“The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.” - William James

Ever had one of those moments where there's a slow motion montage as you catch yourself in a place or a situation you'd never imagined you'd find yourself? And the questions that runs through your head is: “What am I doing with my life?”

And then you thought: "There's got to be more to life than this!?!"

Maybe at times you’ve wished life came with an owner’s manual that could show you exactly where you are, where you are going to end up, and how all the parts work together to serve a purpose.

Here are some things that they don't tell you about growing up, what makes you special, how to discover your life purpose, and what it means to be happy:

1. On the way to finding yourself and discovering your life purpose, you will feel completely lost. Before you started questioning things, everything made sense. Now that you’re curious about the meaning of life, things have started making less and less sense. The only way to find yourself is to completely lose your way.

2. When you are lost, the things that worked for you once, will stop working for you. Ever heard the expression, "Jump and the net will appear"? The real story goes a bit more like this: as you jump from the cliff, take the leap of faith, and go for it ... you trip, fall, stumble, scuff up your elbows, cut up your hands, grasp, clutch, and scream on the way down, wondering if you're going to survive the fear of the fall. But you will.

3. You will have to find a new way. Your way. You will try other's ways, they won't work for you. You will find your way, the way that is meant for you. Uniquely designed for you. Only you can find this way.

4. People with seemingly good advice and 10-step strategies to happiness and success are not to be trusted. Chances are, their overnight success story was predicated by years of hard work, lots of self discovery, and most likely a trip or fall from the cliff before they put together their very neat strategy on how to avoid the pitfalls of taking the leap of faith. Chances are, you too will have a great success strategy by the time you “make it” but you won’t be able to short step dedication, focus, and the messy beauty of the process of self-discovery.

5. Do not expect perfection. The expectation of perfection, of total security, of knowing all things before they happen, and how your life will unfold, if achieved, would create a state of stagnancy beyond which future growth would not be possible.

6. True wealth is an absolute knowing that everything you need is within you. How we become really wealthy is different for each and everyone one of us. How we define our own personal wealth is incredibly important to spend time considering so that when it comes to material wealth, we will be sure we are in alignment with our own personal truth.

7. The ability to reframe failure and not take yourself so seriously will be exactly what propels you into living a more extraordinary life. It will be wha sets you apart from the rest.

8. Arriving at your destination is not the point. You will come to learn that fulfillment, life purpose, and happiness is in WHO YOU BECOME as a result of following your heart and discovering your abilities, strengths, and true desires along the way. Through this process, you will automatically fulfill your unique destiny, that which you and only you were meant to fulfill in the first place.

___________________________________

Chloë Rain is The Human Experience Artist, CEO & Founder of Explore Deeply™: a resource for inspiration, business virtuosity, & self mastery. This post was originally shared on ExploreDeeply where Chloë shares inspiration on the search to find true love, life purpose, and a reason to get out of bed in the morning. For more inspiration and to like Explore Deeply, go here

Begin your day feeling grounded and inspired.

A free 30-day email series where we share the most impactful stories and ideas that have helped us on our journey to live a more meaningful life.

✌️ Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

Welcome to Holstee

Living with intention is an ongoing practice, not a destination. Inspired by this, we’ve created a range of products to help you on your journey to live both fully and mindfully, including the Holstee Membership, Reflection Cards, and our recently-launched Reflection.app.

product-image

This article is part of our series on the theme of .

EXPLORE →

Shop Holstee

product-image product-image product-image

Inspiration and tools to help you live a more meaningful life.

VISIT THE SHOP →