Purpose of my life

We are so busy finishing a project deadline, working hard to buy a house or raising a family or reaching our career goals or working out in the gym to get a fitter body. Life has been a rat race of finishing things, first finishing school, finishing college, getting a job, climbing up the career ladder, getting married, having kids, saving for health insurance and pension and never ending tasks. It's been more like a 100 meter race, only to realise that there are more races to come. I am still not sure what is the purpose of my life because I am so busy with life. The topic "Purpose of life", it was never taught in school nor learned at work. I learned from my car driving class, to be able to drive a car properly, we have to be aware of the whole picture around us, we can't just see the road ahead and not bump into an accident. If we only focus on the road ahead and not be aware of whats happening behind or in front of us, the probability of running into an accident is high. Life is more than just a race, it is not just about being fast and winning a single, short race. Some one wise once said, "If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together". Wherever I put my thoughts to, my energy will go into it and eventually it will come into fruition sooner or later. But If I miss out to see the whole picture of life, I might miss out on the more important things in life. So, it is very important to know the very purpose of our life.
Tony Gaskins stated that "If you don't build your dream, some one will hire you to to build theirs". And I am not saying it is a bad thing, if that some one shares similar belief as yours but before that you should know your dream or purpose in life.
What is our purpose or Dream? In japanese term, it's called Ikigai which means finding your reason of being.
To find your ikigai, we must know following 4 things:
1) We must know what we love to do which makes us alive even when no one is paying us for it.
2) We must know what we are good at. Many a times, friends, family, strangers or colleagues must have complemented on you.
3) We must know how do we add value to others with your skills which people are willing to pay.
4) We must know what the world needs and how can you contribute towards that.

It takes a while to find your Ikigai, we have to put our energy and effort in finding it. It might take a long time for some but for some, they know their sense of being from a very early age in their life.

I asked some of my friends about the purpose of life during our random discussions. One of the Buddhist monk friend of mine said that when he wake up in the morning, he wishes and pray to help and serve all those others around him, that is the purpose of his life. I think it's a very noble thought and there is a blissful joy even thinking about this purpose. One of my another friend mentioned that purpose of her life is to leave her progeny on this earth. Though I had fun debating with her but I believe that everyone has their own sense of purpose, sense of fulfilment and meaning of life. Everyone is born with a purpose.
I recently read this quote somewhere, "We must live to work and not work to live". If we know our purpose in life, we will be living to serve our purpose which basically will be our work and source of joy and meaning of life.
To be fully aware of the present moment is an unexplainable bliss but to get to that simplicity, we must know the whole and realistic picture of life. First of all, we all should remember that we are temporary beings in this body and on this planet. Whatever trials and tribulations we might be going through, it's teaching us to reach our higher selves. But most important it is not to loose our spirit, hope and heart in any situation, cause we have a bigger purpose in life. You might be facing through grave challenges, loosing some one dear from your lives or loosing a job or having a fatal disease or not meeting your targets, but life goes on and you still have your purpose in life.
I believe the purpose of my life is to be happy and to live my life with the highest potential. Letting go of my fear which is holding me back for fears are my pathway to success. If you are a taker of happiness, you get misery and If you are a giver of happiness, you get joy and love. There is no better joy than love cause love is the only gift so beautiful both for the receiver and even more beautiful to the giver when given with joy, open heart and a free mind. Whatever we might be doing in life, we are in search of love. In America, many people want to be famous. I think deep down, what they are all looking for is love. Love can be found in the smallest of things. We have to be love and give love to feel love.
For me finding love, joy and freedom for self and others is the purpose of my life. I hope you find yours too. Much love.