Do you know the one thing that everyone needs? Of course everyone needs food, water and shelter, but I’m talking about what people need after we get the basics covered.

Do you know what it is?

There are lots of things that people want. Some people lust after fast cars or fast women. Personally, I’m always lusting after the latest tech gadget, but as we all learn at some point those things aren’t what we need.

What everyone needs is a purpose to life. It’s no wonder that The Purpose Driven Life, and the book it’s based on (ie – The Bible), are some of the best selling books of all time.

These books help find and give purpose to life. They help to show that you are more than just random particles of dust and water that happened to flow together in just the right way. And that after your life is over, it’s not the end of you.

In Victor Frankl’s groundbreaking book titled Man’s Search for Meaning, he chronicles living in a Nazi concentration camp and describes how those who had no reason to live often did not, yet those who had discovered a purpose that was yet to be fulfilled seemed to endure and somehow survive against all odds:

A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how.”

So how do you find that all-important purpose?

I’ve heard of many different ways to find your purpose in life and I’ll highlight some of the better ones here:

• Study: One useful area of study is myers-briggs type tests which give you a four-letter abbreviation of what drives you (for example, I’m an ISTJ). Some great books to study are: What color is your parachute (a classic job-search book), and the aforementioned Purpose Driven Life, and Man’s Search for Meaning.
• Experiences: Trying many different things, while somewhat haphazard, can be a common way that people figure out what they’re meant to do. Sometimes you get hints by looking at your hobbies or jobs that interest you. Sometimes you just need to  try a lot of things until something clicks.
• Prayer: Often just taking some quiet time to journal or pray about what you’re meant to do can lead to a revelation.  For example, Steve Pavlina (a popular self-help blogger) has a process to find your purpose in 20 minutes by journaling.

For me, it has always been pretty clear. Ever since I was young, I’ve have had a strong desire to solve practical problems and do things as efficiently as possible. I’m sure this is what ultimately led to me programming on my first computer at 9 years old and later becoming an IT consultant to help solve problems for businesses and make them more efficient.

That purpose also helps to explain why I write this blog to share ideas on problems I’ve overcome and how people can become more efficient in their daily lives. Everyday excellence is what it’s all about!

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

-Victor Frankl