What makes you feel like you have purpose in life?
Updated: Feb 5, 2022
A very different question to “what is your purpose” but merely what makes you “feel” purposeful, like you have purpose in life. In this article I am going to be looking at how purpose is seen in the business world, give you an example of a super simple activity I did, and finishing of with a suggestion for you to feel more purposeful in life, in case this is something you have been asking yourself.
If you come from western society and were “raised”…
(Side note, I purposely use this term, as human beings should not be raised like farm animal… nor should animals but that is a whole other topic, and this is simply the inhumane structure of the system we currently still reside in and under my beliefs are slowly moving away from)
…so if you were “raised” to be a “successful business woman or man” make a lot of money, have loads of material possessions, look good in societies eyes and work for an international renown multinational participating in this system, then you would be living a “purposeful life” right… well before I get into this topic ask yourself how many of these high powered multinational business people are truly happy… to my knowledge I have not met one including myself back in the day when I was working for these “recognized international companies”.
Before writing this article, I did some research to see what “purpose” means for people in the business world and to summarize my different findings, it basically said that “people are looking to do jobs where they are feeling more purposeful, where they are doing something good for another and contributing to the world. If they no longer feel like they have purpose in their job, they will then try to work with companies which are helping improve the state of our world. Since most multinational companies are based on "old structured business models with an internal hierarchy" an option to find more purpose in the business world is to work with young start-ups which are not big multinationals but companies whose focus is to make a positive change in someway in this world with new business models where an internal hierarchy is not set.
Since I am targeting this article towards people in the Business world, who wish to remain in the business world, before switching companies, I have a great activity which can, for the time given, make you feel full of purpose.
I often go ride a bike along lake Geneva, which I am beyond grateful for that I have the chance to do this, because the energy around this lake in this country is something truly unique! When I ride my bike alone, I smile to as many strangers which cross my way, especially through a look in my eyes, to some I say “bonjour”, to some tourists I take pictures of them for them, to other tourists I give directions or insights of cool places to visit and to some really old folk walking around I take a break and chat with them (another side note, I always learn super interesting life stories).
I realized how fulfilled I always feel after these bike rides, and how happy it makes me to simply smile at so many random people and to notice how some people also all of a sudden get a smile on their face whilst others are in shock thinking “do I know her, do i have something on my face... or why is she smiling at me” which makes me realize too few of us do this. One day in particular I felt this voice within, “now that’s doing something purposeful with your life”. In that moment I reflected on all the “amazing multinationals” I had already worked for and not once did I feel any sense of purpose, nothing near to how I felt after those bike rides and there it clicked, this is something I do for free, it does not cost anything, you do not need years of business universities and external awards and qualifications to do this, and I was reaching so many people simply by biking and smiling… something which is also good for my health. It made me laugh so much because in our society we have complicated everything so much, when these big existential life questions are answered in pure simplicity doing small acts which we actually enjoy and are not detrimental on our health or the environment and other people, yet on the contrary are quite benefiting for yourself, others and the environment.
What I want to say to especially all the business people if you are “looking for what gives you purpose in life” before looking into switching a company or even whilst you are switching jobs, try taking a bike ride or a walk and smiling at strangers and see what it does to you. Life is so much more simple than we have been made to believe, it's quite beautiful as well.
We are generation change!
Enjoy & Yours truly
Isabel
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