Tag: Dreams

How To Discover Your Purpose In Life

by Bright Osadiaye, posted in Health & Well-Being, Personal Development
Man and Woman Holding Hand Walking Beside Body of Water during Sunset
Source: Asad Photo Maldives on pexels.com

How to find or how to discover your purpose in life. It sounds simple, but a lot of people are struggling to do it. Why is it important to have a strong purpose in life? Why are people not getting it?

Let us start with a great quote from Napoleon Hill.

Your success in life starts with a clear purpose in life. If you don’t have a clear purpose in life, it means you don’t know what you want from life. It means you don’t know how to get what you want from life. It means you don’t even know how to get to where you are going in life.

Napoleon Hill famously said, “Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement, and its lack is the stumbling block for ninety-eight out of every hundred people simply because they never really define their goals and start toward them.”

To be successful life, you must first define what you want from life. You must have a clear reason why you are here on earth. But if you don’t define what you want, how can you get there?

You have to know what you are looking for, and do everything you can to get it done. Don’t just talk about what you want, work to get it done.

Napoleon Hill said, “Definiteness is the major difference between a scientist and a drifter.” If you continue to change your mind, if you don’t take action to change your life, you are planning to fail. You have to have a clear plan if you are to move forward in life. As the saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” In order to stop that, you must stick to your goals, your plans, your purpose, and your dreams.

People fail in life because they don’t have a clear purpose. They talk about what they want, but they don’t take action to make their talk a reality. Know this: nothing will change unless you change. Your life will be the same unless you change. To succeed in life, you need to be clear about what you want to accomplish in life. If you know what you want, the job is half done.

Why Purpose Matters

  1. Purpose will inspire you to pursue your goals in life
  2. Your purpose is the real you. It represents your identity
  3. Purpose helps you separate your job from who you really are
  4. Purpose is a motivator
  5. Purpose is your resource center.
  6. Purpose is your lens. You see the world through your purpose.
  7. Purpose gives you strengths to face anything in life
  8. You express your values through your purpose.

To find your purpose in life, here are some suggestions for you to explore:

  • Follow your passion. If you really want to find your purpose in life, it is time to start doing that thing you have always been talking about. It is not going to be easy, but it is better than not trying it
  • Focus on one thing at a time. If you want to explore your purpose in life, it will serve you well if you can focus on one thing at a time. Because if you focus on so many things at the same time, you won’t really understand any of them. Your goal is to know what you want in life, not to play with your time.
  • Don’t let people decide for you. If you allow this to happen, you will never find your purpose in life. Why? Because whatever you end up doing does not represent who you are. If you really want to find your purpose in life, be in control of your life. If you delegate your life to someone else, you will live someone else’s dreams. Do you want to do that?
  • Concentrate on what you are doing right now. It could be that you are already working in your God given career. Whatever it is that you are doing right now, see if you can make it better to fit your purpose in life. If not, move on.
  • Don’t dwell in the past. We all make mistakes. Don’t let your yesterday’s mistakes steal your life away from you. Yesterday is gone. Focus on today, not on yesterday. If you waste your time on yesterday’s problems, you will miss today’s opportunities. If you don’t want your tomorrow to be better than today, focus on what you are doing right now. Your future will be better.
  • Listen to your inner director. If you want the real answers that you have been looking for, look inside for solutions to finding your purpose in life. People fail because they look outside for solutions. If you want to find your purpose in life, look inside, not outside.

Find your purpose in life, stick to it, and make it a reality.

You Cannot Focus Without A Vision

by Bright Osadiaye, posted in Health & Well-Being, Personal Development
Woman Using Umbrella With Lights
Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com

In order to focus, you have to set a clear goal for yourself. Without a clear and solid goal, focus cannot happen. You cannot focus on anything. You need a clear goal to be able to focus on something. If you don’t have a goal, a vision, a dream, how can you focus? It is impossible.

You cannot focus without a vision. Sometimes it is hard to remain focused on our goals. We are distracted by our own thoughts, the society, our friends, technology, and/or our own relatives. If you allow them, they can distract you from reaching your goals. How? They can talk you out of your dream. They will give you one trillion reasons why your dream is not going to work. Some will say it to your face. Others will say it behind your back. Remember, they are irrelevant. What is relevant is what you think and say about yourself.

Before we continue, let us look at what great minds have said about “The Power of Focus.”

Kelvin Harrington said, “Get clear on what gives your life value, and what your time is worth.” Source: Entrepreneur.com/ 19/11/2017

James Allen said, “The vision that you glorify in your mind, the idea that you enthrone in your heart- this you will build your life by, this you become.”

Dorothea Brande put it this way, “Envisioning the end is enough to put the means in motion.”

If you want to really focus on your life, your career, your personal and professional development, you need to change your mindset. You need to change your mindset from negative to positive, from impossible to possible, from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’, from ‘it is too hard’ to ‘it is easy,’ from wrong to right. You need a change of mindset. Always focus on what you can do, not on what you cannot do. It is easier for people to see what is wrong than to see what is right in people. That is who we are. For example, if you have a major presentation to do tomorrow, instead of crying the whole night, instead of focusing on what can go wrong; focus on what can go right, focus on how you want to do your presentation. Go into your presentation with a positive mindset, and you will do well.

Why is Focus so critical to our personal and professional success?

  • Focus keeps you grounded.
  • Focus helps you concentrate on what is important, not on what is urgent.
  • Focus helps you ignore what is irrelevant.

So, how do we focus on what is important, not on what is urgent?

Here are some strategies that will help you focus on what is important in your life:

  1. Set your personal and professional goals, and follow through. You will achieve your goals only if you follow through. Do not quit. Stick to your goals.
  2. Know your strengths and weaknesses. It is unrealistic to focus on what you don’t know. You will not do so well at it. But if you focus on what you are really good at, you will do very well.
  3. Pay attention to details. The secret to success is to see what others do not see. You can only see what others ignore if you pay attention to details.
  4. Do one thing at a time. Do not spread yourself too thin. Focus on what is important, not on what is urgent. What is urgent is not always what is important. To get the results that you want, you need to focus on what is important.
  5. Learn how to say ‘no’ to assignments that will not help you reach your goals- short-term and long-term. Don’t take on what you can deliver. Don’t take on assignments that are more than what you know how to do. Take on assignments that are important, not on the ones that are urgent.
  6. Write down your dreams. Write down your goals. Revisit them on a daily basis. It is not enough to just write them down. You need to visit and think about them every day. Make it a habit. It will become a habit.
  7. Ask yourself great questions. Ask yourself these three questions: 1) What do I want for myself? 2) How am I going to get it done? 3) What will it take for me to reach my destination?
  8. Motivation, motivation, motivation. When the journey gets really tough, you are the only one to motivate yourself. You know how far you are going to travel to reach your goal. You are so important to yourself, because the real motivation is from inside you, not from outside you.

Finally, if you want to achieve the unbelievable, you need to focus on what is important, not on what is urgent.