Welcome to the world where students have everything at their fingertips! From assignments in their smartphones to the college community interactions on social networking groups, there’s a lot that goes on in their everyday digital space. Now, if you’re a student, you do have a lot of online support, and you think it’s easier than ever to navigate through education, career and life to eventually find your true purpose. Right? Let’s find out.
It all starts with getting rid of the small everyday challenges and shaping one’s habits to focus better. Students can find purpose with being more disciplined, building their confidence and incorporating positive thinking in their everyday lives. Let’s dive deeper by understanding what purpose is.
What is Purpose?
Purpose is your true calling, the reason why you’re here in this world. What is your journey all about? What will you impact and how? Are you here to create, curate or consume? There are so many aspects to purpose but the main thing is the end goal. What are you meant to achieve and where are you meant to reach before bidding adieu?
Too many questions, too much confusion and not much of a conclusion. You might think about your purpose for days, months, years even and reach nowhere with the answer. If it was easy to find answers, the entire field of Philosophy wouldn’t even exist!
Don’t get overwhelmed by the information! Let’s break it down for you:
- Purpose is about finding your place in the world and in your own life.
- Purpose isn’t just about what you do everyday but it is about why you do what you do and where you will eventually go by doing it.
- Will you create something impactful? Will you curate what is impactful and spread awareness? Will you consume what’s impactful and pass on your learnings to others? Purpose isn’t one size fits all.
As you can see, you can play several roles in your journey and live a purposeful life.
An Example to Understand Purpose
You must have noticed the following scenarios at school or in college. In a music band, everyone doesn’t play the same instrument but the outcome is brilliant! Everyone is doing what they’re meant to do and if they do it well (the mix and merge of various types of sounds), the orchestra bowls us over.
Now imagine if the violinist was to play the drums, the pianist was to play the saxophone and so on. Unless all of these musicians know every single instrument, tuneless and unpleasant noise would be the outcome. Why? Because each one is doing something they’re not meant to do.
That’s easy to fix as they all can go back to the instruments they know well and recreate beautiful melodies again but what about the melody of our lives? What happens when we don’t even know what we’re best at? Can we do something that’s not meant for us and go back and recreate our lives? How do we find out what we’re meant to do? Let’s simplify the process of finding your purpose.
Students and Purpose
Let me get one thing out of the way. Purpose doesn’t have an age factor. It doesn’t have any factor. By that I mean that you can find your purpose at any age (even at 83, yes!), in any situation, at any turning point of your life or during simply sitting and watching television (are television sets still purposeful?).
If that’s the case, why am I even bothering to talk about students and purpose? It’s not like you can only find your purpose when you’re a student but you do have way more opportunities and more room for “trial and error” than any of us.
You’re at your prime! Prime for more mistakes, prime for more options, prime to restart your life. Students have time, space, energy, guidance, opportunities on their side. And when I say that, I’m talking quantity alone.
Why do Students Have an Advantage Over Others In Finding Purpose?
When you’re a student, your life has just begin. As you enter high school or college, the atmosphere is bustling with new opportunities, an array of interests and a platform to showcase your talents and express yourself. You’re right there standing in the middle of
- More time to find your true calling if you start looking for it early on.
- When you start exploring early, you have the time to experiment with and get exposure to more things.
- You can find good mentors who you can rely on to help you with more confidence and push you to explore every activity or experience. These can be your school or college teachers, a purpose coach or even just an older friend with more overall ”life experience”.
- You can make more mistakes because you gave enough time to recover from those and start afresh.
- The earlier you start working on your confidence, the more unafraid you are to create opportunities for yourself, eventually finding your purpose along the way.
You get the idea? So, if you’re a student, congratulations! You’re in for an amazing ride towards finding your purpose early on.
What Can Students Do To Find Purpose?
Finding purpose isn’t like getting a college degree. There’s nobody out there handing out certificates saying “Congratulations, you’ve found your true calling!” So, does that make it tough to find purpose? I wouldn’t say it’s tough, it’s more of a journey and there’s no expiry date to looking for purpose or finding it. However, as I mentioned earlier, students have an advantage if they understand what purpose is and if they move in the right direction. Here’s what you can do to start your purposeful journey:
- Work on getting rid of the little hiccups in your daily life. You can do this by understanding where you face the most challenges, the ones that can be worked upon. For example: If you’re a procrastinator, it will be helpful to work on reducing that and boosting your discipline. It will be hard at first but it is well worth the reward. Once you fix this, you’ll be able to achieve more in less time.
- Work on removing comparisons in your life. Know that getting inspired isn’t the same as comparing one’s life with someone else’s. Everyone’s journey is different and comparing yours to someone else’s will only lead to disappointment. Instead, work on your own strengths and know that not everyone’s timeline is the same. It takes everyone a different amount of time to achieve what they set out to achieve.
- Build your confidence. Building confidence is the best way to not only boost your motivation but it also helps kill comparison! Confident people really are more successful because even if you do fail a few times, having confidence helps you get back up and start over. Boosting confidence has many benefits for students, like better socializing skills, an openness to create more opportunities and following one’s inner voice, to name a few.
Here’s a simple confidence toolkit to get you started.
- Participate in more school or college activities. This one can be challenging if you’re an introvert but it can really help you do away with your shyness! Once you start participating in various activities like sports, music, reading, dramatics, painting and more, you’ll open up to your talents and future possibilities. You’ll be able to find what you’re truly passionate about and what you’d like to contribute to the world. Start with checking out online forums and your various school or college clubs. Volunteer more and find new friends too!
Tools to Help Students Find Purpose
Once you start having your life in momentum with all of the above-mentioned tips, you‘ll need to be consistent. Finding your true purpose isn’t about reaching a destination. As I mentioned it’s a journey and a lifelong one! That’s why purpose is all about what you actually love to do, something you’re really passionate about. So, how do you stay consistent once you are on the right path? Here are some tools to help you stay focused and keep at it:
Meaningful Books on Purpose
Even if you’re not an avid reader, finding time just to read a few pages of books on purpose will help you learn and improve in whatever you’re doing. One such book I strongly recommend is Jay Shetty’s “Think Like A Monk”. It’s an exceptional book with simple actionable tips for staying focused and on your purpose every single day. There’s no fluff in this one and it’s all about “doing” rather than just being motivated in your mind.
Another great work by for being more disciplined, focused and productive in a fast-moving world is Robin Sharma’s “The 5AM Club”. This one will help you start your day early with discipline and motivation for a great day ahead. It’s not about rushing but about starting your day peacefully and keeping stress away. This routine will help you feel better and therefore, think and live better.
Meaningful Podcasts on Purpose
Podcasts are another great way to help yourself build more meaning in your everyday life. The best part about podcasts is that you can listen to them during your commute so you don’t have to specially make time for them. You get to hear opinions and views of some amazing people. You’ll find lots of great advice and tips. Listing some amazing purpose podcasts below:
- On Purpose with Jay Shetty: This is fantastic podcast hosted by former monk Jay Shetty which gives you tips about daily habits, productivity, mindfulness and a lot more. A great podcast to lead a stress-free yet purposeful life.
- Where There’s Smoke. This is another amazing podcast by Brett Gajda and Nick Jaworski where you’ll hear about people’s life experiences. From gratitude and willpower to positivity, the topics are varied with the core to create a meaningful and purposeful life.
- The Brendon Show. Author and motivational speaker Brendon Burchard’s podcast is an ad-free experience of the best tips on managing and improving various areas of your life. A must-listen for those who would like to develop life skills.
Meaningful Videos on Purpose
If you love binge-watching YouTube videos, why not watch something that can help you improve your everyday life? If you want to find purpose, you need more clarity of mind, more focus, more discipline and most of all a stress-free environment + mind. These amazing YouTube videos can help with motivation and some great actionable tips to get you started:
- Changing Your Habits by Mel Robbins
Tired of your old habits? Here’s a wonderful video to help you transform your everyday life.
- Find Your Purpose by Goalcast
This video has some of the most inspirational leaders of today talking about the ways to find your purpose. They’ll bust many myths and will help you bust your stress. A fast-paced world doesn’t have to mean a fast-paced stressful life. Remember, slow and steady wins the race but consistency is key. It’s not about doing something fast, it’s about doing that “one” thing right.
Are You Ready to Find Your Purpose?
As a student, life can be stressful. Too many assignments, too many obligations, too much of everything. But it doesn’t have to be. Don’t let your environment dictate who you should be. Find yourself, find your purpose and create your own opportunities. Remember, even with all the mud around, a lotus doesn’t fail to inspire with its magnificence. It blooms and so will you.
