Most people spend their lives with feelings of boredom or outright contempt for their job and home life. Finding a passion in life, one's own special purpose, makes all the difference for these people. Only about one in ten ever gets excited about life. How can you make sure you are one of them?

Your purpose can also be called your mission in life. What is your mission? What causes do you feel the most passionate about? Identify these, and you will be well on the way to living a life of purpose. For most people, their mission and purpose involves service to someone. Handicapped children, the elderly, your pets, or even your own children, all need what only you can give.

For instance, even if your purpose is to create beautiful art, you will be serving to make life more esthetically pleasing to those around you. So when you inventory yourself to determine your purpose, consider the needs of others that grab your attention and make you feel compassionate.

People who go for broke after their dreams are the ones who live with purpose. However there is a downside to pursuing purpose above all things. The downside is that it requires sacrifice. Many people have left secure, good paying jobs to pursue that vision of meaning for their lives. For them, the vision was worth more than the security and money.

For this reason, it is wise to approach a life of purpose with a certain level of caution. For instance, if your dream and purpose include starting a business, you will most likely find yourself working longer hours and making less than ever before - at least for a while. Are you ready to take the plunge? Are you prepared to make the sacrifice?

There are less extreme ways to gain purpose and meaning in your life, however, than risking it all. For instance, consider the value of simply bringing home the bacon for your family. There is no more honorable purpose in life than caring for others, yet that fact is sometimes clouded in today's philosophy. Taking care of children and keeping your marital partner fulfilled and content are worthy purposes to live for.

Everything in life involves a trade. Having wealth often requires trading off your free time and personal relationships. Being a full time mother often requires sacrificing a career and certain creature comforts. Being married requires giving up the freedom of being single. In each of these cases, it is up to the individual to decide if the trade-off is worth it.

A purpose in life that puts people ahead of things will be ultimately more satisfying than one of pursuing things for self. But whatever your purpose, there is one characteristic that will help you along your way, and that is courage. It takes courage to risk the status quo to follow your purpose. In the same way, it takes courage to be honest with your true feelings about a calling. Courage is essential to living a life of purpose.