How to Find Your Why and Live a More Purpose-Filled Life

If you’re searching for how to find your why in life, you are exactly where you’re meant to be. The adventure of finding your why and what feels meaningful and fulfilling to you is yours and yours alone. With wonder, curiosity, and an open mind & heart, the journey of uncovering your unique talents, gifts, and purpose awaits you. The journey of discovering your why can involve traveling the world, spending time alone, getting to know your values, and doing what sparks your joy, happiness, and excitement!

Living your why means making choices that align with your values, the meaning you give to life, and your priorities.

If you have not yet found your why, please don’t let the journey of finding your why frighten you.

When you know your why and you intentionally choose to honor your why and what’s truly important to you & what matters to you, you feel more centred, empowered, and connected to your purpose.

What I mean by this is that when you are clear on your why and living your why, you have the opportunity to create an intentionally designed roadmap for your life. In this roadmap, you can write down all the choices, dreams, and action steps that are connected to your why- your values, purpose, passion, what is most important to you, and your mission.

When you’re living your why, you move through life with a deeper sense of alignment, clarity, intention, and fulfilment helping you to live a more happy and fulfilling life your way each day.

Notes for the journey to finding your why:

Finding your why is not linear. Your journey will look different from mine, there may be similar threads along the way.

Your why cannot always be explained to someone or understood within one sweet, simple sentence or even a paragraph. It can be known, felt, journeyed, and lived.

One of the first steps that I walked on the journey of discovering my why was- to go within.

Listen to your truth.

Learning to go within can be simple. It is also a journey of self-discovery and finding out more about yourself.

How does going within help you find out your why?

When you get to know more about yourself- you can find your unique perception of life. Your perception is the way in which you perceive things. This can help you to create the reality and life in which you want to live or the one that you don’t want. For example, if you have a dream to travel the world, but you don’t believe that you can- you will probably find ways to mirror this belief back to you.

So the correlation between finding your why and going within is this. ➡️

Your perception is shaped by many things including, your upbringing, your family, school, the people around you, and yes your trauma.

As you go within, this sacred time in introspection can help you find your why. Your why is YOUR WHY. It is not something that can be looked for outside of you. However, your past & your story, do often hold the clues to uncovering it.

Practical steps to uncover your why by practicing self-reflection/ going within:

• Inner contemplation
• Spend time by yourself
• Practice journaling
• Silence. Spend time in silence so you can listen to and hear yourself
• Practice meditation and yoga

Now for a more light-hearted part of the journey to discovering your why.

Try things. Get out of yur comfort zone and try new things. Do things you haven’t done before.

Is there anything that you have been curious about learning?

Do it. Take that course, get certified as a yoga teacher- whatever it is, the risk of trying is always worth it. In fact, it is one of the most important steps I took on the journey of finding my why.

You may need to try many different things until you find what works, and when it works it will.

Don’t be afraid to look silly and not be great at something new photo. Life is too short to shame yourself for being brave enough to try.

Discovering your why isn’t just about finding one specific thing where you can say aloud, “This is it I found my why..” There’s more to it than what you can see on a surface level.

It’s the process of living a life that’s true to you and your values. Furthermore, this process includes self-development/ inner work. This is one of the main reasons I’m passionate about creating and sharing my personal development tools and blog posts.

The journey of finding your why is about becoming who you want to become.

🔵 Think about your dream self. This version of yourself, what are you doing right now, and how do you spend your life (the big and the small moments)?

This is you.

Overall, finding out your why is not a linear journey. It involves developing yourself and becoming the best version of yourself.

How to Discover Your Why Through Self-Development:

Reflect and journal about:

• What motivates you
• What inspires you
• Your life values and the way in which you want to live your life + lifestyle
• What do you back?
• What stand for
• What you believe in and what you would fight until your heart stops beating for

Journal prompts for getting clear on your values:

• What makes me happy?
• What do I value– truly value? What are my priorities in this era of my life?
• What matters most to me?
• What does fulfillment mean to me? (What brings you daily purpose?)

The connection between traveling the world and figuring out your why is indeed life-changing. It exposes you to new perspectives, challenges you, and helps you discover what truly matters to you.

Additionally, stepping outside your safety net in this way allows you to break free from limiting beliefs, expand your worldview, gain valuable knowledge, and feel more empowered & confident to do the things that you want to do.

Not only does traveling the world support you in discovering your why, but it helps you build your courage.

And, courage is a necessary component in achieving your dreams.

Ready to book your next trip?

Discover these blog posts:

How to Move to a Different Country (in your twenties)

Your Ultimate Guide to Solo Travel in Bali

How to Make Your Travel Budget for Your Next Trip

Your personal relationships provide insights into your WHY.

Do the people you connect with love to travel the world? Are they creative, ambitious, and open-minded?

These qualities often mirror what matters to you most—or what you aspire to become.

When you are doing what you love, your vibe truly attracts your tribe. Surround yourself with people who support, celebrate, and respect you.

One of the crucial things you can do to discover your why is to invest in yourself.

Invest in the things that you are curious about and want to develop more within yourself.

Invest in learning new skills and your growth. As you invest in yourself, you learn valuable skills, improve your confidence, and gain more understanding & self-awareness. Furthermore, as you try out different things and yes possibly ‘fail’, you are getting closer to your why.

Overall, my personal growth journey has given me the self-discovery journey to create and live a life in alignment with my values and the life that’s true to me. As I have become more aligned and in tune with myself, my connection & relationship with my WHY has grown deeper.

I know my why, however your why evolves as you do.

You can invest in yourself by investing in:

• Completing courses and certifications
• Life experiences
• Travel the world
• Making memories
• Studying
• Journaling
• Follow what gives you joy!
• Your health and wellness
• Read books and listen to podcasts

Investing in your personal development is one of the most important investments you can make.

Journaling is a transformative practice to find out your why.

Through introspection and self-reflection, you can increase your self-awareness. The more self-awareness you have, the more understanding and in tune you are with your thoughts, strengths + weaknesses, emotions, and desires.

All of these provide insight into your why.

If you don’t practice the habit of journaling yet- here’s a couple of tips on how to journal:

• Buy a journal
• Set your atmosphere. Romanticize your room with candles, incense and anything that makes you feel those comforting vibes 
• Put your pen to paper. Start writing. You don’t have to think about how long to journal for or how your journaling practice will turn out. Just start writing what you feel most inspired to write about 
• Be the observer of your thoughts as you write in your journal 
• Let journaling help you and be there for you

How to find your why? Go follow the things that make you happy. Whatever brings you joy and lights your soul on fire- do that.

As you invest your time in doing things that make you happy this can help you uncover your why.

It may sound simple, but it was one of the best things I did to find my why.

Find things that make you lose track of time when you’re doing it. Those things have clues to discovering your why.

Aligned action:

Today, make the effort to do all the things that make you fall in love with your life!

Spend time alone. This is crucial on your journey of finding your why

Why is spending time alone important on the journey of finding out your why?

Intentionally practising solitude and hearing your inner voice helps you distinguish your truth.

Your inner world.

Ways to spend time in solitude to explore your inner world and embrace your truth:

• Spend time in nature
• Travel
• Practice journaling
• Meditation and stillness
• Go on solo walks
• Mute the outside noise by focusing your attention on what truly matters. Set and maintain boundaries with your time, energy, focus, and attention.
• Block out time in your schedule for time in solitude
• Go to an event or workout class solo

Lastly, when you gain more understanding about the ways in which you want to live your life, don’t forget to implement your understanding into practical, aligned actions in your everyday life.

Surround yourself with beauty and seek out inspiration from the wonderful world around you.

Inspiration helps spark wonder, openness, curiosity, and your creative passions.

When you feel inspired, you are likely to have creative ideas, and these ideas can lead you to your purpose. Furthermore, as I was on the path of finding out my why, I would and I still do follow what excites me! What are you passionate sbout and what brings you so much excitement?

Here’s the connection between excitement and feeling fulfilled and how it support you to know your why:

Excitement is often a sign that something aligns with your values, desires, or deeper purpose, your resounding yes!

Fulfilment is the result of sustained alignment

Feeling fulfilled tends to come from consistently living in alignment with what matters to you—your values, passions, and purpose, and what truly matters to you. It’s a deeper, more lasting state than excitement, which is more momentary. But if you’re often pursuing what excites you (in a grounded, intentional way), it can naturally lead to living a more fulfilling life your way each day over time.

Hot Tip: Write down your ideas when they come to you. Every step that you take towards finding out your why is progress and will take you much farther than not taking any action.

Be open to your why coming to you in unexpected forms and ways.

Find what you would do for free— what you’re extremely passionate about, what you stand for, and what you love sharing with the world.

Your why is not limited to one specific area of your life, such as your career. It’s spread across all areas of your life. For example, your daily interactions with all the people around you can be in alignment with living your why.

Keep at it, and remember that taking action is better than not taking any at all.

Don’t give up. Winners keep going, and I know YOU’RE A WINNER.

Lastly, the journey to finding your why gets to involve, yes—fun and practicing gratitude!

When you’re having fun, you’re more available to explore your passions without added or unnecessary pressure. Furthermore, when you practice gratitude and appreciate where you are at, this creates good feeling emotions allowing you to discover your why from a place of ease rather than force and control.

I hope this post has motivated you to discover a deeper connection and understanding of your why so that you can live a more happy and fulfilling life your way each day.

You stand for your why by acting on it daily, staying rooted in your belief, and trusting.

Travel, personal development, and courage mixed with a whole lot of openess & curiosity helped me discover my why. Your why cannot always be explained to someone or understood within one sweet, simple sentence or even a paragraph. Your why can be known, felt, journeyed, and lived.

Here’s to living a more happy and fulfilling life your way each day. 💃🎊

What is the most insightful question you wonder about figuring out your why?

With no judgement— feel free toshare your comment with the Living Her Way community below. 💕

If you have any questions, blog post requests or kind comments please comment them below. Additionally, you can contact me via my email.   

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Author: Lana

Welcome! Lana is the founder of Living Her Way. She's passionate about all things Travel and Self-Empowerment. Lana's mission is to inspire you to live a more happy and fulfilling life your way each day.