Podcast Ep. 6: What Do I Do With My Life? What’s My Purpose?

“What’s my purpose? What should I do with my life?” – these questions trouble or have troubled a number of the people I know – I’ve been troubled too by this. Here’s how I think we can work on figuring out the answer this question. Listen in on this podcast for more…

…but if you can’t have a listen, then the text of it is below and just in case you wanna see a video version – I’ve done that too!! For the video – please check this (or scroll down for the other options or audio or text)…

What Do I Do With My Life? What’s My Purpose?

“Hello! I’m Shruti and as I always say – this is my podcast space where I speak about life lessons, chronic conditions, mental and physical health tips and experiences.

As you may have seen in the title, I attempt to answer a question I hear a lot of people asking… “What do I do with my life? What is my purpose?!”

So while I was growing up, it seemed like everyone knew what they wanted to do or had a fair idea of the direction they wanted to head towards professionally.

I didn’t.

Usually the easiest way to figure this out was by seeing what you’re good at in school or in your extra-curricular activities and move more seriously in that direction.

But what made it tougher for me was that I did pretty well in most things in school – but thankfully I understood that science, maths, geography and history were great fun but a career in it never appealed to me.

That left me with English and art – so for my final years of schooling, I studied English, philosophy and art – I enjoyed all the subjects but again, no profession from it felt right.

I thought of jewellery designing, product designing, graphics… but nope it wasn’t me.

This is when I reeeally started to feel panicky when everyone around me appeared to be so set.

I had the added battle of dealing with chronic conditions…

Today, as a 36 year old, I have modelled in TV commercials in India but the travel and spending hours waiting for auditions took a toll on my body as it did when I started painting again, I suffered slipped discs in my neck which made sure that holding a paint brush was a huge task to take on.

 

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A post shared by Shruti Chopra (@footprintsnoboundaries) on Apr 7, 2020 at 7:36am PDT

Then, as someone always inclined towards sun signs and understanding astrology, I became a tarot reader, which I still am today but as I got more and more sick, that took a major back seat too…

For me, my health has been the soul reason for my lack of consistent progress – it’s hindered my growth and like any other chronic patient, your life is mainly dictated by your health – whether it’s professional or personal – you feel the pinch and it hurts because you know they potential you have, but you also know that your body has limitations.

It was only towards the end of 2019 that I figured what I wished to pursue after dealing with a chronic condition for over 24 years.

What I figured out and how it’s changed my life is what I will get to later – but first I want to share how I got there – the processes I followed, because everything is a process – we’re living it constantly and we may not even realise it… so the question now arises…

“How does someone find their passion, or their uniqueness, what they really want to do?!”

First thing, please understand that you don’t have to know – not all of us know, it’s something some of us just discover over time. But again even that has a process, not all of will have a sudden random, “aha” moment.

But I also believe that you won’t discover what it is if you’re going to just think and dwell upon it or even if you watch others on Instagram, YouTube or other places.

Dwelling and then over thinking makes the mind stale.

It’s when you start doing things that you even half-like doing – even if it’s for an hour a day – it could possibly help you discover what you want to do – and even if it doesn’t, just the fact that you are doing something should create a trigger in the right direction or the next direction.

The process of discovering what you would like to do comes from experiencing, just like it was in school – some who studied biology developed an interest in medicine and went on to become doctors and surgeons… some became archaeologists after studying history… some became athletes after being exposed to sports.

There is always a trigger, but experiencing it is what tells you whether it feels right or not.

And don’t believe for one bit that if today you want to be photographer then tomorrow you have to remain content in that, you may feel more inclined towards film-making or teaching photography…

Nothing remains constant, you grow, you develop after you experience something and this applies very strongly to when it comes to finding your purpose, finding what you want to do in life.

Today at age 36 I know that I want to share my experiences as a chronic illness sufferer – I want to share everything I have learnt about the medical part, but more so the life lessons that have come along with it, which is why I started a blog in January called allthingsendometriosis.com.

I never would’ve been able to do that when I was 11 having been diagnosed with endometriosis – and neither would I have done so at 18 – I’m not specifically talking about knowing that I want to start a blog, but knowing that I want to share my life lessons – I needed to live more of life for that to have happened, which is why I can do so today.

My life has been my degree, my life has been my qualification and today as I reach out to you through this podcast, through Instagram posts, Twitter, my blog… I feel a great sense of satisfaction – I feel content that what I have learnt is being put to use.

Many times what you study will be enough to take you from A to B – but eventually as you experience more, you get closer to feeling right.

So if you’re lost and are trying to figure out what to do with life or what your purpose is – jump into experiencing something you’re vaguely interested in, for example, if you’re interested in baking, take a class, learn off YouTube – experience what it’s like – you may realise that cakes aren’t your thing, but biscuits are – then you head in that direction… but again, you won’t know unless you experience it.

Before I repeat myself  further, please remember that everything I have said today is what I have learnt when battling this question – we all have different journeys, different  experiences, and different thought-processes – Nothing I say here is the law of the land, but it’s my interpretation of it.

You never know, like me, it could be an aspect of your life that gives you much needed purpose, but you may have been dismissing its value as something that’s unimportant.

That’s it really… I hope this has helped.

But I won’t know that, unless I get to hear from you – so please email me on [email protected] or send me a msg on my Instagram which is also @footprintsnoboundaries.

Thank you all for listening… take care :)”

Some Relevant Reading:

• Podcast Ep 3: How Do I Recognise the Abundance in My Life?
• How To Work From Home if You Have a Chronic Illness
• My Night-Time Routine While Having a Chronic Illness

So, what did you think of today’s podcast? Would love it and be very thankful if you shared your thoughts in the comments section below.

Previous: Podcast Episode 5 – Being Taken for Granted & Learning to say ‘No’

Up Next: Podcast Episode 7 – “I Wish I Was Ill Like You”

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Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I am a patient and have created this platform to share my experiences. This is all purely informative and in no way am I providing medical advice. Please consult a medical professional.