A life purpose! This is a phrase that we come across very often. Personally, I never used to give much thought to it. It can be very confusing to think about, I mean what is even a life purpose and how in the world are we supposed to know what it is and make goals around it? Let me simplify it for you.

Firstly, a life purpose is a meaning behind your life, the reason YOU exist on this earth and what centrally motivates you to get up every morning. It might sound absurd to even think of how you get to the point where you figure this out for yourself, I mean we're only human. Surprisingly, it's not as difficult as we may think. More often than not, the reason why so many people are oblivious to their life purpose or their goals is that they are not self-aware. They lack knowledge of who they are: SELF!. However, there are different ways in which we can know ourselves and find out more about what we are really doing here on earth!

As crazy as this may sound, the surest way to do this is to talk to yourself more. Getting to know yourself is the same way as getting to know someone else. Talk to yourself, ask yourself some questions. What are the things that come easy to you? What do you do seamlessly? What activity do you participate in that you barely struggle to do? Find the activities that you are passionate about and do them more. This not only makes you more skilled but also makes you happier. It could be anything. 

Invest in yourself. If you enjoy hiking, invest some money into that and go climb some mountains. Be consistent and keep at it. You'll find yourself happier and your outlook on life will be more positive since this is something that you love to do. Find more time to go and do the things that you get lost in doing and to do the things you liked to do as a child. I say this because the pressures of doing specific things were way less when we were younger. We were more open to what life gave to us. Therefore, dig deep into yourself and remember what it was you like to do in your childhood and do it. 

A life purpose is important because it motivates you and keeps you going since you have a number of things that you are working towards. The reason why you will need to tap into your inner self is that this self-knowledge will help you know what you would want to pursue in life and what you would like to aim for. For example, a person may discover that they find playing musical instruments easy and enjoyable. They may want to do this throughout their lives and become big musicians in the future. If their life path is inspired by their own personal interests and personality types, they will find life fulfilling and their goals will look possible to achieve.

 Lastly, ask yourself, how would you want to be remembered? Wouldn't you want to be remembered for succeeding in something that you were happy doing? Something that reflected who you really were as a person? Find that something and get moving. 

I am 20yrs-old and still finding out what I may be doing on earth. What also helped me a lot in the self-awareness is the career readiness course!  CAREER AND COLLEGE READINESS COURSE is an online transitional course for youth leaving high school into life after high school. The course is designed to impart skills to anyone aspiring to join tertiary education or any post-secondary training locally or internationally and other post-high school options available. It is able to answer questions like; Who am I? What next after high school?  What are the different types of post-high school options? What is College success? What if I don't go to college? The course takes Four (4) Weeks and has interactive activities to enrich your learning experiences. It helped me discover unlimited possibilities!

Sign up for the course here:
 

Mugure Waithaka is a 1st-year student taking an English and Creative Writing course.