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If you're ready to trade overwhelm for clarity, you're in the right place. I'm your tech-savvy sidekick sharing web design, digital tools, and mindset tips to help you live with purpose. Stay a while!
If you have ever spent your day secretly crying at work, wondering, “Is this it for me?” Know you’re not alone. I’ve been there. I thought I was doing everything right. I read the self-help books, started therapy, and got the job that I was supposed to love. Yet, I always felt like something was “off.” I wanted to live a purposeful life, but I had no clue how to make that happen. That’s when I started taking countless personality tests – only to have them reveal things I either already knew about myself or ones that left me more confused. Until one did help, and that’s made all the difference.
If You Want to Live With Purpose, You Need Guiding Posts
I was so stuck on trying to live within my zone of genius, a term I heard thrown around by productivity and self-development experts, yet I didn’t even realize what I liked or was good at. Because here’s the thing, I was too busy trying to force the answers instead of letting the answers come to me.
That’s the thing about high-achieving women, like you and me; we want to control the script and play out the plan perfectly, so we forget just to let things be and fall into place. Well, when I found myself crying in my office, I figured enough was enough.
Fortunately, I am an avid podcast listener, and I found one on the topic of happiness. If you’re looking for short, insightful episodes, I recommend listening to the podcast “The New Happy.”
One of the things I uncovered while listening to the podcast was the idea of values. Values are the things you judge as necessary in your life. I always say they are the things that make you-you, and without them, you wouldn’t feel like yourself.
I use values in a slightly different way, though, and I refer to them as guiding posts. And guiding posts have changed my life.
What are Guiding Posts
If values are the things that are important to you, then guiding posts are the things that help ‘guide’ you through your day to feel the most aligned, authentic version of yourself.
Guiding posts have enabled me to discover my natural strengths, lean into my desires, and live a more purposeful life. They are seriously game-changing! Let’s discuss how you can uncover what your guiding posts are so that you can live a more purposeful life.
How to Uncover Your Guiding Posts
Below is a graphic that lists common characteristics. You can print it out or use the list and a sheet of paper to write on.
First, read through the list and highlight or write down 20 characteristics that feel important to you. Remember: the things that make you-you, and without these characteristics, you wouldn’t feel like yourself.
Once you have identified 20 characteristics, review the list and cross off the ones you can live without, so that you are left with only 10 characteristics.
Take your list of 10 characteristics and narrow it down to 3-5 at most. I know this part is challenging, but take a moment to reflect on what is most important for living in complete alignment. You may notice that you have two similar characteristics that you can combine. For example, on my list, I had both ‘wonder’ and ‘learning’, and I decided to go with ‘learning’. See which words feel most ‘you’.
Once you have selected 3-5 characteristics, write them down somewhere you will see them.
How to Complete the Guiding Posts Alignment Test
Print off the Values Characteristics list above or grab a blank sheet of paper
Highlight or write 20 characteristics you identify with
Go through your list of 20, and cross off 10 characteristics
Go through your list again, and cross off characteristics until you are left with between 3 and 5 characteristics
The 3-5 characteristics you are left with are your values. Congratulations!
How to Use Your Guiding Posts
Congratulations on determining your guiding posts. Now that you are aware of the characteristics that are most important to you, you can start living in complete alignment every day.
If self-reflection is new to you, and you want to start small, I suggest writing each characteristic on a separate sticky note and posting them somewhere you will see them frequently. I stuck them to the bottom of my computer monitor. When I glanced at them throughout the day, it reminded me of who I was becoming.
If you’d like to take it a step further, you can write them down somewhere you see them and add a daily reminder to your Google Calendar, so you stay notified and live in alignment with your guiding posts. I have my reminder on at 8:30 am every day, so I can take a moment to breathe, set my intentions for the day, and proceed.
I set a second reminder on Google Calendar at 9:00 pm, so I can take a moment to check in with how my day went. Did I feel aligned? On a scale of 1-5, how much did I embody my guiding posts? What small action can I take to get me 1% closer to my goal?
It’s not about creating a long, multi-step routine that overwhelms you before you start – it’s about using your guiding posts to return to who you truly are and where you want to go from there.
When I leaned into this simplicity, committing to the process of taking daily action (no matter how small), that’s when my life started shifting, and as a result, I started feeling more aligned.
The 3 Questions to Ask Yourself Every Night
Did I feel aligned today?
On a scale of 1-5, how much did I embody my guiding posts?
What small action can I take to get me 1% closer to my goal?
How to Live a Purposeful Life
One of my mottos is, “What doesn’t get tracked, does not get managed.” I used this motto when tracking macros and hit my fitness goals in 2023, and I use it when I think about my goals while pursuing a purposeful life.
The last step to using guiding posts to create a purposeful life is my daily check-in process. I made a questionnaire-style check-in that I would fill out when my Google Calendar reminder went off at 9:00 pm. I have turned the questionnaire into a free Notion template that you can use if you’re ready to create a truly purposeful life; it’s linked here.
This step enhances your daily habits by serving as your personal habit tracker journal. You can easily look back on previous days and see how far you’ve come. Self-reflection is one of my favorite compassionate activities, which I use to ground myself in the process of building a purposeful life. If you’re ready to commit to taking daily, aligned action, you can grab the free Notion template below.
However, no matter where you are on your journey to living a purposeful life, I want to commend you. You have taken a courageous step by first acknowledging that you wish to change your life and feel different. Regardless of which version you choose for your guiding posts, I am proud of you for taking this step toward living a purposeful life. And your future self is proud of you, too.
Sarah Hawk is a Web Designer and tech educator in Rochester, MN who helps health and beauty business owners ditch tech overwhelm. With a background in teaching and pharmaceutical sales, she blends strategy, design, and education to help service providers launch websites that look professional, feel aligned, and support real business growth, without the confusion. When she’s not behind the computer, she loves aesthetic coffee shops, systems, strength training, and testing new recipes for her family.
Explore web design services and resources at bysarahhawk.com
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