This is Optimal Living Daily, Episode 1793, Live On Purpose by Leo Babouta of ZenHabits.net and I'm Justin Molick here every single day of the year including weekends and holidays, bringing some positive messages to you to brighten your day covering personal development or self-help how to live a better life and a lot more. It's always with permission from the authors or websites, just hit the subscribe button to get new episodes for free. Today's post being from one of the very first authors I started narrating five years ago, Leo Babouta, and I still haven't run out of content from him, so let's get right to it and start optimizing your life. Live On Purpose by Leo Babouta of Zen Habits.net.
Quote, Our purpose here on Earth to manifest the very nature of our spirit, which is touched by the spirit of God. Rumi, so often we live our lives drifting, getting by, trying to find comfort and pleasure, doing what we need to do, doing things out of habit, getting lost in the busy work, going through the motions, getting caught up in our thoughts, getting lost in distractions, trying to stick to something but then reverting to habitual patterns, dealing with one crisis after another, putting out fires and sweeping out messes, dealing with tiredness and stress and depression and anxiety, trying to keep our heads above water, trying to make ends meet, falling behind and getting overwhelmed, struggling and not wanting to face our problems, getting mired in a pit of never-ending tasks, losing our days and weeks because they all blend together. This is the human condition and it is beautiful. But what would it be like to live with purpose, to have meaning in the work that we do and to structure our lives with that purpose in mind and with the most meaningful relationships and activities?
What would it be like to live on purpose, to have intention to our actions, have a purpose to drive us, to put everything we have into everything we do? The more we live on purpose and do our best in every single thing we do, the more meaningful our lives will be. Let's explore this idea of living on purpose, getting clarity on your purpose. Not everyone is walking around saying, yep, I know exactly what my purpose is in life.
In fact, most people don't ask the question and if they do, they might not believe there is such a thing as purpose. That's because there isn't inherently a purpose in our lives. We have to create it. If we don't, our actions feel drifting and meaningless.
So how do we figure out that purpose is a matter of creating an inquiry and then listening, then putting into action. This is worth doing, by the way, even if you feel you have some idea of your purpose. We'll get to the inquiry in a moment, but this process looks like this. Number one, start asking some questions, inquiry, that opens us to thinking about what is meaningful to us.
See the next section. This is about opening to inquiry and seeing what comes up. Number two, start listening. This is the part that many people skip.
They might ask the questions, but then not really feel they're coming up with meaningful answers. That's because we have to listen in silence and solitude. So go out in nature and walk in silence, no music or podcasts or audiobooks, or sit in silence. Ask the following questions.
Listen to what comes up. Listen some more. Ask some more. It's like having a dialogue with God or the universe or your inner consciousness.
Ask and listen, speak, and see what comes out. Number three, take action to get clarity. Many people make the mistake of thinking they need clarity before they can put it into action, but it's actually the reverse of how it works. You get an idea, but no real clarity, then you try it out and see how it works.
Does it feel meaningful? Which parts of it scare you? What do you need to change in order to make it happen? You might find that it's not for you and you need to try something else out, or that something related to your original idea is actually closer to your purpose.
It's an exploration. And through this exploration, you start to get some clarity. This isn't a one-off process, actually. It's an ongoing one of getting more and more clarity.
So even if you think you are pretty close to your purpose, keep this process going. It might never end. I don't know yet. The purpose inquiry.
There's no right way to do this process of inquiry, except to turn toward the questions and the possibilities. Some questions to start you on the process. What people have you helped in your work may the work feel more meaningful than usual. What people have problems that really speak to your heart, that move you to want to help.
What have you done in your life that felt most meaningful? It doesn't have to be around work. What books have you read, videos watched, courses taken that really lit you up. One of you worked with people who really lit you up, who was inspired you the most, who have you inspired.
Again, these are just to get you started. Ask questions like this that open you to feel meaning, that open you to new ways of seeing things. Then go out in silence and listen. Journal.
Listen some more. Talk to yourself, more God or the universe. Then listen to yourself, God or the universe. See what comes up.
Then take action. Living on purpose. Once you have a little clarity, you don't need very much. You can take some action.
Help one person. Help another. Then another. Write about what you learned helping them.
Create something for someone. Give that creation to a few others. Launch something. Be a part of something.
Start something new. Each day, ask what one thing you could do to live your purpose out. Eventually, you start to have a bigger vision for what you can do with this purpose. Challenge yourself to make it even bigger.
Now bring that vision into your daily life. Number one, bring your bigger vision into smaller steps until you have a purposeful task to do today. Number two, structure your life so that you are creating the space for the purpose. Number three, bring practices to your life that help you work with habitual patterns that get in the way of purposeful work.
Patterns like procrastination, distraction, overcommitting, etc. Number four, structure your life to support this purposeful work. Meditation, eating, fitness, reading to get you to the most clear, inspired place you can get to. Number five, do every single activity, the absolute best you can.
This doesn't mean exhausting yourself, but doing each thing with full intention and care instead of half doing it as many of us are prone to doing it. If you can bring these five elements into your life, you are living on purpose. You just listen to the post titled Live on Purpose by Leo Babouta of Zen Habits on that. I'm constantly thinking about how to optimize my health, what supplements to take, hours of sleep, what my diet should focus on.
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Thank you to Leo. Great questions to write down and ask yourself. By the way, we have similar prompts in the optimal living daily workbook available by preorder with limited quantities. Come by oldpodcast.com slash shop to learn more about that.
It's a common struggle I see among listeners of this show. What's my purpose? How do I find that purpose? All of those types of questions.
Super common. It's going to take exactly what he said if you want to discover these things. Questions, lots of them. Then listening, which can be part of writing it down, journaling, and then action.
You need all three. But I'm here to help you along the way if that struggle for you as one of the reasons this podcast exists. So keep at it. Thank you for listening and being here, even on the weekends.
And thank you for subscribing to the show and sharing it with others. Thanks to you that this podcast can keep going. Have a great rest of your day. I'll be back tomorrow.
As usual, we're your optimal life. Oh, wait.