If you’re looking for ways to weave more purpose in life into your 2023 calendar, check out these tips from MitoQ ambassadors Rose Wetzel, Hannah Wells, Nick Allen + more.
Happy New Year! We hope you’ve had a positive start to the year and are excitedly looking forward to your 2023 calendar plans. If you’ve launched full speed into the year and are already feeling like you need to take a step back to cultivate some more purpose in life – our MitoQ ambassadors have you covered. Rose Wetzel, Nick Allen, Claire Badenhorst, Hannah Wells, Jono Nelson and Kaytee Boyd are an inspiring group of individuals who all take different approaches to building meaningful moments into their day-to-day lives. Here’s how they do it – and here are their top tips for anyone wanting to do the same.
To me, purpose means aligning my actions and behaviors with my core values, which consist of contributing to the physical and mental wellbeing of society, starting with those in my own community. I do my best to weave my purpose into my day by listening to a friend and validating their feelings, brightening a stranger’s day with a joke, or picking up a neighbor's kids after school as a last-minute favor on a hectic day. Connecting with others is important to me, so, when I write captions on social media, I aim to educate, entertain, or inspire.
If any of you are looking to weave more of your purpose into your life in 2023, I recommend thinking about actions and behaviors in 2022 that made you feel good - maybe you cooked a dinner for an elderly neighbor or watched your friends' kids an afternoon while they cared for their newborn. Perhaps you wrote a thoughtful post standing up for something you believe in or volunteered (or made a donation) to a worthy cause. Maybe you invested in your own self-care by setting aside time to recharge or purchased healthy foods/products that help you be your best. If you make a list and intentionally work more of these actions into each week, you can have your best year yet, on purpose!
I believe my life's purpose is to experience wonder and adventure outdoors so that I can enable others to do the same. To weave this into my day, I go walking or climbing every day. When I walk, I do so mindfully and at a pace that enables me to find moments of wonder. These moments are everywhere: in a flower at the park around the corner, in the veins of a leaf fallen on the sidewalk. For me, fostering wonder enriches my spirituality and enables me to pursue adventure from a place of rest and intrinsic reward.
More than anything, I love empowering others to enjoy wonder and pursue adventure in the outdoors. To this end, I run Mastering Mountains Charitable Trust, which helps people with specific neurological disorders get outdoors. This is more than my job; it's my life's work.
Thinking about my purpose, I've found it helpful to define the five values I want to live by (here's a great list of possible values) and assess every action and decision by those values. It's a great way to bring your purpose into focus in everyday life.
Purpose for me is my driving force for work and life. It is the force that motivates me at work to be a better teacher, supervisor and researcher. It is the force that motivates me to study and work towards new goals and skills. Each day we have an opportunity to reset our thoughts and actions and how we will execute our purpose on that day, whether it be working/studying and then going for a run, or relaxing and being present with our partner or friends. I have recently gotten into the habit each day of waking up to my alarm, but then actively not looking at my phone until I have written down what I am grateful for and the thoughts I am going to carry forward into my day. This for me sets the scene for my day and once I have given myself this time I feel as if I have clarity on how to execute my purpose (whatever that may be on a given day).
Purpose and where you find it will be different for everyone, but if I was to give one tip it would be: be aware of where your mindset is at and how this is impacting how you think and your actions on any given day. For example, say you had a bad night’s sleep, and you are feeling a bit grumpy for it, often those days are ones where you feel like you are fighting against everyone and everything. In this example, being mindful and aware that you are tired and being ok with this means that you may give yourself a bit of grace during the workday and things may then not seem as bad. This is something I have only really figured out and found helpful for myself in the last year or so, but for me, this has been a game changer, so right now it is the bit of advice I like to share.
Purpose means having intention and direction in your life. It's what motivates us day in and day out and gives us direction through tough times. It helps to shape many aspects of our life including our habits, behaviors and decisions.
To find purpose in each day I like to remind myself that I am incredibly lucky to have what I have and do what I do. I consciously remind myself to always use wording such as "Today I GET to go and train" rather than "Today I HAVE to go and train", even on days when I am tired and sore. Sometimes taking a bit of time to give back to my community, giving a compliment to someone or even writing a nice message to someone I look up to on social media are all nice little ways of finding a sense of purpose in my day as well. And lastly, making sure I practice positive self-talk and self-care each day allows me to see challenges I face as opportunities to grow, rather than possible failures. This leads me closer to my purpose each day.
Other than practicing gratitude, positive self-talk and giving back to others (as just mentioned above), I would encourage someone to join a new community, team or group in order to weave more purpose into life. Finding a new group of people to meet and be part of will add more purpose and happiness into your life and is a great way to meet new people too!
What does purpose mean to me? It means giving back to the community - which is my way of thanking them for all the support they have given me over the years. Once a week I volunteer with Special Olympics South Canterbury as I am their patron.
I firmly believe you have to enjoy what you do in life. For me, it's sport and helping young people in the community. That's my purpose – so, my tip would be to find something you enjoy and that fills you up emotionally, spiritually and physically.
To me, purpose is all about what I need to do to feel fulfilled and content, enriched and happy in life. Purpose is finding ways to blend my passion, talents, and care for the world plus the incredible people in it in a way that infuses my life with meaning. I am using my skills to help others in a way that matters to me. My purpose hasn’t been something I've discovered overnight, it has evolved and changed through a process of making mistakes, self-reflection, having a clear understanding of my needs, values, strengths and weaknesses as well as life experiences.
As far as I’m concerned, gratitude is the ultimate superpower for driving purpose to a new level and it's the perfect way to infuse more purpose into your life. It inspires positive emotions, like awe and gratitude. Furthermore, these emotions are tied to wellbeing, caring about others, and finding meaning in life - all of which help us focus on how we can contribute to the world… which is ultimately why I get out of bed every day - well, also when the surfs up!! The other thing that helps me weave purpose into my day is having my needs and values written on a vision board so I see them everyday and am constantly reminded of what I want, and why. Understanding what your values are is useful for finding more meaningful purpose in life.
It could be worthwhile investing in a life or business coach to figure out your needs and values.
Here are a few questions to get you started:
The why part is particularly important, because purposes usually emerges from our reasons for caring. Also, figure out what your character strengths are: research shows that knowing and using your character strengths can help you increase happiness and wellbeing, find meaning and purpose, boost relationships, manage stress and health and accomplish goals - to name a few!
You might like to read: 37 ways to empower your purpose
