How to get into the habit of living your life with purpose – starting today?

As we – human beings – go through life – many of us begin to wonder about “the meaning of life” or in other words “what is the purpose of life?” – maybe even “what is the purpose of my life”?

While that is a big question – you can apply small experiments (smaller questions) and build habits to figure out an answer which is meaningful to yourself.

In this blog post I will try to connect the stated philosophical question with a practice designed for creating habits – so you can begin today – if you choose to.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards”.

“It is perfectly true, as the philosophers say, that life must be understood backwards. But they forget the other proposition, that it must be lived forwards”.

Soeren Aabye Kierkegaard

What is Your Purpose in Life? Think Big – But Start Small

Only you can figure out what your life’s purpose is. One example of purpose is that millions of people find it meaningful to help other human beings – without getting a monetary reward for this effort. This is often labelled “philanthropy” (“the love of humanity”). While this sounds grandiose – small actions in your daily life might contribute more than you believe in creating a continuously improved world for us and generations to come. Starting small – some examples of daily habits which could maybe be meaningful?

• As a parent: Tell your kids that you love them – every morning.
• At work: Ask your colleagues how they feel / are doing – listen and empathize – every day.
• Going somewhere: Smile to a perfect stranger on the street – every morning.
• Viewing your social media feed: Like / share when someone is looking for new opportunities – enabling them and others to potentially connect – every chance you get.

I am sure you will be able to quickly come up with 1 to 5 small things – which would be meaningful for you to do – and which you will not have to invest a lot of time or money in doing as a habit.

One Way to Build a Habit – Starting Today (The “Seinfeld Strategy”)

As the story goes the comedian Jerry Seinfeld is said to have provided some advice for an up and coming comedian on how to persist at achieving your goals (by creating a habit):

“…the way to be a better comic is to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes is to write every day”.

“…get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall.”

“…get a big red magic marker. …for each day that you do your task of writing, …put a big red X over that day.”

“After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.”

Jerry Seinfeld

Connecting other Human Beings – a Simple Habit Example

As an example – while you are browsing through your feed on LinkedIn (or some other other social media) – you notice that another human being is looking for new opportunities.

You might make it a habit – if that is meaningful to you – to tap “Like” – use “Share” or make a “Comment” – which could take only a few seconds of your time. A fairly small investment – which could potentially be very beneficial for both the person looking for new opportunities – and for organizations searching for new colleagues.

Building a Habit – Generic Approach

1. Choose the habit you would like to have – and remember to start small – so it is easy to achieve (maybe connected to your growing sense of purpose).
2. Find a trigger to remind you of your habit (e.g. a calendar on the wall and / or the “Like” button in your LinkedIn feed).
3. Practice you habit – every day (do whatever you decided to do).
4. Reward yourself (e.g. putting the big red X on the calendar on the wall).
5. Do not break the habit chain (but you probably will – and if so just start again – which gets easier with practice).

Sources / Thank You for Your Contribution to a Better World

• Soeren Aabye Kierkegaard (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855)
• Blog describing “The Seinfeld Strategy” in more detail (James Clear)
• Book on behavioral science: “Switch: How to change things when change is hard” (Chip Heath and Dan Heath)
• Book on behavioral science / design (currently only available in Danish – but is being translated into English): “Jytte fra Marketing er desværre gået for i dag” (Morten Münster)
• Blog on behavioral science / design (in Danish) (Morten Münster)
• Philanthropy definition
• “Red X clip art” on calendar graphic

Notes

Disclaimer on Jerry Seinfeld story