weeks I believe that I should continue exploring this subject.
In my last installments, I emphasised that, along the path of discovering yourself, you should come face-to-face with or also discover your purpose.

Purpose is often misunderstood and undervalued in our lives, yet it forms a major part of who we are, what we become, how we get to our destinations as well as determination of whether we fail or succeed.
Navigators and pilots require and rely on the compass for direction to get to their destinations and as a human being, purpose is your compass in life.

As articulated in the previous articles, discovering yourself should involve understanding your purpose, because it is linked in every way to who you are, or who you are destined to become.
Purpose is essentially the reason for your existence and the set of goals or objectives that you strive to achieve becomes your guide and the determinant of your direction.
This is so because it is the same purpose that gives you direction and beckons you to achieve what it embodies.

The established or discovered reason for living shall in a very effective manner have a major say in how one continues “living”.
If for example, one’s purpose is to fail, they would obviously live a life of laziness, carelessness and lack of ambition or vision.
On the other hand, if one’s purpose is to succeed in whatever aspect or field, they will need to be ambitious and hardworking.

Once you have a well-defined target of what you intend to achieve, this will determine or affect your disposition, your agenda, your diet, your focus and even dictates whom you spend time with. That is the point about it becoming the compass of your life.

Our circumstances in this society have brought about a combination of factors that cause and force many people to live a purposeless life, one devoid of well-defined objectives and often I have heard people giving all sorts of theories as excuses for this.
Some are true and real, such as our socio-economic challenges but like I stated in my last article, these are challenges affecting everyone but what distinguishes one is the determination to fight and overcoming these kind of challenges.

Given the above, it is therefore true that in some instance some people who are failing to climb out of this vicious cycle have no clue about their purpose in life or do not know which direction their life is heading.

By the way, it is not someone else, or even God who should discover this purpose for you, it has to be identified by you.
However, defining your purpose might be hazardous at times because some people fail to reach their intended destination because they lose focus of the direction that they are taking.

It is common that while one might assume that they are heading from Harare to Bulawayo they would actually be heading in a different direction.
Let me bring this closer to our daily realities.

Whatever we engage in, be it business, study and even relationship, should be aligned and conform with the purpose of our existence.
We should not just wake up and start acting without proper planning. We should be having clear plans for life, rooted on well-defined and established objectives or goals.

I know how a good number of young members in our society who, after finishing high school, went onto to enroll at colleges and universities without a clue of what they want to do.
Some will openly tell you they would take whatever the college or university would offer them.
Sorry to say, these are all attitudes based on a crisis situation where there is no purpose or guide in your life.

Those in high school need to decide their purpose well ahead of the time in order to be achievers in life.
One should establish and accept what they want to be first and this would guide them on what course, diploma or degree to enroll for that is in line with the desired career.

That brings a vital aspect of whether our systems in school, the family and other social settings provide for individuals to go through a developmental path that includes searching and discovering purpose on the path towards maturity and entrance into the next levels of life.

There are many in our society that show great ability or talent in fields such as sport from a young age and naturally this point towards their possible purpose in life.
However, most deviate or gradually lose interest and focus due to various reasons such as wrong guidance and advice. May I conclude by challenging you to ask yourself if you know where you are going.

Do you have a guide or direction for your journey in this life? Have you discovered and clearly defined your purpose in life?

  • Pascal Nyasha is a Motivational speaker, Leadership coach and business consultant. He is the author of the inspirational book, ‘Reaching new horizons’, and Founding Fellow of The Leadership Institute Africa. Call: 0773 003 912 or email: [email protected]. Connect with Pascal on Facebook.

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