abdaal’s channel all the time because it helps me accelerate my journey as a creator.

To do

Hop onto channels that are thriving in the areas you’re interested in. Learn and shape yourself.

5. Learn From the Greatest People on Earth

Some of the wisest philosophers, wealthiest individuals, and most successful businessmen have let out their secrets in their books.

There’s literally not an easier way to access their brain.

And they don’t even have to be alive, so you can learn from anybody who’s lived.

If you don’t like to read, listen to audiobooks. If you don’t have time, study summaries. But these are easily accessible resources you can tap into to improve your life.

To do

Read.

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri

6. Steal From Others

What an underrated hack!

I’m lazy, so I depend on this. There’s no point reinventing a wheel that’s already there.

Chances are that whatever you aspire to be/do, somebody has already done it or is close to it. Why do you want to do it from scratch when you can learn from them?

Time is finite, remember that.

To do

Pick out 3 people you aspire to be like. Study their life and their journey, and learn from their failures so you can avoid those mistakes.

Voila! You’re going to get closer to where you want to be.

7. Show Up for 100 Days

If you do something for 100 days, it’s a good enough time to figure out if you really enjoy it.

When the bat virus hit, I tried coding with dreams of getting a good job as it’s a highly paid skill. I sucked at it.

I started with what they say is the easiest language, yet I was terrible at it.

100 days is a great way to commit to yourself by showing up and seeing if you actually enjoy what you’re putting yourself into. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s probably not where you’re meant to be.

To do

Give it some time to see how you feel.

Not the results, just how you feel.

Lastly

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” — Paulo Coelho

I can vouch for how great life feels when you get closer to your purpose. It feels meaningful; you feel happier.

Work to know it, it’s better late than never because you don’t get to live this life again.

Here are the seven actions we discussed:

Use the method of elimination
Learn to learn
How can you be of service?
YouTube is free
Read more
Steal from others
Show up for 100 days

I wish you to live on the brighter and happier side because you deserve it.

CONTRIBUTED BY Niharikaa Kaur Sodhi

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