Many people struggle to find their purpose in life and even overlook the reasons why they need one. There is a general misunderstanding that having a purpose in life simply means achieving goals, but it’s more meaningful than that.

Many studies reveal that having a purpose in life contributes to healthy aging, including potentially living longer. It’s also essential for happiness, fulfillment, and reducing anxiety. Identifying your purpose can take time, though. To help with this journey, follow these straightforward steps to identify your life purpose and improve your mental and emotional well-being in the process.

1. Identify What Happiness Looks Like for You

Use Pinterest to Identify Your Version of Happiness

As having a life purpose gives a sense of happiness and fulfillment, it’s good to visualize what that will look like for you. Using visualization is a powerful focusing method that can help build confidence and realize your goals. It can also help you break free from limiting beliefs that are preventing you from living your life to the fullest.

To identify your happiness, start by asking yourself what it means to you. Is it a thriving social life, finding a safe space in your cozy home, or a life spent exploring the world? To help you visualize the big picture and kickstart the process of finding your life’s purpose, use Pinterest to create a mood board.

A Pinterest mood board will visually bring your ideas to life and provide a reference tool to use throughout the process of finding your purpose. While you may start with a clear vision, you may soon forget it as you follow the next steps in your journey. Use your Pinterest board as a reminder of what you want your life to look like as you move forward with finding your purpose.

Download: Pinterest for Android | iOS (Free)

2. Develop an Abundance Mindset

You might be struggling to find your life’s purpose because you’re focusing on what you don’t have, rather than what you do. According to Tony Robbins, having an abundance mindset is believing that you have enough already and that you are grateful for whatever the universe provides. The opposite is having a scarcity mindset—believing that you don’t have enough and focusing on your unfulfilled needs. This can create stress, FOMO, and other negative mental health effects.

As having a life purpose gives a sense of fulfillment, you need to first attain this abundance mindset. You can do this by using a journaling app to practice gratitude for what you have.

My Diary makes it easy to journal your thoughts. Jot down what you have now and what you are grateful for will help clear anxieties about missing out, not having enough, or wasting time. Using My Diary to practice gratitude will also reveal the process of finding your purpose to be exciting, rather than daunting or stressful.

Download: My Diary for Android | iOS (Free)

3. Pinpoint What Brings You Joy

While your happiness is expressed externally and is often rooted in circumstances and found in many things, joy is a long-term internal pursuit that is connected with meaning and, of course, purpose.

Joy is often realized through hard work and dedication. Therefore, pinpointing what has brought you joy over the years can bring clarity to your purpose in life. The best way to pinpoint what brings you joy is to use a mind-mapping app, such as Mindly.

To create your joy mind map in the app, follow these steps:

  1. Tap the plus (+) icon to start a new mind map.
  2. Title your map, e.g. "What Brings Me Joy."
  3. Tap the tick icon to create your map.
  4. Tap one of the + icons and type in a joyful memory. Tap next.
  5. Next, add ideas about your memory—why it brought you joy and whether it reveals any of your strengths, abilities, or hobbies.
  6. Tap the tick icon to add this to your mind map.

Continue to build your mind map by writing about what has brought you joy over the years.

Download: Mindly for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

4. Become Self-Aware of Your Needs

Alongside understanding what brings you joy, you need to be aware of your personal needs. Without knowing your needs, you won’t be able to fulfill your purpose, as these dictate every decision you make in life.

As detailed in an insightful LinkedIn article, there are six human needs common to all of us—Certainty, Variety, Significance, Connection, Growth, and Contribution—but we all prioritize these values differently.

To identify and prioritize your needs, try practicing mindfulness. Decluttering your mind of anxious thoughts and preoccupations will make space to think about what you truly need and what you value in life.

Among the available meditation apps to help you practice mindfulness, Insight Timer is a popular choice. You can pick from over 140,000 guided meditations to help bring clarity to finding your purpose. Then use the Journal feature within the app to write down your understanding of your needs and how that might relate to your purpose after each meditation.

Download: Insight Timer for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

5. Have a Social Media Detox

Sometimes it takes more than just meditation to find clarity. Living in a digital age, we’re constantly flooded with other people’s opinions and value systems via social media. This is counter-intuitive (not to mention distracting) to finding your own needs, values, and purpose.

The best way to switch off the external noise and tune in to your internal frequencies is to log out of social media. Read our helpful guide on how to do a social media detox to get started.

6. Practice the Gift of Giving

Volunteer on Do Something to give to the community

According to the bestselling book, The Courage to Be Disliked, true happiness is found through contribution to others. Giving can help you find your purpose in providing a service to others in need, and having that sense of community is vital for human well-being.

You can find volunteer work and charity opportunities on websites including:

  • VolunteerMatch. Find volunteer work by cause, whether that’s animals, children, senior citizens, women, or the arts.
  • JustServe. Here you’ll find one-off events as well as ongoing opportunities to volunteer.
  • Do Something. The ethos behind this movement is to make an immediate difference in the community, from simple efforts such as cleaning up litter locally or delivering food to those in need.

Finding connection and having a feeling of union or belonging is one of the six basic human needs. By practicing giving through volunteering, you’re another step closer to finding your purpose in life.

7. Find Your People

Find Your People online

You may have heard the phrase “vibe with your tribe,” and while it may sound a tad trite, it’s not without its merit. Having a sense of belonging and being part of a community is vital for your well-being. Alongside volunteering to aid the community, it’s a great idea to find a group of like-minded people to socialize with.

There are plenty of social media apps you can use to make friends. Facebook is a social media platform that’s evolved from being a place to find old friends to one where you can discover new friendships and communities. You can search Facebook for communities or groups that focus on your interests and hobbies and find meet-ups both locally and further afield.

Finding your sense of belonging among new friends or groups can help bring clarity to your life’s purpose as you create new experiences and engage with other people’s perspectives on life.

Download: Facebook for Android | iOS (Free)

Be Patient and Keep Working Towards Finding Your Purpose

Having a purpose isn’t just about what you want to accomplish in life, it’s also vital for your well-being. Finding your reason for getting up in the morning can take time, however, so remember to be patient. Follow the steps above and enjoy the process of improving your overall well-being as you identify your life purpose.