Find Your Purpose

For the people who are lost in life, and those who want to be better.

This could be the most important piece of text you’ll ever read.

Why?

Because finding your purpose is the only way to live a truly fulfilled life.

Without it, you’re lost.

You give in to:

• superficial desires

• the way of mediocrity

• depression, anxiety, stress & unhappiness

If you lived a purposeful life, you’d not be succumbing to these things.

Your purpose is that important.

So let’s clarify what purpose means.

In the action steps, I’ll show you how to find your current purpose.

This is going to get a bit spiritual, but don’t worry.

It will make sense.

It’s the chapter, the level (like in a video game) you’re on right now.

Your purpose is:

• constantly on your mind

• the most important thing to you, personally

• driving you from the inside to achieve and fulfill itself

You have to beat the video game level (your purpose) to progress to the next one.

Else, you won’t progress in life.

There really is nothing else in this world that you should care about as much.

Examples of common purposes in young men (on self-improvement) include:

• building an attractive body

• achieving financial freedom

• traveling the world and seeking adventure

• mastering a specific skill

Notice that they don’t include bad habits.

Video games, for example, replicate the feeling of purpose.

You make progress in something “meaningful”, even though you know it’s just the virtual world.

It’s why they’re so addicting, they can give you a sense of fulfillment in life.

Playing games, and making progress in them felt important to you, as it did to me as well.

Video games were your purpose, your mission at some point in your life.

Sad, but true.

But they aren’t anymore, right?

That means, your purpose can change over time.

Introducing:

Purpose Layers

Let’s continue with the video game analogy.

After “beating” your current purpose layer (level), there is going to be a new one.

This new purpose is what you are going to tackle next.

For example, you don’t get excited about video games anymore because you realize it’s unhealthy and for losers.

Which leads you to consume other kinds of content.

Fitness content.

Boom!, your new purpose is building an attractive physique.

Until you finish that purpose layer and move on to the next one again.

The idea is to peel off all your purpose layers to finally get to your “core purpose”, the reason why you exist on this earth.

While making sure you don’t get distracted from your path.

You don’t know what that core purpose of yours is.

Which is sad, because that’s what would ultimately bring us fulfillment in life.

But the way society raised us through

• norms & ideologies

• stigmas & dogmas

• cultural and societal necessaries we “have” to deal with

doesn’t allow for that to show through.

We are trained to have superficial desires.

Let’s face it.

Financial freedom is the current purpose of so many young men because you need money to act freely in this world.

Because everything is behind a paywall, whether it’s cool cars, a nice flat, or an amazing lifestyle.

Those are external rewards though. Superficial desires.

They won’t ultimately fulfill you.

In short, this is why purpose layers exist:

The outer purpose layers cover basic (or “nice-to-have”) needs.

The essentials, like money, relationships, and health.

Because society requires those, and you (from a biological/primal perspective) need them as well.

After you achieve those, your focus may shift to things like:

• marriage

• fatherhood

• spirituality or religion

• service of any kind

You’ve realized that material success is partly necessary, but not your true purpose in life.

That would be too shallow, so you start focusing on the things above.

Or maybe you don’t and your core purpose is something entirely different.

I don’t know either.

We might find out in a few decades.

I think down the line I’d like to:

• publish a book at some point.

• do a bodybuilding show in the future.

• move to different big cities and decide where I want to spend my 30s.

I’m 20 by the way. These are all things circling in my mind.

These may not be entirely superficial but are coupled with external interests.

Status of an author, fame, expensive lifestyles, money of course.

But I don’t know if I’ll want to do any of those a year from now.

That’s the point.

You don’t know either.

What’s the logical consequence?

Focus on your current purpose, not the ones that might come.

Here is how:

Align 100% Of Your Life To Your Purpose

In theory, everything from your:

• sleep schedule

• diet

• relationships

• living environment

should be optimized to fulfill your current mission in life.

Why?

Well, to achieve it as fast as possible.

Think about it:

Fulfilling your purpose is the most important thing in your life.

The faster you achieve it, the faster you’ll get what you (truly) want.

The faster you’ll come closer to your deepest, core purpose.

Why waste any time on anything else?

Well, because of…

Obligations.

School, family, university, a job.

Whatever they may be, they (probably) aren’t part of your current purpose.

This sucks because most people can’t just stop going to school or quit their jobs by tomorrow.

Again, this makes financial freedom so damn important.

So if you can’t align 100% of your life to your purpose, control what you can control.

Let’s compare two young men.

Both:

• go to school

• live at home

• are on self-improvement

but they have different purposes.

Chris wants to build the best physique he can (and grow a mustache).

He structures his life around maximizing muscle growth:

• sleeps a solid 9, maybe even 10 hours a night

• eats a high-protein breakfast before school

• meal-prepped his entire week beforehand

• hits the gym hard in the afternoon, with a personal trainer

• comes home, more protein, more calories

• before bed, he gets out his 500mg of Trenbo- nah he’s natty don’t worry

You get the idea. Compare him to Alex.

Alex wants to become financially free (while also growing a mustache).

Alex wants to grow his personal brand.

So Alex becomes obsessed with growing on social media, with creating and building, and aligns his life around that:

• he wakes up super early to get deep work done before school

• he doesn’t eat anything for the first few hours

• saves up his pocket money to buy online courses

• uses school hours to engage on social media

• hops on calls, networks, makes new connections

Again, you get the idea.

Chris might be building an Instagram page on the side.

Alex might hit the gym a few times a week, enough to grow some muscle.

But they are focused on different things and their lifestyles represent that.

It’s the fastest way to make progress in their goals.

Conclusion:

You need to find your current purpose.

It’s the only way to live a fulfilled life, a life with a clear direction.

This will have two huge benefits:

• you will feel fulfilled now

because you can spend all your time fulfilling your purpose.

Plus,

• you will feel fulfilled forever

keeping the concept of purpose layers in mind.

There is always something that is going to be driving you from inside.

Think about the life you would live.

The personal CV you would build.

At the age of 30, it might look like this:

• built an online income through personal branding (which admittedly you’d keep up through the entire decade)

• became jacked af and did a bodybuilding show

• went to Thailand for 2 years to master Muay Thai and have an amateur fight

• authored a book you spent 2 years writing non-stop

Just as examples.

By focusing on one thing at a time, fueled by your inner drive toward fulfilling your purpose.

Who would not want to live this way?

So, let’s get into finding your purpose.

Find Your Purpose

There is no quick hack to find your purpose.

You need absolute silence and no worldly distractions, for hours.

To be honest with you upfront, the following steps require a lot of time, effort, and commitment.

You might make the mistake of not trying it out.

You’ll regret that in the future.

Follow this protocol.

Pick a date within the next week, with no obligations.

A day where you can be in your room for hours on end without anyone disturbing you.

It has to be in the morning. For at least 4-5 hours.

From waking up, basically with an open end.

Mark that in your calendar, done.

Tell your roommates or family about it.

Make it clear you do not want to be disturbed at all.

No distractions from the start means NO DISTRACTIONS.

You will get up in the morning and not touch anything.

• You are not allowed to look at your phone.

• You aren’t allowed to look at any other device.

• You aren’t allowed to talk to anyone.

• You are only allowed to leave your room for toilet breaks.

• No food, no coffee, only water.

• No activity besides journaling on a real piece of paper.

The idea is to get you into a pristine level of thought clarity.

If you know what flow state or deep work feels like, this is different.

More on that in a second though.

For now, realize that you aren’t allowed to do ANYTHING but think.

This is important.

It makes your brain sharp af.

We want to find your purpose, and that can only be done through extensive journaling.

The issue is, that even if you followed the rules, your brain is going to be distracted with random thoughts.

Thoughts unrelated to your purpose.

At least in the beginning.

Processing something you’ve dreamt of, coming up with random memories, fantasizing about the future.

Let it do that.

It takes me usually around 2 hours until my brain has thought about everything it needs to.

That’s a long time.

It’s a long time doing nothing.

You won’t force yourself to think about your purpose.

I want you to just stare at your wall and think.

Let your mind wander.

You can take notes about it if you want to.

After a (long) while you are going to notice your level of thought clarity is impeccable.

Your brain is as sharp as it has never been before.

There are no thoughts in your mind.

You are a perfect observer of the world.

Now.

Get your journal out.

With the clarity of mind you have reached, you can start journaling authentically about your purpose in life.

I want you to begin with the question:

What is my (current) purpose?

Maybe it’s been in your head all along, and you just have to note it down.

More likely, you’ll feel unsure.

Here are other journaling prompts you can use:

• What is my current obsession, and how long has it been my obsession?

• What would I do in a completely free world, with no obligations at all?

• What motivates me more than anything else? → External rewards or internal motivation?

• What were past obsessions of mine, as I was a small kid?
  (for example, I always loved writing. It made me realize that I was meant to write all along)

Ask yourself these deeper questions.

They can hold the answer to what you are looking for right now.

Take as long as you need for this.

In the end, you probably made pages of notes.

You’ll feel exhausted.

Hopefully, you’ve found what you are meant to do in life.

Maybe it’s even a few things.

The first time I did this, I came up with three different things I wanted to focus on:

• physical fitness & looking amazing

• improve my mental health and strength

• get better at chess

Which one was my real purpose?

One of them?

All three?

Did it matter?

No.

I had the time to concentrate on all of them.

You may not have that luxury currently.

In that case, you have to decide.

I talked about this in the first half.

Quick reminder:

Your purpose is your mission in life.

There’s nothing more important.

Align as much of your life as possible to achieve your purpose.

Let’s say your purpose, your current obsession, is the gym and building a fantastic physique.

Now, you must set:

• daily

• monthly

• even yearly goals and tasks

to make the most efficient and fastest progress towards fulfilling your purpose.

Goal setting is an entirely different topic though.

I’ll make sure to cover it soon.

The absolute basic is this:

Break down your big goal (build muscle) into daily, actionable steps that you just repeat over and over again (go to the gym, eat protein, etc.).

After months or years, your focus may shift.

You might start to obsess over another thing.

This is where the last step comes in.

How do you know that you’re done with your purpose?

That you can move on to something new?

It’s pretty simple.

You

• lose the enthusiasm and motivation for it

• feel like you are wasting your time

• find it silly putting all your time and effort into this one thing

I used to obsess over chess, it was my first “real” purpose to get good at the game.

After around 12 months, I realized that I had to stop.

There was no internal motivation anymore.

I started hating my daily schedule, which was optimized to learn and play as much chess as possible.

Even though I had spent a lot of time and effort on chess, I just cut it off completely.

Because it felt right.

I didn’t cling to it, I moved on.

I started to focus on something new:

Writing.

Sometimes you don’t know your new mission after completing one.

In those cases, go back to step 1.

Imagine you just stopped hitting the gym after 3 years.

And became fat as a result.

Instead, you can maintain your physique with quite low effort.

The way to think about dissolving your purpose is:

Don’t let karma get you back.

It will come after you if you stop exercising.

Will it come after me because I stopped playing chess?

Unlikely.

Who knows for certain though.

Thank you for reading!

I hope I conveyed the importance of this topic.

If you want to dive deeper into purpose, I’d recommend the book “The Way Of The Superior Man” by David Deida.

Go find and fulfill your purpose. It’s worth everything.

See you next week,

~ Improvement Wolf