dream | act | succeed

When it comes to enduring something that seems like a hard thing to do, not your physical strength, but your physiological strength gets tested until it fails. Sure, the right mindset plays a very important role here, but we already talked about that. Today, we want to do even another step back in time, traveling to the origin of your mindset.

As Napoleon Hill describes it so wonderful in his 1928 published master piece “The law of success“, each and everyone of us needs to have a definite chief aim in life. Without any purpose, even the easiest task will knock us off our feet, demanding from us to justify the suffering and the effort we put into something.

But how can you figure this out? Where do you need to look for that?

That is the part when the old book stops, but not only the book, basically this is the moment where everyone stops out there. We talk about finding your passion, doing what you love, live in the present moment. We advise you to create a vision board, have a look at your dreams and working constantly on that. Sure, I mean that knowledge is very useful, the law of attraction, the secret power of a habit. We all have heard about these things, but your problem might not be the actual process everyone can describes, but rather to find your purpose in life.

Sure, you like certain thinks. But the one thing simply doesn’t stand out yet? You are not sure where your journey should lead you to? You are feeling overwhelmed by the shear amount of possibilities? You don’t want to decide on one particular thing, leaving all the other chances behind? In case this is you, welcome to the 21th century. The World Wide Web, the connectivity and all the other useful technologies we use, have of course a lot of advantages, but when we really think about it, there are some major drawbacks as well.

Due to our modern daily life, we think that we can access literally everything. We think that we know exactly what is going on outside of our own home. I personally have developed a theory over time which focuses on this particular topic. But let me explain it real quick.

Theory

In the past, people just lived their lives, sharing their emotions, opinions and problems with their natural environment. Like a couple of friends, relatives, neighbors and coworkers. If someone wanted to know how much others are getting paid for at work, they could ask their environment and for sure, got an answer, but they knew, that this survey wasn’t really representative. This was just asking the people you know, not the whole world. But in the 21th century, due to the World Wide Web, we think that we have access to what each and everyone earns. Just google it and you can find everything. Is that representative? Well, that is the question, but at least we think that it is. We think that we can compare ourself with all the other jobs, which will in the end, lead to a big problem.

What is the problem? The problem is, that we think, we deserve something better. We think, that there is another job out there, suiting us much much better. The same goes for dating by the way. In the past, you have met someone if your were lucky, and that was it. Sure, sometimes you have seen someone better looking, or more friendly, or more what ever you are looking for, but hey, you already have that person, let’s stick to it. But today, we think we can analyze the whole market. We go on tinder, Facebook, or instagram and check out what we can find. Where is the problem? Again, we think that this is representative. We think, that this is the market and set our goals accordingly. But is this really how the world runs these days? I am not so sure about that. In the world of the social media, people are not really honest to themselves, nor to other people. They present their life not as it is, but actually as something better. Therefore we analyze something that is in fact not the truth, but tend to forget about that all the time. Sure, everyone knows that most of the stuff is just a fake, but at least according to my own experience, we really forget about that from time to time. Running after goals and wishes that are not really what we originally wanted.

Therefore, finding your purpose in life might be actually harder to do than 100 years ago. Even though that we are much better connected and can figure out a lot of stuff at any time, this is just the overkill mode for us. We tend to get influenced by other people, sure, the word influencer is there for a reason, but the question is, how can we figure out if something is really the thing for us, or rather just an attempt to get accepted by others. Do I want to have this particular car because I love everything about it, or is it more important what other people might think or say about me? The fear of missing out isn’t supporting us in that moment, either.

So, as this thing goes on, we are running in circles. We try to represent our unique kind of living, combined with social accepted norms and standards. Traveling through east Asia 60 years ago might be an explicit thing to do, in the modern hashtag oriented society, it is just a box you need to tick. What? You did not traveled for at least three month? What is wrong with you?

But we are floating through the ether, trying to find ourself in this ever changing environment. What seems to be the right thing today, might be the solution for your purpose in life, but as your feed goes own, you see other things that are at least at the same level of attraction.

But this is not leading us anywhere, right? What have I thought, starting off this mess? But again, this is just what I experience at first hand. Oh, and don’t forget, I know my purpose already. I have already found my purpose in life, or at least I think I do. Being close to three years in the process now and see everyday, that my goals haven’t changed, I think I made it. But still, I struggle, a lot. That lets me wonder how much you actually might struggle without the slightest clue.

How did I do it? Through a real crisis, through struggling, through suffering. Try to ignore everything you have ever heard about life. Ignore your family’s opinion, your friends arguments, or what you neighbors might think or say. This is your life. At the end of the day, you need to be satisfied with what you have done. You need to be able to look back at your life, starting to smile because you have done exactly what you wanted to do.

Finding your purpose in life should be on top of your priorities. It should be the goal you will tackle next, because this is where it all starts. This is the origin, the source of your energy. This is what gets you out of bed, allowing you to endure hard things and make dramatic cutbacks in order to do what ever you want to do.

Get in touch with yourself, figure out what you really want and please, test it before setting the goals or define your purpose. I know, it must sound funny, but you need to figure out if things are really worth the effort. Therefore, if you want to have a fast sportscar, you might try one today, figuring out if this is really what you want to do, or not. And if you figured out that this is really not at the slightest what you have expected, then simply exchange that goal with something else. Your purpose in life might change. But is that something bad? Is that something that can not occur? No, of course not! People have lived their lives even without any purposes or what ever, therefore there is no need for it in order to survive, but I personally believe, that without a definite chief aim in life, you will forget about moving forward one day and stopping right there until the end of your life.

See you next time