Are You Just Existing? 4 Steps to Live Your Purpose

By: Latrice McNeal

Are you Living or Existing?

It is 5am; the alarm goes off and I roll out of bed and jump in my shower while going over my to-do list. “Another day, another dollar, another chance for me to help the kids,” I thought to myself. I am making a difference and what I do matters.” I talked myself up and continued getting prepared to go into the office where I worked as a counselor and school administrator. As I headed to the car and prepared to pull off I found myself thinking, “What the hell am I doing? No really what am I doing?” Here I was resigning myself to just existing. To getting up going to a job, doing a little something to make a difference and coming home. Meanwhile my unique brilliance, my gifts and talents were going unused in a way that was draining me.

I was living the unlived life.

I didn’t realize the problem at first. I blamed the job, I claimed I was tired, I thought maybe I just needed to get out and socialize more. But in that moment I recognized the issue. I was living the unlived life- a life where I was just going through the motions. I had even convinced myself that I was doing well because I was making decent pay while helping others and using my gifts in a sense. I wasn’t unhappy. I mean, I had a career, a wonderful husband, and no major life problems. But deep down I knew, “there’s more for me, this is not my destination.”

My story may sound familiar to you. Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions? On the outside people probably think you have it all together because your career looks great, you have everything you need, and maybe you even have a great relationship to top it off. However somewhere inside is that nagging feeling that there is more for you.

Moving from “now” to “next.”

Well let me tell you what, you need to listen to that voice within. Don’t think for a second that you are being ungrateful because you know you were made for more. That feeling is telling you that it’s time to go from your “now” to your “next.” You may be thinking I don’t even know what I want exactly. Well neither did I! But what I decided was that the unlived life was not okay for me, I was created for more and I was determined to really live. There are a few things I did on a regular basis to get clear about my next steps and finally make the leap to really living my purpose.

• I connected daily with the Creator in prayer and meditation to get divine direction.
• I journaled nightly to reconnect to my voice. I found that I had been so busy giving out to others and along the way I wasn’t able to hear my own inner voice clearly.
• I started using the gifts that I had let go dormant. I knew I needed to nurture and grow my gifts and impact others with them.
• I stayed in action. One of the worse things people do when they feel unclear is to get stuck and just stop everything. Keep moving, take action and you will gain clarity.

So what can YOU do?

Do not resign yourself to the unlived life. You will look up years from now with regret because you never did the things you knew in your heart you were meant to do. If you’d like to get clear and take action to really live your purpose I invite you to join The Purpose Experience, a movement of women who are boldly pursuing their purpose. Take the pledge, complete the free course, and commit to living each day to the fullest.