“One day, out of nowhere, you realize you don’t know who you are, and none of the cards in your wallet provide the slightest clue to your real identity.” – Sam Keen

There are times in life when we feel confused and disoriented. Just like a little child, who has been carried away by an interesting game and has not noticed how far away he has got from his house. He stands in the middle of the street and realizes that he has never been here before. It is getting dark and the world no longer seems a friendly place. Which way is home?! Where am I?!

Similar, we get so carried away by the game of wealth and power that we often lose sight of thing that truly matter in our life. We go through life believing that we will have plenty of time ahead of us to make things right with our family members, to start taking care of our health, to figure out what it is that we want to do or to travel to the places we always dreamed of visiting. And we postpone doing these things until the next day… next month… next year… because we are too busy making money, helping our kids do their homework, or getting ready for the next meeting.

I have a trick question for you!

Have you ever heard of a person, who on their deathbed said, “I wish I had more money” or “I wish I had spent more time in the office.”? I haven’t. Who cares about that stuff when you just have a little bit of time left?

When you look at your life from this perspective, you are able to see more clearly which aspects of your life truly matter and which were simply ‘shiny objects’ that promised happiness and satisfaction, but turn out to be worthless trifles.

Whether you feel confused about which goals to pursue or have no doubts that you are on the right track; whether you lack focus or motivation; whether you have just graduated from college or about to retire, try the following experiment:

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At one time or another we have all asked ourselves the dreaded questions, “Why am I here?” , “What is my life purpose?”

Mozart composed his first minuet when he was 5. No one taught him how to play the piano at this age. He just knew what he wanted to do.

Michael Jordan started playing basketball with his older brother Larry when he was 5 and was losing for years. But his numerous failures only encouraged him to practice more and push himself forward.

We hear about great names like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, who devoted their lives to fulfilling their life purpose and changing the life of whole nations.

We read about the lives of these people and then ask ourselves the dreaded questions, “Why am I here?” and “What is MY life purpose?”

I have been asking myself this question for years. There were so many questions running through my head back then: “Am I allowed to have only one big life purpose or can I fulfill 10-20 smaller purposes?”, “Could my future career, my family or my long-term goals be my life purpose?”, “What if I am not sure what my gifts and talents are?” and finally, “How in the world am I supposed to figure it all out?”

Right now there are a lot of programs that offer different approaches to finding our true calling. You can try anything from “Life purpose tests” to Steve Pavlina’s 20-minute brainstorming technique. And if you are still unsure there are plenty of books and seminars dedicated specifically to seeking a sense of meaning.

I cannot claim that I can solve this problem for you and tell you what your True Calling is, but here is what I have learned from my own years of search:

1. Life purpose is not hidden in material possessions. Finding our purpose is often associated with feeling happy, alive, and powerful. The riches of the world can make you feel joy, enthusiasm, and even happiness. Only there is a significant difference between true happiness and the satisfaction that we get when we receive the “next cool thing”: the first one last a life time, the second passes in a week.

If money could bring true happiness and long-lasting satisfaction the wealthiest people in the world would be the happiest ones. But they are not! It is narrow-minded to think that your body, mind, soul, personality, abilities, talents, and experience were given you, so that you could make money, provide for your family or attract wealth into your life.  There has got to be more than this and your heart knows it.

2. Life purpose is not centered on your goals, needs and desires. This might sound outrages to some people, but true life purpose is based on serving others in some way, not on you getting everything you ever dreamed of. This is not authentic. In fact, it actually works the other way around – first you add value to the world and then you actually receive everything you need without you even having to ask for it.