A Purpose-full Life

It's that time of year again, no not time to clean out my closet and refresh with a fall wardrobe, the time of year that I start to think about purpose. My "purpose". 

My family and friends seem to know that its coming even before I do. A lot of people self reflect sometime around January 1st (well, maybe the 2nd or 3rd depending on how their New Years celebration was) but not me, I'm a forward thinking, a grab the bull by the horns type of gal so I start this journey well before the New Year. There's something about the season change, summer to fall, that automatically makes me reflect on my purpose in life. I ask the same questions every year:

What am I doing? 

Am I doing what I should be doing? 

Is what I'm doing purpose-full?

It's so annoying!!!! 

Last week I read a blog post written by Emilie of Puttylike (www.puttylike.com). The post title caught my eye "Can't Settle on a Niche for your Business? Not a Problem." Well that's interesting because that's exactly my problem I can't settle on one thing. What's holding me back? It's not that I'm good at everything that I do,  it's just that I like to do many things.  

Emilie suggests that instead of pushing everyone to choose a niche, we should empower people to create the sorts of businesses that work with their personality. Interesting! , so I made a list of some of my personality traits.

I'm usually outgoing, but I can be an introvert as well

I can be devoted yet sometimes, uncommitted 

Sometimes I'm enthusiastic, and other times indifferent

Some days self directed, others directed by externals
I am confident, yet sometimes self doubting 

This left me wondering if I needed medication.

I tested Emilie's expertise and sent her an email asking for help. I let her know who I was, what I am doing, have done, strengths, weaknesses, all my interests, and pretty much anything else I could fit in. She mentioned in her post that she likes a challenge, well here one was a big one.

Later that day I got Emilie's response I was anxious to open her email to see what she came up with. Did she nail it?....and oddly enough, she did. What she gave me was the common theme to all of my rants; and that overarching theme was "design". 

She was right, I am happiest when I am creating, when I'm being inspired by design, or inspiring someone with my creations; and although there are many more layers to who I am this is a key component that must be present in my everyday existence. 


How about you? Are you living a purpose- full life? Do you know what your common theme is? Perhaps you should ask Emilie, she may understand you better than you understand yourself.
Remember: It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not that does.