"You find your purpose by being, not doing."

Alright, this is basically a page from my diary - this is something I’ve been thinking a lot about for 2 weeks now, it really impacted my life and I’ve been meaning to organize my thoughts on it.

Something that a lot of people want in life is to find their purpose. It’s our reason for being and the difference we want to make in the world. This can be massively ambitious like wanting to solve  world hunger, huge and narrow like disrupting the pharmaceutical industry, or it can be humble and local like making sure your loved ones have a comfortable and happy life, or helping the dogs at your local animal shelter.

The realization that hit me like a ton of bricks was: What if our purpose in life isn’t about what we do, but it’s about who we are? What if purpose is found in the way we show up to things rather than what comes of the things we show up to?

It was November 8th and I finally understood this, and it was an emotional moment for me. I was hit with a wave of relief. It’s not about what I do. I don’t need to keep doing and doing and doing. I gave myself permission to just be, and that my being was enough. I don’t need to achieve or make things happen to be a success. I don’t need to do whatever it takes at all costs to hit my goals.

Now as you can tell this is really raw and tricky to navigate, and as of right now this is the sense I’m making of it. I want to place more focus on my being. I want to show up to my work with optimism, patience, and courage. I want to be disciplined and accountable to making good choices throughout the day in my health. I want to be present and enthusiastic in my interactions with others.

What’s interesting is that the ‘doing’ comes as a natural byproduct of who we’re ‘being’. So we still get our workout in when we don’t feel like it, and make the phone calls that scare us, and take action in ways that improve our life. But it’s not about the ‘doing’, it’s about holding yourself to a standard of who you’re ‘being’ in every single moment.

And as far as I can tell right now, even when you don’t ‘do’ to the extent that you’d want to, or to the quality that you need to in order to hit your goals... If you can honestly come back to feeling like you showed up for it, or found ways to improve how you can show up better in the future, then you’re living your purpose. And you can find fulfillment in that.