Developing a Personal Philosophy, Part III: Purpose

This post is the second post of a three part series on creating your own Personal Philosophy. To read the first part, Six Words / One Word, click here. To read the second part, Values, click here.

“Because a true sense of purpose is deeply emotional, it serves as a compass to guide us to act in a way completely consistent with our values and beliefs.”

Simon Sinek 

I have always had a sense of what my purpose was, but I never really knew how to express it, or rather that I was expressing it. This blog stems from part of my purpose, to create beauty and connect people. 

After looking over my Six Words / One Word, my Values, and asking myself the following questions, writing the answers in my journal, my purpose surfaced and was able to be verbalized:

  1. What do I want to be known for?
  2. How do I want people to remember me?
  3. What is my personal identity (How I internally see myself. What makes me unique) vs. my social identity (The group I am in or identity with. The way I am perceived. The boxes I check)?
  4. How do I wish others treated me or what do I feel others misunderstand about me?
  5. How do I want to show up in the world?

My Purpose
– To help others feel connected, heard, and like they belong (this speaks to my giving others what I most wanted from others)
– To create beauty / beautiful things

I consider beauty to not only be visually pleasing things, like art or a corner in my home, but also to be kindness, and love (like one of my leading values (LINK)), even something as simple as a smile is beauty to me, and I like to make others smile. 

How I interact with others, my expressions, what I am drawn to, how I dress, are all my expressions of my purpose, there are many tell tale signs of it if you know what to look for.

But where ones purpose really makes a difference is when it is recognized, owned, and put to use in the world. One of the things that makes me the most happy is overhearing someone talking about how I brought a group of people together, make people feel comfortable and heard, or getting a comment or email through my blog or Instagram telling me how I inspired someone to pick up a journal to create or to work through a tough part of their story. I share my art and my own story to help inspire others and to help bring beauty and kindness to the world. It may not be a grand purpose compared to some, but it is mine, and when I am expressing it everything just feels right. 

A couple years ago, I had the opportunity to have a soul reading. I had no idea what to expect but thought it would be interesting and fun. I was blown away by what I was told. The woman doing my reading wrote down all that came to her and gave me all the pages, but the last paragraph, on the last page (shown in the photo below) has stayed with me. 

She wrote that I am here to create beauty with my fingers (creating miniature works of art) and my heart. 

I was amazed at how inline her words were with my own declaration of my purpose! I always tend to work small too, so that was on point as well.

Pulling it All Together

I bet now that you have done all three parts you start to see some connections between your Six Words / One Word, your Values, and your purpose. These pieces put together create your own unique personal philosophy

MY SIX WORDS / ONE WORD
1. Creative 2. Kind 3. Organized 4. Authentic 5. Esoteric 6. Over-thinker / 1. Love

MY VALUES
Authenticity: Includes honesty and truth Beauty: For me, this includes creativity and love Goodness: Includes empathy, compassions, kindness, and love (again) Connection: Includes belonging, connecting people, unity Growth: Includes wisdom, and Courage

MY PURPOSE
– To help others feel connected and like they belong
– To create beauty / beautiful things

MY THEMES
Love, Creativity, and Kindness (beauty), Authenticity, Connection

So I know that to be content I need to have these things in my everyday life. Maybe it’s not realistic to expect to have each one every single day, but a good mix of them most days is the key to a joyful life for me. 

Do you know what your purpose is? If not, I encourage you to take some time and answer the questions above to try and get it out, because it is in there, it just may need a little help to come fully out.