Finding Your Bliss: A Quick Strategy

A major source of discontent in many people’s lives not knowing what they truly want. Yes, that mansion, beautiful spouse and two kids sound great, but that’s not what I’m talking about. This has been said before, so I’ll let the philosophers speak for me:

Marcus Aurelias once said, “Everything–a horse, a vine–is created for some duty… For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.”

Deepak Chopra agreed: “Every man has a purpose, something special that he can do better than anyone else. Your work is to discover this, then give yourself to it. The extent to which you use your skills to add to the world determines your happiness.”

What do you want out of this whole “life” thing?

This is one of the hardest questions for people to answer and yet it’s probably the most important question to know the answer to! Many will say it can’t be answered or that they’ll figure it out later. Well I disagree. This is something that can be answered at any age. Your answer will grow and evolve as you, yourself grow, but you can at least start working towards your current goal.

Here’s a great exercise that I’ve found really helpful in determining your bliss:

1) Think of the what you want right at this moment. Considering you do not know what you ultimately want yet, it’s probably something simple like that girl from work, that new BMW and the ability to travel around the world.

2) Fast-forward to when you have all of that. Immerse yourself in that moment and decide what you will want then. You already have all that you currently want, so what will your new desires be?

3) Repeat this process a few times and eventually you will come to the point where you have every earthly possession and the world is at your fingertips. So what then? You can’t just stay stagnant because you have everything, that would be extremely boring. What would you do with your life if you could do anything?

Now what?

Once you figure out what that bliss is, why not skip to doing it now? As you have just imagined in the previously described process, even when you have everything, you will still be wanting something more. That’s just the nature of man. We’re always just content. We get bored with what we previously thought would be the ultimate source of happiness. This is something that just needs to be accepted.

Following your bliss is the ONLY thing that is going to keep you in a constant state of…well…bliss. Not early retirement. Not the vacation condo in Tahiti. Nothing besides your passion, your calling, your bliss.

And the best part of your bliss is that it’s something that you will be amazing at. Sounds pretty cool, huh?

Call to Action: Take 5 minutes and experiment with this strategy. What did you come up with? Share your bliss below!