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What Is Life for You in One Word

How To Find Your Life Purpose, In Just One Word

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Summary of Evan Carmichael's Your One Word

If you could describe yourself with one word, what would it be? The one word that describes the things you enjoy, your passion, your purpose, your mission in life. Do you have that word?

What is 'Your One Word'

  • Your one word is your single most important core value defined by you. Once you discover what that core value is, you know what you stand for as a human being. It is then you can create a life with meaning and purpose
  • Represents your value, your purpose and what you believe in
  • Everything you stand for and passionate about
  • Once you find it, it'll give context to everything you do, it will give you clarity of what is best for your life
  • Everything you do or the decision you make should be guided by the one word
  • What people associate you with. Other people who have the similar belief will be your close friends as they share the same value (birds with the same feathers flock together)
  • It is your operating philosophy. If your one word is love, then everything you do revolves around it, you won't be spreading the idea of hate because that's not what you stand for unless that's your one word which I wouldn't recommend
  • Why you do what you do
  • For example, Martin Luther King's one word is Equality, Muhammad Ali's one word is Greatest, and Steve Jobs' one word is impact.

How to find 'Your One Word'

1. What's your constant

  • Not a new year resolution
  • Who you always been and who you always will be
  • The things you care about now, and will still care about 10 years later
  • What interest have been present in your life for as long as you can remember
  • The one word that people associate you with
  • The first word that appear on your mind
  • Note: it does not have to be exactly one word, can be a sentence, for example, 'I like to learn new things and share what I have learned with the people around me'

2. What makes you happy

2.1 List out everything that makes you happy and connect you with happiness

  • Best moments of your life
  • Favourite teacher
  • Favourite song
  • Favourite movie
  • Favourite book
  • Favourite people/ friends/ family member
  • Hobbies
  • Activities that make u feel great
  • What type of people make you happy
  • The best lesson you learn from your parents
  • One thing you remember most from growing up
  • You can come up with your own questions as well: Favourite brand, favourite company, favourite memory etc

2.2 Write all of them down and find out what those things have in common.

  • Favourite Book: The Alchemist (Courage, Transformation, Inspiration)
  • Favourite Movie: Happy Feet (Fun, Love, Courage)
  • Favourite Teacher: Ms Hope (Beautiful, Courage, Patient)
  • One Word = Courage

2.3 It's ok if you still can't find the one word, just pick 5 out of all the words

3. Traits you dislike

3.1 List out everything that makes you unhappy and and uncomfortable

  • Worst kind of people that you hate being around
  • Can be your family member, colleagues, friends, movie character etc
  • They may not be bad people, they just have a characteristic that doesn't align with yours
  • What's happening around you that you hate

3.2 Then find the opposite of the words

  • My Boss: Tony (Unreliable, Dishonest, Coward)
  • My Classmate: John (Hateful, Dishonest, Miserable)
  • My Relative: Aunty Becky (Loud, Dishonest, Ungrateful)
  • One Word = Opposite of Dishonest = Honesty

4. Is this really who you are?

  • For each word you have, ask yourself this question: 'Is this really who I am?'. If not, eliminate it
  • Follow your gut instinct here, if you wake up the next day and one word jump out of your mind, that's probably the one

Pick 3 things that break down 'Your One Word'

Once you find your One Word, pick 3 things that break down the word.

Say your One Word = BELIEVE

  • You want people to be confident and believe in themselves
  • Have passion and believe in what you are doing
  • Believe everything is gonna work out and you will make it

Then you can breaks #BELIEVE down to

  • Self-confidence
  • Passion
  • Conviction

Now if you are wondering what is my One Word…

My One Word is INSPIRE

  • I am inspired to be successful and I will do my best to achieve my goals
  • I want to inspire people to be confident, to be successful, to do what they love, to chase their dreams, to follow their passion, and to live the life they desire
  • I like to spend time with inspired people who seek personal development, willing to share selflessly, passionate about what they do, and want me to grow and to be successful

And this is the exact reason why I decided to write this article to INSPIRE my readers to find their life purpose and live the life they desire.

How to apply your One Word

  • Now you have to figure out how you can apply your One Word into your life, your business, your surroundings etc. You want take a look at 3 most important aspect of your life — family, work/ school/ business, and environment.
  • For example, your One Word is Understand. You can think of how to be a more understanding brother, sister, son, daughter. How to be more understanding with your boss, workers, customers, and in school, how to be more understanding with your friends and teachers. Maybe there is something you want to put into your morning routine to create a more understanding environment, like meditate, or look into the mirror and say 'thank God for this amazing day'
  • If your one word is honesty, you can think of how you can be honest with everyone yet do not hurt their feelings when telling them the truth, or you can start a business of your interest which incorporate honesty as your company's highest value — be absolutely honest and transparent with all stakeholders, or hiring someone who also value honesty, or making new friends who are honest and have high morale etc
  • The key word here is HOW. Your one word is your WHY, once you found out WHY you exist, now you need to figure out the HOW and the WHAT. HOW can I achieve my goals and WHAT can I do to achieve them. (Find the WHY, figure out the HOW, and do the WHAT)

What's next?

  • Now, the most important thing to do is to take action and start your journey. Finding your one word only put you on the right path, but it's up to you to take the next step. We have to be the one taking action.

Everyone knows how to be healthy — eat healthy, exercise sleep 8 hours a day…but not everyone does it

  • Time is valuable, once it's gone, it's gone. You will never get it back. How much time are we going to waste not living our fullest potential, not living the life we want and not being our happiest self?
  • If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. You have to step out of your comfort zone to make changes. In order the bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in the future, you just have to step out of the circle i.e. your comfort zone. Do things that you've never done before to get things that you've never gotten before. And this is where your one word will guide you along the journey. A lot of things work, if you put in the work.

Tragedy of life is not death; but what we let die inside us while we are still alive

All you have to do is to take action right now and if u do, I'll be so excited to see what your life will be like. Hope you enjoy the article, cheers! :)

What Is Life for You in One Word

Source: https://medium.com/betterism/how-to-find-your-life-purpose-in-just-one-word-703e28f5defb