#ExpandCapacity: Finding Your Purpose

1.       Most of us have no clue what we want to do with our lives. Even after we finish school. #ExpandCapacity

2.       Even after we get a job.Even after we’re making money many have changed career aspirations more often than they changed their underwear.

3.       It’s a struggle almost every adult goes through. “What do I want to do with my life?”“What am I passionate about?”  #ExpandCapacity

4.       “What do I not suck at?” many people in their 40s and 50s still have no clue what they want to do with themselves. #ExpandCapacity

5.       Part of the problem is the concept of “life purpose” itself. The idea that we were each born for some higher purpose. #ExpandCapacity

6.       Here’s the truth. We exist on this earth for some undetermined period of time. During that time we do things. #ExpandCapacity

7.       Some of these things are important. Some of them are unimportant. And those important things give our lives meaning and happiness.

8.       So when people say, “What should I do with my life?” or “What is my life purpose?” #ExpandCapacity

9.       what they’re actually asking is: “What can I do with my time that is important, of value and of fun to me?" #ExpandCapacity 

10.   Many people ask what they should do with their lives, what their “life purpose” is. This is an impossible question for me to answer

11.   Here are series of questions to help you figure out for yourself what is important to you and what can add more meaning to your life.

12.   These questions are by no means exhaustive or definitive. In fact, they’re a little bit ridiculous #ExpandCapacity

13.   WHAT STRUGGLE OR SACRIFICE ARE YOU WILLING TO TOLERATE? #ExpandCapacity

14.   Everything involves sacrifice.Everything includes some sort of cost.Nothing is pleasurable or uplifting all of the time. #ExpandCapacity

15.   Ultimately, what determines our ability to stick with something we care about is our ability to handle the rough patches and ride out

16.   If you want to be a brilliant tech entrepreneur, but you can’t handle failure, then you’re not going to make it far. #ExpandCapacity

17.   If you want to be a professional artist, but you aren’t willing to see your work rejected hundred times, then you’re done before you start.

18.   If you want to be a hotshot court lawyer, but can’t stand the 80-hour workweeks, then I’ve got bad news for you. #ExpandCapacity

19.   What unpleasant experiences are you able to handle? Are you able to stay up all night coding? #ExpandCapacity

20.   Are you able to have people laugh you off the stage over and over again until you get it right? #ExpandCapacity

21.   WHAT IS TRUE ABOUT YOU TODAY THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR 8-YEAR-OLD SELF CRY? #ExpandCapacity

22.   We all have a tendency to lose touch with what we loved as a child. #ExpandCapacity

23.   Something about the social pressures of adolescence and professional pressures of young adulthood squeezes the passion out of us.

24.   We’re taught that the only reason to do something is if we’re somehow rewarded for it. #ExpandCapacity

25.   WHAT MAKES YOU FORGET TO EAT AND POOP? #ExpandCapacity

26.   We’ve all had that experience where we get so wrapped up in something that minutes turn into hours “Holy crap, I forgot to have dinner.

27.   I used to be like that with video games. This probably wasn’t a good thing. In fact, for many years it was kind of a problem. #ExpandCapacity

28.   I would sit and play video games instead of doing more important things like studying for an exam, or praying. #ExpandCapacity

29.   It wasn’t until I gave up the games that I realized my passion wasn’t for the games themselves (although I do love them). #ExpandCapacity

30.   My passion is for improvement, being good at something and then trying to get better.It’s the competition with myself that I thrive on

31.   don’t just look at the activities that keep you up all night, but look at the cognitive principles behind those activities. #ExpandCapacity

32.   Because they can easily be applied elsewhere. #ExpandCapacity

33.   HOW CAN YOU BETTER EMBARRASS YOURSELF?
  #ExpandCapacity

34.   Before you are able to be good at something or do something important, you must first suck at it and have no clue what you’re doing

35.   if you avoid anything that could potentially embarrass you, then you will never end up doing something that feels important. #ExpandCapacity

36.   Right now, there’s something you want to do, something you think about doing, something you fantasize about doing, yet you don’t do it

37.   You have your reasons, no doubt. And you repeat these reasons to yourself ad infinitum. #ExpandCapacity

38.   I can tell you right now that if those reasons are based on what others would think, then you’re screwing yourself over big time

39.   If your reasons are something like, “I can’t start a business because spending time with my kids is more important to me - sounds good

40.   But if your reasons are, “My friends would make fun of me,” or “If I failed, I’d look like an idiot,” then, you’re avoiding something

41.   Great things are, by their very nature, unique and unconventional.  #ExpandCapacity

42.   Therefore, to achieve them, we must go against the herd mentality. And to do that is scary.
  #ExpandCapacity

43.   Embrace embarrassment. Feeling foolish is part of the path to achieving something important, something meaningful. #ExpandCapacity

44.   The more a major life decision scares you, chances are the more you need to be doing it. #ExpandCapacity.

1.       Many people ask what they should do with their lives, what their “life purpose” is. This is an impossible question for me to answer

2.       Here are series of questions to help you figure out for yourself what is important to you and what can add more meaning to your life.

3.       HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SAVE THE WORLD? #Expandcapacity

4.       In case you haven’t seen the news lately, the world has a few problems. #Expandcapacity

5.       we must hold on to values that are greater than our own pleasure or satisfaction. #Expandcapacity

6.       So pick a problem and start saving the world. There are plenty to choose from. #Expandcapacity

7.       Our screwed up education systems, economic development, domestic violence, mental health care, governmental corruption. #Expandcapacity

8.       Find a problem you care about and start solving it. Obviously, you’re not going to fix the world’s problems by yourself. #Expandcapacity

9.       But you can contribute and make a difference. And tha tfeeling of making a difference is ultimately what’s most important. #Expandcapacity

10.   GUN TO YOUR HEAD, IF YOU HAD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE ALL DAY, EVERY DAY, WHERE WOULD YOU GO AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO? #Expandcapacity

11.   For many of us, the enemy is just old-fashioned complacency. We get into our routines. #Expandcapacity

12.   We distract ourselves. The couch is comfortable.. And nothing new happens.  This is a problem.
  #Expandcapacity

13.   What most people don’t understand is that passion is the result of action, not the cause of it. #Expandcapacity

14.   Discovering what you’re passionate about in life and what matters to you is a full-contact sport, a trial-and-error process. #Expandcapacity

15.   None of us know exactly how we feel about an activity until we actually do the activity.
  #Expandcapacity

16.   So ask yourself, if someone put a gun to your head and forced you to leave your house every day for everything except for sleep

17.   how would you choose to occupy yourself? And no, you can’t just go sit in a coffee shop and browse Facebook,twitter etc #Expandcapacity

18.   You probably already do that. Let’s pretend there are no useless websites, no video games, no TV. #Expandcapacity

19.   You have to be outside of the house all day every day until it’s time to go to bed — where would you go and what would you do?

20.   Join a book club? Go get another degree? Invent a new form of irrigation system that can save children’s lives in rural Africa?

21.   What would you do with all of that time? write down a few answers and then, you know, go out and actually do them. #Expandcapacity

22.     IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE GOING TO DIE ONE YEAR FROM TODAY, WHAT WOULD YOU DO AND HOW WOULD YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED?
  #Expandcapacity

23.   Most of us don’t like thinking about death. It freaks us out.But thinking about our own death surprisingly has a lot of practical advantages

24.   One of those advantages is that it forces us to zero in on what’s actually important in our lives and what’s just frivolous and distracting

25.   it did cause people to really think about their lives in a different way and re-evaluate what their priorities were. #Expandcapacity

26.   What is your legacy going to be? What are the stories people are going to tell when you’re gone? What is your obituary going to say?

27.     Is there anything to say at all? If not, what would you like it to say? How can you start working towards that today?
  #Expandcapacity

28.   if you fantasize about your obituary saying a bunch of badass shit that impresses a bunch of random other people, you’re failing here

29.   When people feel like they have no sense of direction, no purpose in their life, it’s because they don’t know what’s important to them

30.   they don’t know what their values are... #Expandcapacity

31.   And when you don’t know what your values are, then you’re essentially taking on other people’s values and living other people’s priorities

32.   Discovering one’s “purpose” in life essentially boils down to finding one or two things that are bigger than yourself, #Expandcapacity

33.   And to find them you must get off your couch and act, and take the time to think beyond yourself, to think greater than yourself

34.   Living your purpose gives meaning to your life. #Expandcapacity