An exercise on discovering your life's purpose.

Steve Pavlina is a rad personal development blogger who has a book out called "Personal Development for Smart People".



Pavlina's blogging goes to extremes to test personal development techniques on how to be healthier and more productive and stop procrastinating. The techniques he attempts include diet, time management, exercise, extreme sleep patterns like polyphasic sleep, meditation, philosophy and a plethora of other helpful subjects. I've been reading his blog for a few years, and among other posts, this is one on finding your life purpose that really stuck with me:

An excerpt from Steve Pavlina's Blog:

"Here’s what to do:

1. Take out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I prefer the latter because it’s faster).
2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a counselor or an engineer or a bodybuilder. To some people this exercise will make perfect sense. To others it will seem utterly stupid. Usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life is. The false answers will come from your mind and your memories. But when the true answer finally arrives, it will feel like it’s coming to you from a different source entirely."

There is a bit more to the technique than that, and a lot more to the blog, but I would suggest checking out some of his writing; he has a unique point of view and an interesting style. His experiments don't always turn out to be helpful to him, but he relays the effects honestly, and through his accounts I am able to decide if I want to give a development technique a shot. Browse his blog; maybe he'll be able to help you, too.