For one section in my upcoming book, I’m exploring the concept of purpose, living on purpose, and how to discover and live out your purpose.
I’d love to get your input. What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “find your purpose”? Leave a comment or shoot me an email (crystal @ moneysavingmom.com) with whatever comes to mind. There are no right or wrong answers!
Thanks so much! And remember that all comments and emails you submit may be published in my book so if you’re not comfortable with that or would prefer to remain anonymous, please let me know when submitting your comment.
Thank you SO much for your help with this book project! I am thrilled with how it’s coming together and cannot wait to share the finished product with you! It’s supposed to be out in bookstores November 2015. Yay!
Bethany says
Hebrews 12:1-2 🙂
Trixie says
The phrase “find your purpose” asks me this question:
What is the underlying reason behind all that I do?
I do many things in this life, many of them routine and mundane, but ultimately all that I do must in some way support my purpose, which is to glorify God.
Judy says
I think if you keep God first in your life you will won’t even have to look for your purpose in life.
Bethany says
I think about searching for what God made me for. To be honest, I feel like I often struggle with figuring this out. They say that God makes this clear for us in scripture and through His guidance, but it often feels like a mystery to me. I think I make it harder than I should, so it’s something I really want to learn about. Thanks for asking!
Catherine says
Finding Your Purpose to me means finding what I am meant to do in this world. It is a daunting idea, and sometimes overwhelms me. I ask for God’s guidance and I ask for the wisdom to let experiences flow through me and guide me. For me, I believe that the most significant part of it will be in helping others; the hungry, the orphans, the persecuted. At the end of the day, I hope very much that my children feel fulfilled and able to find their purposes.
Steph @ From the Burbs to the Boonies says
I wonder about the role God has set aside for me and what I can do to help others, to make a difference in their lives, to further His kingdom. For me it almost always involves children, my son first and then volunteering to help others.
Theresa L says
To me, “finding your purpose” means finding that thing that gets you excited to get out of bed in the morning, that thing you just KNOW you were meant to do with your life.
Rebekah Marks says
My first thought at that question is the memory of a discussion with an acquaintance, who is a wife and mother, commenting that she just didn’t know what to do in life. I was dumbfounded at the time that she wasn’t seeing her husband and children as her mission. Serving them would have been a good starting point.
Whether or not I mistook the meaning in her comment, it stands that fulfilling service to our husbands and children is a priority over a fulfilling career, and that it can take on many different forms from one home to another.
Melissa says
What would be the the main contribution their life would make to the world. So, for one person it might be helping children out of foster care, and another would be beautifying people’s lives with their music etc…
Suzanne C says
There are a lot of different applications for the phrase ‘find your purpose’. It can be asked, and answered, on so many levels. There’s the big, exetential question so many of us ask: ‘what is my purpose in the grand scheme of things?’ And it can be used in terms of goal-setting: ‘what do we want to accomplish with our family budget?’, ‘what do I want to accomplish with this decluttering challenge?’.
But mostly, I think of ‘finding your purpose’ in terms of deciding who you are and what you want out of life: what role do I play in my family? What do I want to become professionally? Am I happy in my skin?
Shu says
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Anna says
The more I let go of what other people want from me, the closer I get to finding my purpose. The less I listen to what other people tell me I should be doing, the more I figure out what is truly good for me.
Kara M says
Find your purpose means to me—what does God desire for me to do in this season of my life? What’s His will for me?
Christine G. says
“Finding your purpose” means different things to different people. For me, it means letting go of what I want in life and asking God, my Creator, what He wants. He created me with a plan, or purpose, in mind. He sees the whole picture, while I only see this one insignificant piece, that is my life. He sees how He wants me to fit into His bigger plan. As long as I allow Him the control in my life, I can’t help but find my “purpose”. He will show it to me as He guides me day by day.
ELIZABETH COOPER says
Gloria Gaither, an author and songwriter made a statement that I would like to live by~”Show up for Work”. Whatever God has placed in my life on any given day, I should do my best! Trust me, I’m not there, but I feel that is my purpose. I had to go on disability three years ago at age 53. I loved my job and was empty nesting. I think the overall purpose remains-(to glorify God with our lives) but sometimes the focus changes. Thanks for the question. It made me put into words what I feel.
Mary says
It’s the moment when all the reading, searching, praying, counseling you seek comes together harmoniously & you realize you have a life far better than you could have ever planned even with the peaks and valleys-its still so good; that you yearn for nothing more, nothing less. But if you don’t pay attention, you’ll miss it; you’ll miss your purpose if your too caught up in the business of life.
Rachel says
I’ll comment before I read the other comments . . . don’t want to get influenced! 🙂
My knee jerk response when hearing that phrase is that it is a very trendy line of thinking. You see it EVERYWHERE, ALL the time. Everyone seems to be focused on ‘purpose’ and ‘minimalization’.
Both great things to focus on. But trendy nonetheless.
Leah says
Haha! Exactly what I was thinking! Very trendy.
Jacki says
I used to think my purpose in life just had to be one exclusive thing. This changed as life threw curve balls at us. We are raising 4 girls. Two are adults now but one of those is severely disabled and took all of our energy to care for. At that time, my purpose was to take care of my girls and husband. As I had two more, I went back to school and discovered a little research lab that I did an internship at. It seemed to be my purpose. As my health crashed due to MS, my purpose was to stay as healthy as I could to care for my family.
For six months I cared for my grandson who was born with lack of oxygen. That six months was my purpose. I returned to research for a short time until my health changed again. My purpose was to care my best for my youngest children and homeschool. My health improved again and I’m back at the lab a few hours a week with my girls in tow. They love this balance.
The say your purpose is a goal or strength in life, for me it was to live in the moment of my life no matter what life threw at me. I don’t know what the future holds but today my purpose is to care for my family and do a little bit of cancer research and train the next generation of scientists.
Sarah says
Through God’s Word, His people, and prayer finding out what our gifts/talents are that He gave us. Then using those gifts for Him and His kingdom. I’ve personally found this a lot easier said than done. 🙂
Lizzy says
“find your purpose” used to bring up stressful feelings of self-doubt…but now, I believe my purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him–and I just pray for Him to show me how He has uniquely created me to do that. It’s less intimidating for me when I put it in eternal perspective.
Tracy S. says
I start to think, “I know I’m supposed to know this already, or at least that’s what I keep hearing, but I’m still at a loss at 35.” I don’t focus on it or I’ll get down on myself and I KNOW that’s not my purpose.
Ruth says
Being who God made me to be and doing what He wants me to do each day. Fulfilling my roles as wife, mother, daughter, sister, follower of Jesus Christ.
Nivekian says
Eat, F*ck, Sleep
At least, that’s what people were physically designed for…
As far as the non physical; I feel that we all could benefit from purposeful thoughts and emotions, not just letting thoughts and emotions ramble through us uncontrolled.
Davonne Parks says
Finding my purpose means stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things even when I’m scared. It means embracing the unknown of tomorrow and knowing that if God leads me there, it will be beautiful.
Randi says
My perspective is this: God has a plan for me and I may not know what it is, but living my life every day, and being an honest, caring, faithful woman of God means I am living my purpose. Just because I don’t know what my future holds, or what God has in store for me doesn’t mean He doesn’t know my purpose and plays a big role and how I am living my life today. Trust me, it took me years, a lot of trials, a lot of tears, prayers, and stubbornness and feeling lost to FINALLY realize this. Wherever I am, in any given moment of any given day is EXACTLY where God intended me to be and that is my purpose. I live by “everything happens for a reason”. I hope this helps!
Heather says
I think how lucky I am to live in a country where people have the leisure to ask that question, instead of being worried about basic survival, or escaping ISIS, or Ebola, or who your father will choose for you to marry, or any one of so many other trials.
Crystal Paine says
Yes. That is so true. And so very humbling to consider.
Candice says
Whenever I am reminded to “find my purpose”, I have to tell myself to stop comparing myself to others. If I am constantly comparing my current situation to the successes of others, how am I supposed to find my own purpose? Some people are lucky to find this early on in life, but maybe my fire hasn’t even caught yet; maybe its still building up to be something great.
Suzanne C says
That’s a great thought, Candice, about not comparing yourself to others. Something I have a habit of doing!
Emilie says
What were you meant to do? What is God’s plan for you? Are you the person you are supposed to be? Are you living a life that is fullfilling fro you and those around you? Are you working towards being a role model to future generations of how the world should be?
Maybe you are meant to work, maybe you are meant to go to school, maybe you are meant to stay home, maybe you are meant to be single or married, or to have kids or not.
I think everyone is supposed to be someone complex yet simple. I am a mom, wife, child, sister, friend, co-worker, parishioner, teacher, lector, writer, photographer, baker, and many more things every day. Each of them has different expectations dependent on who I am with and where I am.
Your purpose is solely your own. It also may change over time as you mature and let others into your life. I think we are all trying to be the best we can.
Whit says
To put it simply, God’s intention for your life.
Jen says
I used to be really concerned about that. Like there was some special “aha” that would lead to my grand design in existence. I think it turned into a church phrase, and I gave up on it. I now think living purposefully is a better way to express my goals. I live an ordinary life with an ordinary family – but to me it’s absolutely extraordinary. Choosing to put joy, wonder, and adventure into my life and subsequently my family’s lives is more a direction that a so-called “purpose.” To me that implies I need to come up with the next best idea, object, or life-saving cure.
Maybe it’s just semantics, but it means my life isn’t about finding a specific path so much as taking the actions to create my own way.
Crystal Paine says
Such great food for thought in this comment! Thanks for sharing!
Melinda says
“To find my purpose”, to ME, means finding out what my spiritual gift is and strive to develop that aspect of my life.
Rozelyn says
“Finding your purpose” to many seems to be a very daunting task. With so much noise, obligations and choices, we tend to wonder why “I can’t I find mine?” Only when we release ourselves from the “I wants” can we realize what the Creator meant us to be.
annie says
The first thought that came to me was what does our monthly budget look like? Where our treasure is, our hearts are.
Makes me think about if our goals are strong enough so that monthly budget becomes more proactive and less reactive.
Goals are closely tied to purpose.