Part 1 of the Living Accidentally series left off questioning how to live on purpose. When I think about Living On Purpose, my mind automatically questions “what is my life purpose?” How does someone even decide that, especially if you are lost, stumbling, in the dark, stuck in a corner, in a blackhole, or wherever you are when you come to realize that you must live with purpose?

The answer is that this question is actually too monstrous of a question and cannot be answered with thought alone. Fortunately, I believe it’s the wrong question to be asking.

The right question is “what is one thing I could do today to make it a success?”

Start small. Finding your life goal doesn’t happen over night. Having a life plan doesn’t happen with a snap of a finger. Your own path and destination is only forged as you walk it. Meaning, the path you want to go on, isn’t actually there until you pave it. You won’t know exactly where you are going until you get there and it’s extremely daunting to decide where you’ll be in 5 years. So the trick is to start small and doing the one thing that would make today a success.

Choose something that you can do, and do it on purpose everyday. Pour all your thoughts into that one thing. Behave as if the only thing you need to do, and will do, is that one thing. Put all your energy into it. Let yourself be immersed in it. Let your body feel what it feels like to put all your focus, attention, energy into that one thing.

You woke up to do this one thing.

You got out of bed to do this one thing.

You brushed your teeth for this one thing.

You put on clothes to do this one thing.

You are eating for this one thing.

You turned on your computer to do this one thing.

By giving this one purpose for the entire day and completing it, you are doing two things.

First, you are reminding your body and mind what a successful day feels like. It’s important to build this feeling of success everyday. Your body and mind will naturally start to adjust and work towards this feeling. For those who feel lost, the feeling of a successful accomplishment, even when it’s starting small, is a huge win. The feeling of a successful day, when it comes from a small task, is like the tiny snowball before it rolls down the hill and becomes an avalanche. It’s the small, continual work that defeats the crushing feeling of being stuck or lost.

Second, you just started paving your own path. Life stories and life plans do not come from step 1. In the snowball example, step 1 isn’t even the snowball. It’s you picking up snow. Or even learning what snow is! Life plans are written in retrospect and you have to take the first step to your own path. On step 2, you still won’t have a life plan, but you’ll be headed in some direction. Maybe you pick up more snow and start to pack it into a snow ball. It may feel like a huge step and that it’ll be forever cast in stone, but it’s not. It’s only huge because you’ve taken so few steps, and each one seems giant. But keep going, and on step 100, you’ll have a snowball, a general direction, and maybe some picture of purpose. On step 1,000, things will become more clear and the steps will be easier to take. Suddenly, on step 10,000, you realize you have reached one portion of your plan and working on another. On Step 100,000, you are now juggling multiple “goals” and “plans” and living your “purpose.” Only then, once you look back at step 1, will you be able to see what your purpose was all along.

Ironic, that the only way to see forward, is to go forward and look back.

This is how you gradually go from living accidentally and start living on purpose.

For those of you who would like an example of starting small, here’s my example. For others, tune in next time to find out that everything we do comes at a cost. What are you willing to pay to live with purpose and walk your own path?