Finding Purpose… admin COVID19 and Chaos

Hi, I’m Paul Krismer, your happiness expert. In this video, it’s all about having a sense of purpose. And you know, any time in our lives, we can go through little crises or mini pauses where there, we just don’t have a sense of what it is that’s getting us up in the morning. But that may be particularly true in this time with the coronavirus kicking around and the world being as uncertain as it is. We may have been on some trajectory, feeling like we really knew what we were doing in life, and then suddenly, in this context that we’re in right now today, in the emotional context of the world, you may find that your sense of purpose is lacking. So this video is all about how to address that.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. So you know, we often think that we Homo sapiens have got these great big brains and then we can rationally figure out what’s important in our lives. When to an extent, that’s true, but every time I’m working with people, I want to remind us that truly in our essence, we are these simple, fragile, relatively weak little creatures that are mostly driven by emotion and kind of basic physiological drives.

And only as our thirdly evolved brain did we get these big prefrontal cortexes and lots of thoughts. But the primitive parts of our brain, the reptilian brain and the limbic system that gives us emotions, they drive our motivations first. And in that context, we have to recognize that we evolved as tribal beings, weak little creatures that emotionally connected deeply with other people. And in that context, we had a sense of purpose. And you can imagine from an historic, ancestral perspective, having a sense of purpose was probably relatively simple. I had my close family and friends, my kin that were in my tribe, and I knew that they were my purpose. It was gathering food, and having sex, and raising children, and very basic survival things that connected us to a close, close community that fundamentally gave people purpose. Easy, straightforward, part of our good mental health to have it.

Well today, that’s what we’re not in that era anymore. But I want you to remember that you still are that primitive, weak, emotional little creature, and we need to nurture ourselves and in one another with that context in mind. And so one of the clear reasons why purpose is often feeling a bit more distant or difficult to feel in today’s context is because of the social isolation and that the coronavirus has caused. And so that’s why so many people are resistant about social distancing and wearing asked at all that stuff, because it takes away from some of their tribal instinctive ways of being and relating to other people. And like, we can go into a different video sometime about the absurdity of that, but I get why. I get what drives us emotionally to do that.

So if we need purpose, and we do, there’s all kinds of good research showing that when you have a sense of meaning and purpose, and the ‘why’ for your life, you tend to be physically better, emotionally better, and certainly mentally. It stimulates the body in the mind in a way that’s just really good. That we can kind of have a sense of planning and purpose, and then we execute. So that’s just the facts, and it may be struggling to have it right now. There’s a few tips I can give you to get a sense of purpose back.

One is, be very careful about your social isolation. There’s no way that we can have a sense of purpose if we’re completely removed from all other people. Some people have described purposes as this intersection between our strengths and our skills and the needs of other people. So when our strengths and our skills are being utilized, and they’re utilized in a way that meets the needs of other people, we immediately have purpose. So if that’s true, then our social isolation immediately removes us from the people who need our help. So be reminded through this video to reach out to the people that you help, and maybe go out of your way to do more helping. That in and of itself will be good.

Another thing to remember when you’re looking for a sense of purpose is to review your strengths. We are at our best and happiest when we’re working in strengths. David’s gonna include a link to a reference below where you can kind of do a little exercise. It will help you figure out some of those strengths.

And thirdly, I guess lastly in this short video, I wanted to have one other way of talking about establishing purpose. And that’s really to write, journal, reflect on your purpose. Often when we’re feeling a little bit lost and less clear about what we’re all about, what gives us meaning, it’s a time for us to stop and consider our values, consider our strengths, and actually start to write it through, think it through. Because if you’ve got this general malaise, boy, “I don’t know what I, what’s life all about,” well that’s a really clear indication that you need to give it some careful consideration. And great way through that are just journaling, talk it over with a friend or a counselor, or hire a good coach. I happen to be one, and it just gives some deep reflection to this important, almost essential part of your mental well-being, and that’s having a great sense of purpose.

Hope this video was helpful. If you liked it, click the like button, subscribe to my channel to get a new video like this every Sunday morning. Thanks for watching. Bye for now.