Have you been feeling stuck and that you have no purpose? You want to feel energized when you wake up each morning. You want to feel valued and that your life has meaning. You want to feel joy in your work and life overall. And when you don’t feel these things, you don’t show up as the best version of yourself. You can have low energy, little to no motivation, and negative feelings and outlook. Ick. That sounds like a terrible way to live. So, if you’re ready - let’s turn this around. If you’re ready to get unstuck, and you’re ready for something bigger in life and for something with more meaning; I have three journaling exercises for you to gain clarity around your purpose and help you get unstuck.
1. Create a “Don’t Want” List: create a list of all the things you don’t want to do and don’t like to do. This will allow you to be more open to what you DO want to do. You can even take this a step further and write the opposite of the things you don’t like to do – this will give you clues and more clarity around your purpose. So, for example, if you don’t like clocking in and/or working 8 am – 5 pm, then the opposite of that is a flexible workday. Or if you don’t like working in an office, the opposite could be working outside or working from home or a coffee shop. Make sense?
2. Create a Joy List: yep. A joy list. This is a list of things that you find joy doing. It could be drinking coffee on your back porch in the mornings, painting, technology, listening to music while working, riding your bike, working outside, wrapping presenting, cooking food, etc. The more specific you can get the better. And let this list cover ALL areas of your life. This will become your master joy list. And when you have your master list complete, you can take it a step further and look for patterns in the things you enjoy. These patterns might be clues to new areas of interest. Either way, you will gain more clarity.
3. Create a “Stuck” Journal: start journaling all the times you feel stuck. If you’re at work and you get stuck with starting a certain type of project – make note of it. Make note of times you get stuck sending an email, drafting a brief, finishing a project, starting a project, being present, etc. Moments when you get stuck are clues that maybe you don’t like doing that type of work. It could also be clues to struggles with perfectionism and low self-worth, but for these purposes, just start being aware of when you get stuck and make note of it.
I’m a big believer that the magic happens when you put pen to paper. These three journaling exercises are designed for you to get unstuck and gain clarity around your purpose. I suggest doing all three of these exercises, however, just doing one of them will give you more clarity. I PROMISE if you put pen to paper you will have an AHA moment. You will gain clarity – and that clarity will give you a jolt of excitement and joy – because you will be that much closer to living in alignment with your purpose.
Love and light,
xoxo
