When you haven’t found it, despite your material wealth, you are an internally unhappy bundle of emptiness, yearning, confusion, and depression. In other words, there is this inner feeling of unhappiness when you have not made your own discovery. Simple things like waking up for work and cheerfulness are difficult, but as soon as you do, boom! A light switches on in your head and sends signals of joy all over you. Things begin to change forever!
The maker
The greatest discovery on earth is to find your purpose in life. Let’s look at it this way. You go the shop to buy a toothbrush. Back home you could use it as a paint brush, and some other things but that brush is most effective as a toothbrush, which the manufacturers made it to be.
If like me, you are amazed at how God created the human body, with every little part of the body as vital as the other, as purposeful as the other, it goes to reason that the totality of man was created for a purpose. Let’s take this point further: if all men and women had a common purpose, there would be no reason for God to set individuals apart. The fact that no two individuals are the same, not even identical twins, suggests that our purpose in life will not be the same.
Individuals are wired for specific purposes – given different talents or gifts. And maximum efficiency and satisfaction in life is achieved when the individual operates in his or her gift zone. Everyone is born with a special gift, and it only becomes useful when it is deployed in the area most suited. Life becomes meaningful and happy when career choice is decided by one’s gift. Talents are God’s gifts to individuals. You don’t decide or determine your gift or talent; you discover or find it. In some cases the gifts are discovered by more experienced people such as coaches and mentors.
How you know
However, while some people seem to be born knowing what their natural gifts and talents are, and soon know exactly what they want to do in life, most people, like the story of the Ugly Duckling, don’t seem to know their gift until much later in life.
Experts say, you know what you are gifted to do by your love for it. And when you are doing what you love, “your eyes sparkle, you are happy and excited about life, you are full of energy and joy. You feel satisfied, content and turned on.”
“Doing what you love rejuvenates you; it gives you more energy than it requires.”
You are at your best when you are doing what you are gifted to do. According to a recently-concluded research by Japanese neurologists, Brazilian superstar Neymar is so good that his brain is on what could be called autopilot, when he is at his dribbling best. The study suggests that Neymar’s brain activity is only at 10 percent of that of amateur players. (More on this next week).
The good thing about operating in your gift zone, is that you are not only joyous doing so, you easily excel at it without having many degrees like a thermometer. Bill Gates is a university drop-out. Let’s share some more of this:
Christina Aguilera, singer, songwriter. Never finished high school.
Naomi Campbell, model, TV host. She was discovered by a modeling scout at the age of 15. Did not attend college.
Jackie Collins, actress and novelist. Expelled from high school at the age of 15. She immediately threw her school uniform into the Thames River and never looked back. She has written 28 bestselling novels so far with 400 million copies sold worldwide.
Miley Cyrus, singer, actress. Has not yet attended college.
Charles Dickens, bestselling novelist. Left elementary school to work in a factory after his father was thrown into debtors’ prison.
Walt Disney, producer, director, screenwriter, animator, developer of Disneyland. Winner of 26 Oscars and 7 Emmy awards. While attending McKinley High School, he also took night classes at the Chicago Art Institute. He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 to join the army.
Snoop Dogg, rapper and actor. Never attended college. “A lot of people like to fool you and say that you’re not smart if you never went to college, but common sense rules over everything.”
Research has also shown that people who discover their purpose live longer. As one expert on this says from experience that, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow.”
New research published in Psychological Science shows that at any age, having a sense of purpose could add years to your life.
According to the researchers, their results suggest that creating a purpose for yourself could promote healthy ageing throughout adulthood. “Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose,” says lead researcher Dr Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada