Knowing Your Purpose Can help You Move In The Right Direction

When I launched my blog, two weeks ago, I had a mixture of emotions: nervousness, excitement, and a great sense of achievement. However, the realisations soon became apparent: I have to start writing another post. I had a few post ideas in mind that probably would have taken me half the time to complete. However, I had a strong urge to write it on purpose.

Although I have an interest in this topic, I didn’t feel like I had the knowledge to tackle it yet, which is why this post took longer than I expected to finish. One thing is for sure, I don’t believe I’m qualified to tell you how to find your purpose, but I can share how I found mine and who has encouraged me to walk in it.

Finding my purpose

Finding my purpose came about when I took a leap of faith and went to college. You can read about it in my post overcoming fear helped me find the answers I was longing for. Normally, when people speak about finding their purpose, it tends to be something that they are good or passionate about. I was neither.

If you knew the younger Natalie, you would know that writing was something that I loathed. Let’s just say, I wasn’t skilled in that area hence why I failed my English GCSE’s. However, one day whilst I was lost in a captivating book, I heard a voice inside of me saying, you can write one. Instead of looking at my educational background, I thought maybe I can.

So, when I decided to go back to college, two things changed in me:

1. I had a child, so failure wasn’t an option

2. I was curious to see if I could improve my writing skills.

Because of these two reasons, I started researching and learning how to make my writing more interesting and engaging, and thankfully my grades rapidly improved.

One of my teachers was impressed by a piece I wrote that she suggested that I send it to a popular newspaper, which I kindly declined. I then wrote another piece, and she tried to encourage me to study journalism, which I kindly declined again. Looking back, I regret not taking her advice.

Although I had teachers believing in me, I wasn’t ready or maybe I was too fearful to put my work out there.

Luvvie Ajayi Jones’ Speech

When writing this piece, one video came to mind. It was a Ted Talk that my sister had sent me, around 4 years ago, called Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable. Watching it for the first time, I thought it was an inspiring speech. Luvvie Ajayi Jones was a blogger. I wanted to be a blogger. She was an author, and I wanted to be an author. I believe my sister sent it to encourage me to believe in myself, but it unfortunately never worked. It wasn’t anything to do with the speech, it was due to my lack of confidence.

Fast forward 4 years. I can confidently say my perspective on life has changed. When I watched the video this time, I watched it as a blogger and with purpose in mind. So, I was able to pick up different things in her speech. What stood out to me was, after 9 years of blogging, she acknowledged that her purpose was to write and finally called herself a writer. Once she acknowledged her purpose and overcame the fear of not making a living from being a writer, awesome things happened in her life.

I can relate to her not wanting to be called a writer, but for different reasons. Throughout my studies, I had teachers and lecturers praising my writing skills, yet I would NEVER take on the title as a writer as I never thought I was worthy of it. However, seeing that her life improved, once she walked in her purpose and owned her title as a writer, gives me the courage to confidently walk in my purpose and own that title too. I’m not saying that I’m at her level, but I feel that once you see yourself as the person you want to be, people will eventually see it too, and great things will happen.

Conclusion

When I started writing this piece, I didn’t know what direction I was going in. But what I’ve learnt is: knowing and acknowledging your purpose will allow you to set your goals so that you can walk in it. I knew my purpose was to write, so as soon as I went back to college, I worked on improving my skills. The same thing happened when I went to university, and the same thing is happening now.

I also learnt:

Fear has a concrete power of keeping us from doing and saying the things that are our purpose
Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Do you know what your purpose is? Are you walking in it?

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