Last week I asked whether you know you purpose. It sounds like an easy question, but in reality it is far from it.

And if you haven’t yet found your purpose how do you go about it?

Your purpose – or as Simon Sinek calls it, your WHY – is unique to you and every single person has one. It is what gives our lives meaning.

So where does it come from?

The answer is from our past; it is born out of our upbringing and life experiences. When you understand that, gaining clarity about your purpose is not as difficult as it may appear: just ask the question “What am I meant to do that is bigger than myself”.

It probably won’t be immediately apparent (although some people do have a flash of insight where their purpose suddenly become crystal clear) but for most of us it requires a series of subordinate questions:

• What experiences have I had in my life that have made me who I am today?;
• What events in my life stand out as being pivotal in bringing me to where I am today?;
• What decisions have I made that turned out to be life defining?;
• What mistakes have I made?;
• What set-backs have I endured that at the time seemed catastrophic

You may want to add some more questions and will almost certainly want to use the 5-why technique to drill down on some of your answers, particularly with regard to mistakes and setbacks. Remember that a mistake is just a precursor of success, a signpost along the way to keep you going in the right direction.

Follow this process and your purpose will become clear.

The hard part, ironically, is having the discipline to trust the result what emerges – to stay true to one’s purpose. Remaining truly authentic and living a life ‘on purpose’ is the most difficult part. It may, at first, appear to conflict with some of your (limiting) beliefs.

But for those who can build a life, a career or even a business around their purpose, remaining completely in balance, then in doing so they can harness the power to lead, inspire and move people.