What is purpose? How would you define your purpose in life? Have you found yours yet?

It is the reason you create or do something, your motivation or reason for being. It encompasses your ambitions, aspirations, desires, wishes, hopes, your values. It is your sense of resolve and determination. Your enthusiasm, ambition, initiative, enterprise, motivation, conviction, commitment, dedication, your get-up-and-go.

Those are all great words, all very positive. But what do all of those mean for you, the individual? And what makes my purpose different from others?

We all have different characteristics, values, ambitions and aspirations in our lives. We are after all individuals. Our motivations are influenced by our search for a happy, meaningful life. But my happiness and passions might be different from yours. That is wonderful and makes life so interesting. My idea of a good start to the day is to get up early and enjoy nature, be it running or riding my bike, during the early hours of the morning and possibly experience a glorious sunrise. Your ideal start might be a good cup of coffee and reading the newspapers in bed. This is just a simple example to illustrate that we are all driven by different interests and passions. That is why every individual has their own path they follow in their life.

So how do we find our very own purpose in life? Chances are, you are already on your way there. Often we need to just sit back and analyse which aspects of our life make us happy and which affect us negatively. We should then try to enhance the positive and eradicate the negative. Some change is probably needed to stay on the positive side of things.

It is a good idea to share your ideas of your own purpose with others. Often your closest friends and family see you and your strengths differently to what you see them. They can nudge you in directions where you would not have thought to go yourself.

Here are some basic tips to help you find your purpose:

• Find your passions and pursue them diligently.
• Find what makes you happy and share this with others, chances are others will be positively influenced by this.
• Be goal orientated and committed to your conviction.
• Be courageous in your pursuit of your dreams.
• Face your fears.
• Conquer the negatives in your life.
• Be pro-active and take action.
• Live life and love life.