FindingPurpose

Ask Ben: How do I Figure Out My Path in Life?

Ask Ben: How do I Figure Out My Path in Life?

There's a variety of reader and listener questions lately, so I thought it would be fun to share a recent exchange I had with a top performer who asked a great question. 

Here's the original question:

"My name is Dillon, I am a young college student from Utah.  I am someone who is trying figure out what to do with their life.  I am newly married and want to do the best I can for the future of my family.  If you have any advice, I would love to hear it."

 

My Answer:

It's important to understand that intellectually, you will never understand your "path in life" or "purpose." Your mind is in a state of constant motion (like the ocean) and will never let you settle on a singular purpose. Today you may feel like you want to be an author, tomorrow an entrepreneur, the day after that an investment banker. This is entirely normal, and every top performer in the history of the modern world has struggled with this.

Instead, you must embrace the constantly changing nature of your mind. The way you do this is through a formal mediation practice where every day you sit down, focus on your breath and feel into your purpose. If you do this with enough consistency and intentionality, you'll feel pulled to certain subjects or fields of study. You won't be able to explain your attraction to these subjects. Instead, you'll feel an unexplainable visceral connection.

The Secret To Courageous Living Discovered by "The Real Indiana Jones"

The Secret To Courageous Living Discovered by "The Real Indiana Jones"

At some point between 18 and 50, you stop, look around and ask yourself: “Is THIS it?"

You work all day doing pointless work in an uninspiring job. You sit in infuriating bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic. You drive to your local grocery store with the sterile fluorescent lights. You return home to spend a few hours mindlessly surfing the net - too tired to do the things that would set your life in motion. The grand vision of your life seems like a distant fantasy.

As a culture, we've become complacent to work a mediocre job, drive a mediocre car, return to a mediocre home, eat mediocre food, have mediocre relationships, watch mediocre shows on Netflix, lay in mediocre bed where we buy mediocre products on Amazon, binge internet surf on mediocre social media and get mediocre sleep. We wake up only to do the same mediocre routine again and again.

There are too many mediocre things. Your life experience should not be one of them.

How To Quit Your Job, Find Your Purpose, Become The Next Steve Jobs, And Start A Revolution!

How To Quit Your Job, Find Your Purpose, Become The Next Steve Jobs, And Start A Revolution!

Admit it! You want to quit your job and become the next Steve Jobs.

You've imagined slamming down your resignation letter on your boss's desk, running over to Apple headquarters, slipping on a black turtleneck and pulling the next "i" product out of your pocket to a crowd of screaming Apple fans!

Or... maybe you haven't.

The point is, I talk with dozens of people each week who tell me their dreams. They want to build their own business, travel the world, start a revolution, create the next wave of consumer technology or cure degenerative diseases. "The Dream" of just climbing the corporate ladder, getting intoxicated on the weekends and retiring at 65 is dead. We don't want that anymore.

We feel like we're destined for something bigger and we are driven by something else. Our peers think were crazy and we feel awkward talking about our dreams to "normal people". 

Other generations really don't get it -- they are completely driven by top line sales revenue, business growth and personal financial gain...

 

WE ARE DRIVEN BY PURPOSE.