Lightbulbs used to intrigue me when I was little. In the olden days, there were only incandescent lightbulbs where you could see the filament on the inside. Now these antique-looking filament lightbulbs are trendy 😊 What I find interesting is that you can’t see electricity. It’s always covered up and moving through wires and is so invisible. You know it’s there and you trust that the light will come on when you flip the switch and the tv will buzz aloud when you press the power button. But with lightbulbs, my young brain thought you could literally see the electricity flowing through the inside of the glass. And when you turned it off, you could still see it momentarily glowing.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been struggling to figure out my true purpose. I feel like I’ve been on this desperate search, knowing that “this” – whatever I’m doing right now isn’t it – but not knowing what exactly “it” is. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be in my marriage anymore. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be in my old job. It seemed easy to identify the things that weren’t “it”, but I wasn’t sure what to replace the things I was shunning with.
So, I have been on this personal quest, and I’ve tried out a lot of things along the way to try and figure it out. And I suppose that I’ve found what I was looking for ultimately by going through the journey of discovery. And I certainly don’t want to over-simplify anything, but one of my most meaningful “ah-ha” moments was when I realized that my purpose is not something I need to seek and find externally on some mysterious epic journey through an Amazonian jungle. Instead, purpose is what’s already inside of us. And we know what it is by our spiritual lightbulbs going off.
There are activities that I was already engaging in that energized me – that made me light up on the inside. I intrinsically knew what these things were, but I had never given name or honor to any of them. I honestly thought I had to become this mythical, unattainable, improved version of myself in order to achieve some semblance of purpose. But instead, I realized that it’s more important to start where you are. Identify the things that get the electricity moving through you – the things that even leave you glowing for a while after you’ve done them. And then spend more of your time doing those things. As I’ve prioritized doing more of these lightbulb activities, I have increased my sense of achieving my purpose. Because ultimately those are the activities that align with my skills and my values.
The trick is to name them – Sit down and identify the invisible electricity inside of you. I actually sat down and made a list of activities that light me up. From silly things like organizing my purse, to more complex things like creative problem solving. Then I went through my resume and highlighted the activities that light me up and circled the things that drain my energy. I realized I wanted a higher ratio of lightbulb activities in my work and used this to make decisions about my job change. I have further used this to fuel conversations with my team about what work I’m best suited for. I have also used this to fuel pursuit of more activities outside of work (like starting this site!).
Lightbulb moments and electricity activities can make a huge difference in helping to feel closer to one’s purpose.