3 Ways to Clarify Your Life Purpose, Even if You Don’t Know What You Want to Do

Have you ever thought to yourself,

“I wish someone would just tell me what my life purpose is so I can make choices without questioning myself!”?

The CDC reports that only 25% of American adults have a clear sense of purpose. Even if you’ve done a ton of personal growth work and been in therapy for years, you still might struggle to find that undeniable sense of being here for a reason. You are bombarded every day with thousands of possibilities, and headlines saying you’ve been doing “x, y, and z” wrong all your life. How could you possibly know what you’re really here to do?

Here are three ways I work with clients to clarify their life purpose so they can live with more confidence and ease:

1. Shift your mindset from purpose as a thing you’re here to DO to a way you’re here to BE. There can only ever be one you. Lots of people can work on the same epic task (ending world hunger, bringing literacy to all children, getting plastic out of the ocean) and lots of people can have the same local task (parenting their children well, helping their community be more resilient, writing the next great novel) but only you can do it the way only you can do it! If you’re still looking for a “thing to do” you might be looking forever, because you might be here to do a lot of things, as only you can do them.

2. Consider what you were obsessed with as a child. I really wanted to be an astronaut—then I learned that astronauts get motion sick, which was a major challenge I already experienced. So, alas, my dreams were dashed…but not really. My dream of exploring new frontiers, of understanding the vastness of the universe and our place in it, of imagining and living into the impossible—all of that is achieved through my work with Processwork, dreamwork, bodywork, and spiritual exploration. If I let go of the technical aspects of my childhood obsession (I’ll never fly to the physical moon) and get to the essential nature of it, I find many aspects of my purpose are already present in my desire to explore, dream, and expand my consciousness!

3. Work with your actual childhood dream, the first one you remember having during sleep. Carl Jung, whose work is the foundation of Processwork, emphasized a person’s earliest childhood dream as a roadmap to their greatest challenges and gifts. Many Indigenous cultures do this as well, looking to the dreams reported by children as clues to that child’s destiny. I’ve been analyzing my earliest childhood dream for over 20 years and I still glean new information every time I work on it! Even if you don’t recall a dream, you can work with your earliest memory in the same way and get lots of clues for what your purpose might be. And don’t worry if your earliest dream or memory is strange or scary; that’s very common, normal, and not a bad sign at all if you know how to work with dreams!

If you’re struggling with what you’re here to do, expand your awareness beyond a task, project, job, or title and get to the essence of your way of BEING in the world. This will guide you every step of the way, regardless of what you choose to do! And check out my Life Purpose Masterclass if you want to go deeper.