How To Find Your Purpose As A Man
Dan Dore 
Why is it so important to find your purpose as a man? What is purpose anyway? And how can you identify what is your purpose vs just a fascination?
Finding your purpose as a man is sometimes a challenging task, but it's particularly important for men.
Society often puts pressure on men to fit into a certain mold, to conform to traditional gender roles of provider, protector, worker, strong man who's great at doing things with his hands and fixing sh*t.
But for you to reach your full potential as a man and live a truly fulfilling, interesting and exciting life takes discovering your own unique purpose that fits who you are, who you want to become, what you want to achieve and how you want to create value expressing yourself in the world.
The first step in finding your purpose is to take a deep look at yourself.
This means evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, as well as your passions and interests.
It's vitally important to be fearlessly honest with yourself and to acknowledge areas of how you see yourself and your life that you're not currently happy with.
Then start to define the changes you want to create in yourself and in your circumstances which would put you on the path to a more fulfilling and inspiring future.
This self-reflection can be done through journaling, meditating, or working with a men's coach or mentor can really help speed up this process and identify the things that have been holding you back from being clear about your purpose and passion.
Next, set clear and specific goals for yourself that not only align with your values and desires for who you are now but also align with what kind of man, leader, lover, father and friend you want to evolve into in the future and how you want your life experience to look.
These goals should feel challenging you don't want to settle for something that is easily achievable. Be willing to stretch yourself - men need a hunt and when the hunt is evolving your sense of self towards something you passionately want to experience, the journey will feed you, fulfill you and build your sense of self respect and self confidence at the same time.
It is also important to surround yourself with positive influences.
Be willing to seek out mentors and role models who live the qualities and values that you want to develop in yourself.
People who will provide support, encouragement and also challenge you and hold you to account for what you've said you're going to focus on and why. This is invaluable to living your life deliberately on purpose!
Another important aspect of finding your purpose is to take action.
This means not only identifying what lights a fire in your belly and gets you animated, but also taking action and making those deliberate (often scary) steps towards the life that you envisage.
Be proactive and when you feel the fear, don't be afraid to take risks. A huge part of creating the kind of purpose we read about but rarely experience ourselves is the willingness to trust in ourselves, in our intuition and in our ability to keep making decisions that move us along our path - especially when obstacles arise (obstacles are really tests to see if what you say you desire is something you believe in or not).
As a man defining his purpose in life, it's also important to be willing to challenge societal expectations and traditional gender roles.
Society traditionally expects men to be strong, stoic, and unemotional, but your emotions are key indicators that help you identify what's important to you, what you want and how you want to go about creating it!
Men are conditioned to never show weakness, but this takes away one of our most powerful tools - the ability and willingness to be vulnerable.
Contrary to popular belief, being vulnerable is NOT a weakness. In fact a man who is owning what he thinks, feels and wants and can talk about all of those things openly and honestly - including that he has some self doubt about some of it - is a man who is on a fast track to creating the kind of connections and support that he will need for his purpose to become a reality.
Be wary of limited thinking such as there's only "one way" to be a man and instead embrace your uniqueness and individuality.
Why Is It So Hard For Many Men To Find Their Passion and Purpose?
Finding your passion is difficult and elusive because we're taught from, a young age not to trust our natural instincts and intuition and instead defer to outside authority to learn how we should be in this life.
This is one of the hardest things to outgrow as you mature through life.
Society seems to pressure us to conform to certain expectations of thought and behaviour as well as implying that we "should" pursue a certain kind of life path.
This makes it difficult for men to feel free to explore their own interests and passions, and to find what truly intrigues and inspires you.
You may feel like you have no idea where to start when it comes to discovering what you're passionate about.
You may not have had the opportunity to explore different interests or activities during your childhood and education, perhaps you're still holding onto past memories where an influential person in your life negatively affected your belief in your ability to create a life path that suits your unique personality and creative gifts and talents.
You may have a hard time identifying what you are passionate about because you feel overwhelmed with so many options available to you, and have trouble narrowing down your choices.
But the most common factor that holds us back from getting clear in your passion and purpose is not having developed a sense of self-awareness and a sense of knowing who you are and what you stand for.
It is important to be aware of what makes you feel fulfilled, and what you value in life. Without self-awareness, it's much more difficult to identify what you're truly passionate about and inspired by.
Be careful not to feel pressured to pursue certain careers or hobbies because peers or society say you "should".
What you find inspiring may be the opposite compared to your partner, friends, family or colleagues - don't let that put you off. It's your only life and your fulfillment and enjoyment of it is YOUR responsibility, no-one else's.
Also be aware that past experiences hugely influence your ability to identify your passions.
If you have experienced a failure or disappointment in a particular area of your life in the past you will likely feel hesitant to pursue that interest further.
Again the solution here is to get better at trusting yourself, trusting your intuition, believing in something that is valuable to you - but to do that you must have a clear picture of what you value and why.
Many, many men struggle with a crippling fear of failure, lack of confidence and self-doubt. So don't beat yourself up - it's the most common thing which the vast majority of us experience too!
Whether it's fear of failure, fear of being successful (yes this is a common issue too), or that you will not be able to make a living doing what you love, overcoming these fears will be the defining factor in you taking the steps necessary to pursue your passions.
Sometimes the difficulty finding your passion is because you haven't found a good balance in your life at the moment and are so busy with work, family, and other responsibilities that you don't have enough time or mental capacity to explore and pursue whatever you're most passionate about.
In conclusion, finding your purpose and passion in life is a difficult task for so many men. It's not as simple as it sounds and there are a variety of factors such as societal expectations, lack of self-awareness, past experiences, fear of failure, and lack of time that make it even harder to get clear.
Working with a men's coach will help speed up the process and dig past the limiting beliefs you may have that are holding you back. Apply for a free 90 minute coaching call today.
Make time for self-reflection, explore different interests & activities, don't be afraid to take risks.
Remember that finding your purpose and passion takes focus and concentration, it's very unlikely to happen overnight, but it's absolutely worth the effort to lead a satisfying and fulfilling life.
Categories: : confidence, drive, fulfillment, masculinity, mission, passion, purpose