I’m back and fully ready to be accountable for following through on this series, if you missed it, almost a year ago I opened up about purpose and feeling lost when it came to it.

This blog post will be Part One of a Five Part Series: Do I Have A Purpose?

When is the last time you asked yourself that question? When is the last time you sat down and truly thought to yourself ‘What is my purpose?’ Over the past few years, I’ve thought about it a lot and for a long while my answer wasn’t completely solid or thought through. I couldn’t quite convince myself to feel like I had a strong foundation of purpose. And that was a disappointing and defeating conclusion to come to. So I decided to do something about it. This series is going to guide and hopefully inspire some others to do the same. Because we all deserve to feel that we have purpose within the journey of our lives. 

During the first part of this series I want to focus on not knowing your purpose and where to start in changing that feeling. You may have a lot of emotions, thoughts and feelings pop up as you are reading, if you do, I suggest grabbing a journal or opening up your notes app & taking a second to jot those feelings, emotions and thoughts down! Just let them flow, don’t overthink or analyze it-at least not right this second. 

If you’ve ever felt like you have zero clue what your purpose is, you aren’t alone in feeling that way. I actually think it’s probably a lot more common than we might think. As I realized that I myself don’t really feel like I know what my purpose is I sought out to change that feeling! Where I started in changing that feeling was mindset! Stick with me here, because I know I’m somewhat stating the obvious, but it isn’t just a simple process. Before I could dive into changing my mindset I had to get real with myself and sit in the emotions of not knowing my purpose and how I’m going to figure it out. I asked myself some hard questions, thought out my answers and really took time to consider them and how I was going to cultivating growth and lasting change. 

Some of the questions I asked myself were: When you envision your purpose what does it look like? How do you feel within that purpose?  Why does your life feel stagnant? What behaviors are currently doing that are hindering you from potentially finding your purpose? What leaves you fulfilled, both short term and long term?? 

After really taking time to think out my answers intentionally, I also took some time to navigate to different emotions that come with somewhat feeling lost and like I haven’t figured out my purpose yet. The reason why I did this is because had I just ignored the feelings and pressed on, I don’t think I’d be pushing myself into healthy growth. Pushing past those feelings, failing to acknowledge them would only set me up for failure. Thing is, I didn’t allow myself to dwell for too long, I took a few days to recognize and acknowledge the emotions and then I set out to put in some work to start implementing changes. This is a step that may feel entirely uncomfortable, but trust me when I tell you it’ll help give you clarity and you’ll feel better after acknowledging the emotions!!

Once I felt like I was into a good headspace and very aware of my emotions surrounding figuring out my purpose I came up with a game plan to start changing my mindset! Here are 4 things I did when it came to restructuring my mindset to help me figure out my purpose!

1. Not being afraid to allow myself to be curious within my thoughts, thinking outside the box and challenging myself.

2. Daily Affirmations and journaling.

3. Switching my thought process if it was getting somewhere that was unproductive to leading me towards figuring out my purpose.

4. Practicing Self Love.

Diving a little deeper into each of these points below!

Not being afraid to allow myself to be curious within my thoughts, thinking outside the box and challenging myself.

Sometimes we get stuck in the hustle culture and I feel like it can be a positive thing with the right balance, but it can also easily burn us out or have us so narrow minded into routine that we forget that our minds should be challenged every once in a while. Doing the same things day in and day, never progressing or challenging ourselves within our thoughts can be detrimental and hinder our ability to truly figure out a way to our purpose.  In order to have a mindset that allows growth and feels fulfilled we have to be willing to change the way our current thought process is going. Take the time to be more curious within your train of thought. Here’s the kicker-you have to find a balance with it. Because being too curious can lead to going down a rabbit hole and result in having too much going on to where you get though paralysis. Seems like a double edged sword right? Can’t be too in hustle culture but can’t go down a rabbit hole..

Finding a balance with curiosity took me a few months to really figure out. It took practice, it took open mindedness and willingness to change or feel a tad uncomfortable during the process. But it also opened up so much opportunity and really set me towards a new path of finally feeling like I was getting somewhere with finding my purpose in life! Instead of being hesitant to think outside the box or challenge myself I would dive right in and eventually the habit balanced itself out. Just pay close attention to if what you’re trying is consistently draining you or filling you up. That was my biggest gauge on if what I was trying was going to lead me in the right direction!

Daily affirmations and journaling.

Taking the time each day to reflect and write down some affirmations helps me to gain and keep perspective. It also gives me a way to be able to track progress and look back over the past few months to be able to see that although it’s taking time I am on my way to feeling solid within my purpose. I intentionally set aside time to read a few past affirmations or journal entries every 3-5 months! 

Switching my thought process if it ever gets somewhere that’s unproductive in regards to leading me towards figuring out my purpose.

When I tell you this will be an absolute game changer and catapult you into actually being able to narrow down and feel confident in your purpose, I mean it. Our thoughts are quite literally everything when it comes to our emotions, motivations, growth, change and you guessed it purpose. Getting into the habit of stopping my thoughts in their track if it wasn’t a thought that was going to lead me positively into filling fulfilled or trending upwards towards what I want or envision my purpose to be is no easy feat. But the first step is being able to recognize or discern the specific thought, stopping it and altering it to be back on track. No moping, no negativity, no dwelling but instead switching my thoughts to be something positive, productive and aligning with my future wants/self. Doing this set me on track and helps to re-enforce my mindset when it comes to my purpose and figuring it out confidently!

Practicing Self Love. 

This is huge because practicing self love will change things mentally for you. You’ll value yourself more as you pour the love you so freely give others into yourself. It naturally makes you level up in a way you may not have experienced before. Going through the process of not knowing your purpose and attempting to figure it out can be a rollercoaster, by starting to practice self love you’ll be able to navigate the rollercoaster a lot more smoothly because you are creating a solid foundation within yourself. At first this was really hard for me-almost out of body because I am constantly putting so much into others around me because serving others feels fulfilling and brings joy to my heart BUT I also deserve that for myself and so do you! Some ways I’ve started practicing doing self love are: Getting flowers for myself every other week simply because they make me smile every time I see them, taking a candle lit bath or hot shower with eucalyptus, going on a drive and singing some of my favorite songs at the top of my lungs, expanding my knowledge in some way (books, education surrounding my business, trying new hobbies), surrounding myself with people that show up for me the way I show up for them, having boundaries when needed, learning how to say no, getting my nails or hair done, getting a facial, hyping myself up to post content (even when I feel so awkward), having grace with myself because I am not perfect, etc.

Start implementing these into your life and pay attention to how you feel surrounding your purpose. Don’t get discouraged if your feelings don’t change right away! Good things come with time-I’ve been working on this for over a year now. As always thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog, I genuinely appreciate it so much and a big part of my purpose lies within sharing my story, being vulnerable and hopefully inspiring some of you along the way. Stay tuned for Part 2 coming up soon!

Photos by the incredible Raquel Acevedo-Instagram: @raquelacevedo.photo and Website: www.raquelacevedo.com! Please go spam her & show her some love, her talent is unmatched & she deserves all the praise in the world. Also please don’t hate me when I post every single image she takes because they are all THAT good.