Tag Archives: how to find your purpose

Posted on

How to Succeed? Find or Refocus on Your Why

It's how Eddie the Eagle Flew

by

 

eddie-the-eagle-07

The reason I focus so much on your purpose is because I’ve found it to be the biggest predictor of your success. Yes, there are lots of factors that go into the equation, but from my research, coaching, counseling, interviews, and personal experience, nothing is more important than having a strong purpose.

I’ve seen smart, talented, connected people without purpose just muddle through life. They do “fine,” but they aren’t thriving and living to their full potential.

I’ve also seen people who are considered “average,” but have a strong, driving purpose achieve more than anyone thought they could and create the extraordinary life of their dreams.

Purpose beats so-called talent every day of the week!

Click To Tweet

I thought about this when we had family movie night at the Knapp house. We watched Eddie the Eagle. It’s a feel-good comedy based on the true story of Michael Eddie Edwards.

What I loved about the film was the message on the importance of having a passionate purpose in your life.

Purpose + Passion = Joyful Success

Click To Tweet

Eddie had knee problems as a child and had to wear a leg brace. The doctors told him he should give up on sports. His father told him he would never be an athlete.

But when Eddie was little, he read a book about great moments in Olympic history. From that point on he was determined to become an Olympian, have his moment, and prove everyone wrong.

He had a passionate purpose and he had a strong why that supported it.

You get to determine if other people’s opinion of you is true.

Click To Tweet

He tried a lot of different sports and none seemed promising. He had spent years trying to get on the British Olympic team in downhill skiing, but couldn’t quite make it. Most people would have given up.

His passionate purpose continued to drive him.

Eddie figured out that no one had been a ski jumper for Britain since 1929 and there were no qualifying distances to make the team. (However, the Brits decided to rewrite the rules and set up a qualifying distance.)

He convinced an old, drunk ski jumper to coach him. Using his own money, and any he could borrow, Eddie trained for a year and made the Olympic team.

Not only had his passionate purpose turned him into a decent ski jumper it also gave his coach a purpose to get sober and do something with his life.

A strong purpose can change more than just your life.

Click To Tweet

What strong purpose is motivating you to great things in your life? If you don’t have one right now, it’s time to find one.

A great way to start is with my free eBook — 5 Steps to Finding Your Passionate Purpose.

What is your purpose? What is the “why” driving that purpose? Are you passionate about it?

Let’s GO!

Posted on

14 Questions to Create Your Best Life

by

Man-Thinking

Are you at a point in your life where something needs to change? Do you feel stuck, maybe even trapped? Are you just drifting through life doing all the things you’re “supposed” to do, but not going after the things you really want to do? Deep down do you feel like you were meant for something more than this? Are you frustrated that you don’t know how to have your breakthrough?

What if I told you the way to start is to turn inward?

To find your purpose look in and up.

Click To Tweet

I am very big on the idea of asking yourself empowering questions. (It’s a big part of how I coach my clients to create the goals and plans they use to create extraordinary lives.) We ask ourselves questions all the time. For good and bad, our brains come up with answers no matter what we ask.

Have you ever asked yourself these questions?

How could I be so stupid?! (You aren’t, but your brain will come up with an answer.)

Why does this always happen to me?! (It doesn’t, but your brain will assume it does and come up with reasons why.)

Why do I constantly fail? (Of course you don’t fail constantly, but your brain will rationalize that for you, too.)

More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.-Billy Sunday

Click To Tweet

Those types of questions won’t help you get where you want to go. They beat you down and waste your time. They can even become self fulfilling prophecies. Remember what Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.”

Let’s ask questions that encourage you, lift you up, get you excited, and lead to the results you want. But first we have to get clear on a few things.

Why do you want to change your life?

Because I’m not happy, Greg. Jeez!

Hey, I get that things aren’t where you want them to be. I’m not trying to get down on you, I’m just trying to help you get clear on why you must change. That will keep you going when the journey gets tough.

It all starts with your why – your purpose. Then we can get to what you really want and the obstacles holding you back from starting to get it.

Get 100% clear on your why and your what. Then, your how will appear. –Greg Knapp

Click To Tweet

During a recent coaching session I asked my client, “Why do you want to change your life?”

He said he’d have to think about it for a minute. He already knew down deep, but I don’t think he’d ever taken the time to articulate it and bring it to his conscious mind.

After a few moments he said, “Greg, I’m tired of just going through the motions. I’m not sure if I know my purpose. I think if I can figure that out, it will help me make the changes to make my life better.”

That was a start. I then followed up with, “What do you mean by better?”

He replied that he wanted to earn an income to provide for his family so they could live in a better neighborhood with better schools and they would have everything they need.

“Beyond that, Greg, I feel stuck. I don’t know where I’m going next. I don’t feel needed where I work, and my self-confidence is low. I want to find purpose in my life and work so I can love what I do and take care of my family.”

Now, we were getting somewhere. From there I asked him how that would change his life emotionally, relationally, financially and more.

Purpose + Passion = Joy!

Click To Tweet

Do you want to be more excited about your career, your spouse, your relationships, your family, and your spiritual development?

Do you want freedom to control your own time, career, vacation, and life? Freedom to travel the world with the people you love?

Do you want to generate abundant amounts of income so you can do everything you’ve ever dreamed of, take care of your family, and give to help others?

How would that make you feel?

Why must you change your life?

Once you’ve figured that out, you can move on to what you want and how to start doing it.

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes. –Washington Irving

Click To Tweet

Action steps:

Ask yourself some empowering questions:

  1. What’s your why? (the reason you’re willing to do the work to change your life)
  2. What’s your gift? (talents, skills, abilities to do certain things easier and better than others can)
  3. What’s your purpose? (the reason, or reasons you were put on the planet)
  4. What are you doing when you feel great?
  5. What type of work are you doing when you feel like you’re in the zone or in flow?
  6. What things have you done that you’re passionate about and that bring you joy?
  7. What things have you done that you felt brought meaning to your life?
  8. What are you good, or even great at? (Or what could you become great at?)
  9. What would your dream job entail?
  10. What would a terrific relationship with your spouse look like?
  11. Why do you want to have to change?
  12. What would be bad about staying exactly the way you are?
  13. What would be great if you changed?
  14. What would make the changes worth all the time and effort it’s going to take?

Get your journal out today and answer these questions. Get quiet and still and think deeply. Surface living isn’t getting you what you want. You need to go down deep into yourself to pull out your “why.”

Take at least 30 minutes to answer these questions and write them down.

Magic happens when we write our thoughts down. They become more real.

Click To Tweet

Magic happens when we write our thoughts down. They become real in a different way than when they are only in our heads.

Make this as real and emotional as you can.

It’s your life and it won’t become what you want by accident.

Let’s GO!

I want to give as many people as possible my free eBook, 5 Steps to Finding Your Purpose. Please forward this to a friend who needs it. If they click here, they can get the free eBook.

Posted on

How Do I Find My Purpose?

by


maxresdefault

The biggest frustration I hear from people right now is, “How do I find my purpose?” If you don’t get that right, you’re missing the whole point, right? You can act like it doesn’t matter, you can busy yourself with the day-to-day things, and you can even fake happiness for a while. But the question keeps gnawing at you. It keeps scratching at the door like a dog that wants in. It keeps throwing pebbles on your window like a boyfriend trying to get your attention.

Some people try to ignore it their whole lives because thinking and doing something about it is too scary and hard. But it will not be ignored without negative, soul-crushing consequences.

You don’t want to ignore it. You have this feeling deep inside that you were made for something better. You realize this is it. This is your life – right now. You don’t get a dress rehearsal or a do-over. You get one shot and it’s not going the way you want it to go right now. You were supposed to be somewhere else by this time in your life. You want more – more meaning, more significance. You can’t stand the idea of being average, mediocre or just getting by.

I’ve got so much to say about this, I could write a book on it. Oh, wait. I did. You can get my book, GO! by clicking here. You can get the companion workbook, 5 Steps to Finding Your Purpose, as a free eBook by clicking here.

But I want to add to that as well. So, I’m going to write a series of posts over the next few weeks to help you find your Passionate Purpose and then a few more about how to pursue it.

We better define what purpose means when we talk about it here.

Purpose – pur·pose: The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
–Oxford online dictionary

For me, your purpose is not just your job or career. Your purpose is why you do everything you do. It’s why you’re here taking up space and breathing. (Oh, is that all? No problem. I’ll figure that out on my lunch hour today, Greg. Thanks a lot.)

Hey, I didn’t say it was easy. But it also doesn’t have to be so hard.

You get up every morning, wouldn’t you enjoy it more if you figured out a compelling reason?

Click To Tweet

Let’s bust some myths.

Myth #1: There is only one way to find your Passionate Purpose

If you’re struggling to find your Passionate Purpose, I get it. I spent years trying to figure it out. (Hey, I still don’t have it completely figured out. Is that ok to admit?)

That’s what I want you to know today. There’s more than one way to find your calling. One way is no more right than any other. It’s what ends up working for you that is your right way.

Don’t feel like something is wrong with you because you’re not doing it the ‘right’ way.

Click To Tweet

Some people are struck by lightning when they’re young, they know why they were born and they pursue their passion for the rest of their lives. (I tend to hate these people. Ok, not really hate, I just really wish that had happened to me.)

Others try a bunch of different ideas until something resonates with them. They keep going with it until their desire builds or burns out.

For most of us, we don’t get the Aha! moment. We have some ideas about our purpose, some things that excite us, some ideas we’d like to try, but nothing like a voice from a mountaintop telling us what to do.

And. That’s. Ok.

But if we’re not careful we can spend weeks, months, years, even decades waiting for that Aha! moment. We’ll keep reading books and blogs, watching TED talks, listening to podcasts and buying online courses, and not taking any real action to change our lives.

Get this. For most of us, there is no perfect purpose, idea, career, job, or plan for our lives. The best we can do is go with what resonates with us the most right now. Take action on it. Try it on for size. See how it feels. If a passion for it starts to grow, feed it some more. It might grow to become your Passionate Purpose. If it isn’t doing anything for you, try something else.

Here is one way to start working on it: Ask yourself some questions:

Why do you get up in the morning? Why are you here at all? What do you want to do with the time you have? What difference do you want to make? What do you want to accomplish? With your life? Your family? Your relationships? Who do you want to become? What do you want to be known for?

Those answers will get you started. My free eBook has a ton of questions that can help you drill down deeper on this. From there you can work on how you use your purpose to fuel every part of your life in and out of work.

Maybe you’re like me and you need to spend time searching for your purpose that will lead you to the extraordinary life of your dreams. I spent countless hours thinking introspectively to determine why I was here. I read books, listened to tapes, attended seminars, watched videos, kept journals, and did all kinds of exercises.

That works for me. I put that in the present tense because I continue to work on personal growth. I love learning this stuff. But that’s me, not necessarily you.

You might do best trying a combination of these methods, or something totally different might get you where you want to go.

Even after you think you know what your Passionate Purpose is, you will still take some detours and hit some speed bumps along the way. You might decide to change your mind and pursue something else.

All of this is OK. Walk your own path.

However, some things are the same for all successful people. They know what they want, why they want it, they take consistent action and – even if they stall out for a while – they keep going.

Myth #2: You can only have one Passionate Purpose in your life – ever

Most people have more than one purpose – often more than one at a time – and they change throughout their lives.

I have several purposes right now. My work purpose is: To help as many people as I can find and pursue their purpose so they can live out extraordinary lives and change the world.

That gets me super excited. I want to get up early to do that. I want to help people do that through my books, blog posts, online courses, coaching, videos, and more!

My family purpose is: To unconditionally love and serve my wife and daughters and help them live the extraordinary lives they were created for.

That leads me to spend more time with them and finding ways to help them.

My spiritual purpose is: To develop a deeper relationship with Christ and try to act more like Him.

That leads me to spend more time reading the bible, praying, and looking for ways to serve.

What about you? What purposes get you excited? Please don’t just read this and forget it. Take some time today or this weekend and figure it out.

Action steps:

1) Get my free eBook and spend time this weekend answering the questions to get you started on finding your purpose.

2) From your work answering the questions, take at least one action on a purpose that resonated with you.

3) Let me know how it’s going and ask me any question that pops up by emailing me: greg@gregorybknapp.com

Let’s GO!

Ramp it up. One to one coaching and an online coaching program for various budgets now available. Click here for more details.