FINDING Your Purpose & PHILOSOPHY WILL LET YOU BE AND THRIVE.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

YOUR PURPOSE REVEALS YOUR PATH

A few days ago, while chatting with a friend on the ever lasting topic of 'finding a path that resonates', we circled back to an old tool called Ikigai. For thousands of years, we humans tried to understand what drives our potential, how to achieve a state of life that resonates on a deeper level and how can that reflect to our daily lives.

Here we are, revealing an easy to apply way to reveal your purpose and philosophy. At Freedomxx, we encourage everyone to go through this workflow as a first step and have a deeper understanding of themselves and the environment they thrive in.

Why you need to better understand yourSELF?

Purpose and philosophy are big words, do not let them scare you. Better understanding yourself and your environment, matching them as much as possible, is our game here.

We all seek engagement with life, full force engagement. Getting to understand and communicate our personal philosophy, a vision that aligns with our being that excites us, is a big step towards full engagement.

At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your current values and identity. Don't get me wrong, your values will evolve over time but the alignment you will feel when you put your values into words is powerful.

Remember, visiting this practice every few years will sharpen your saw. While going through this, be open and vulnerable.

Now lets go through the process.

What PEOPLE - Concepts - Topics are You In Love With?

From childhood until now, you are in love with certain people, things and concepts. For example, I love inventions, creativity, practicality, impact, geometry and enthusiasm to name a few. I am inspired by people like Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steve Jobs and Marie Curie. People who have explored new tools, who have impacted the society.

I also love buildings, structures and systems, especially when they have clarity and flow. Gives me a kick anytime I experience an example of this.

Go an extra mile, limit the list and select 5 people, 5 things and 5 words you are drawn to really strongly (can be less than these numbers but not more).

What You are Good at?

Until now, your learned many skills. Some of them, you edited and iterated many times, you are good at them, some are hard skills and some are mental skills. Write down the skills, processes, concepts you are good at on a sheet.

Write down at least 10 of them as going deeper will bring us more detailed results.

Last time I did this process, I wrote them 12 of them from “creating digital products” to “bringing concepts to life” to "preparing a breakfast" to "perseverance".

Do not limit yourself, enjoy the range of items on the list and be open.

What the world needs and can pay you for?

Life evolves around utility, usefulness more than anything else. People exchange currency to earn time or solve their problems. They buy products and services, consume content, learn everyday. We connect through this transaction of utility as much as love, compassion, etc.

What do you think world can pay you for at this time?

Write down services, products you can offer, any sort of utility that can help someone else or a community. On my bucket list are music tools, written content, storytelling, teaching and many more. Go into detail as much as possible, preparing cookies and selling them is definitely worth writing or offering shamanic rituals *)

What are you obsessed with? (Bonus)

What do you enjoy refining endlessly?

I was a composer - sound designer for performances and art spaces around 10 years ago. Completely obsessed with the sound and how it can transform someones perception.

I could produce any sound from any source and manipulate the emotion that sound reflects within the space. I could do this because I was obsessed with it, could play with a sound for many hours, edit it over and over again. It was meditation for my mind, making me high at the end.

Write things down you are obsessed with, you can refine endlessly. This list might be a little shorter but these items will have a defining impact.

And now all comes together…

So all of these people, words, skills and concepts are your touch points with life. We can shape these touch points into a deeper philosophy as well as a practical roadmap for your life that aligns with who you are.

Articulating Your Purpose & Philosophy

Now lets start with creating a sentence that reflects who you are. Look at the people who truely inspire you and write their characteristics or values. Then look at these values and other concepts/words you are in love with, select top 5 (or less) words from this list which fully resonate with you. Turn these into a sentence or a phrase that will fully align with who you are:

My philosophy as an example: The values and words most resonate with me are exploration, creativity, impact, enthusiasm and clarity. I even went further and wrote down the philosophy below with 3 words from the list, here it is:

"Explore to impact with enthusiasm."

This feels really powerful to me, so much that I repeat it a few times a day to myself. It is not perfect and it will evolve but the fact that I can articulate it makes every decision and move I make in life extremely clear.

Remember that these are my values, words and yours can/should be different. As Michael Gervais says, people who impacted society had a clear vision. Martin Luther King had equality, Gandhi had peace and Jesus had love as a philosophy. This guided all their actions, be open about yours, be vulnerable and share it with the people you love (we would love to hear as well, write to hello (at) freedomxx (dot) com).

Finding a Practical Mission

Life is utilitarian and practical, after finding your core values, lets look at how we can find a practical mission.

Now I look at the lists of What am I Good at and What the World needs as well as What you are Obsessed with. Start combining concepts between these lists.

Combining one word/phrase from each list works the best.

One example from me: sound design, product making and story-telling. Write at least a few of these combinations.

Now select your favourite combination and write a possible a few sentence story for that specific combination and the reveal the potential future. It should be doable and real.

One story from me: I can make music tools and products for people using my sound design and recording skills, communicate these with potential users through authentic storytelling. We can create a website where we share these tools and grow a community who would find use in these. We should have unique libraries and tools so it differentiates from what is out there.

This story is very real, doable and fitting my example. Very important to make it as if you will really go and do it. You shall write a super short story for all combinations, 2 or 3 of them is good enough. Now look at these stories and decide which one is super exciting and you want to pursue. This will be your way, direction for the next 5 years.

Remember that this can be a slight shift from what you were already doing or a major shift. It is worth pursuing in any case.
For my example, this is how it ended. While I kept doing service sound work, we recorded and edited first 5 products of our store which will grow into a 6 figure business with 50+ products over the next 5 years. As the combination is critical for resonance, it felt step by step, natural and fully engaging, easier to handle challenges over the road.

I assure you will end up with better awareness and fit for life and a stronger engagement after going through this process.

When you are set with the story, it is time to act forward.

We are craving to hear from you, write us your findings and experiences.

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