Truly, “thoughts are things,” and powerful things at that, when they are mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a BURNING DESIRE for their translation into riches, or other material objects.
That’s how Napoleon Hill’s much acclaimed book Think and Grow Rich begins. It goes on to explain how Edwin C. Barnes had wanted to work with Thomas A. Edison, and how he finally achieved it, through determination and desire.
“But this was no ordinary desire” Napoleon Hill explains in the book, but what is an “ordinary desire”?
And how do you know that your desires are ordinary?
And how can you make them otherwise?
Desires are a personal treasure, they reassure you and nurture your dreams, but what you probably didn’t know is that they can lead to the culmination of those dreams too, if only taken in the right direction.
You need to know where you are headed before you start walking. You need to know your Definite Major Purpose (DMP).
Understanding the Definite Major Purpose
Understanding and defining your DMP will enable you to live how you want to live.
No amount of self-help books and inspirational stories can inspire you to bring a change unless you don’t know what the change you seek actually is. It is not uncommon for people to grow up believing that they need a “secure” job that can offer a paycheck in trade for the hours they spend fulfilling someone else’s dream.
There is nothing wrong with a 9 to 5 job, they are fulfilling and rewarding, but only if that’s the choice you make.
Imagine that every job in the world paid a dollar a day, whether you work as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or as a bartender, would you still be doing what you are doing? Most likely not!
Your 8-10 hours a day should not be the sacrifice you make EACH DAY to define how you live for the rest of them.
Jason van Orden and Jeremy Frandsen of Internet Business Masteryare the perfect examples of what it means to live each one of the 24 hours in a day doing what you want to be doing, and earning as much as you desire and not as much as the template salary packages that the world has to offer. They are a duo whom you can truly learn from. They offer an inspirational and productive Podcast and an Academy which can truly help you understand your Definite Major Purpose and work towards achieving it.
I joined Internet Business Mastery Academy back in 2013, and the exercises they provided have really helped me move forward in the right direction and to finally be able to define what my DMP actually is.
How Do You Define Your Definite Major Purpose?
Your DMP is the ultimate goal that you wish to achieve in your life. It could be vacationing eight months in a year, having a four day weekend or planting a tree in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, your Definite Major Purpose is yours to define, and that’s exactly what you need to be working on achieving.
Your DMP, once determined, will become the central mission of your life and will make it easier to set goals and achieve them. Goals don’t do much on their own, except become milestones to a road unknown.
DMP will help you achieve freedom, fulfillment, inspiration and recognition. Following are a few questions that you will need to ask in order to define your Definite Major Purpose in life:
Why?
It might seem a little ridiculous, especially if you have already decided to do freelancing, start a new business, become a lifestyle entrepreneur and start an internet based business, or something similar.
So you have your goals all set and ready to go.
But these are goals without any definition of what purpose they serve.
Why do you want to start these businesses?
Why do you want flexible hours or want to earn a thousand dollars a week?
This is when your needs should define your objectives rather than the other way round.
It took me many years to really figure out what my DMP was, and it is something that you should give a lot of time and thought, because it lays the foundation for your success and fulfillment in life. Here are some questions that can help you define your DMP (credit to Jason and Jeremy of Internet Business Mastery Academy):
- Why am I here?
- What is the top purpose of my life?
- What are the most important things I want to accomplish in my life?
- What fulfils me above all other things?
Below are a few more questions you can answer to get a broader view of what you eventually want to achieve all the professional and personal success for:
The Million Dollar Question
- What would you do if you had a million dollars in the bank?
- In what ways would your life change?
- What would you do differently?
- What are the things that you would want to purchase in the course of a year with that money?
- What three goals do you think you would be able to accomplish with that money?
The objective of this exercise is to place value on your desires and how having a specific amount of money can become an instrument for their fruition rather than place value on money itself.
The Death Test
- What are the three things that you would regret not doing if you got to know you were about to die?
- What is the one thing that you would want to define your professional career when you die?
- What is the one thing that you would want to define your personal growth when you die?
Answering these questions will help you prioritize your personal and professional achievements, and focus on the bigger picture rather than work on achieving short term goals alone.
Design Your Life
When you have a good idea of what you wish to achieve from your life, it is time to design your life around it.
Now that you have decided what you want to do, plan around how you are going to go about achieving it.
How many hours a week do you want to work by the end of the year? How much money would you like to be earning by the end of the year?
Now design your business around your goals.
Ask yourself if you can afford or need more employees or would you rather have virtual assistants?
How many projects would you be working on?
Would you need an office or would home office suffice? What is the first thing you will do with your profits?
These are the goals that will lead not only to constant accomplishments, but also drive you and boost your desires, to keep encouraging you to reach your ultimate destination, the fulfillment of your Definite Major Purpose.
To summarize a bit, here are a few questions that can help you define your DMP and get the process started:
- Why am I here?
- What is the top purpose of my life?
- What are the most important things I want to accomplish in my life?
- What fulfils me above all other things?
My Definite Major Purpose
1. Freedom
- Freedom to live wherever I want in the world (an internet business that makes money will help me get there)
- Freedom of finances, to make enough money that I am completely financially independent
- To have a few businesses that will run smoothly without me having to be physically there
2. Fulfilment
- To learn as much as I need to become successful; Lifelong Learning
- To teach as much as I can in order to help other people become successful and create more fulfilling lives
- To know that I am helping other people and making their lives better.
- Meeting and connecting with amazing people around the world
- Traveling the world and experiencing cool and new exotic places
- To be a role model for young people and my generation
- To achieve and maintain peak health & fitness throughout my life
3. Recognition
- To be recognized as an expert in my field
- To start a few successful internet based businesses that I am passionate about and be a well respected entrepreneur
- To be recognized as a top business & lifestyle coach
Now it’s your turn!
What is your Definite Major Purpose?
Have you determined what yours is yet?
I would love to know more about your definite major purpose and what it is, please share that in the comments below, or if you just want to say ‘hi’, that’s fine too!
To Your Success,
Navid
Want to Learn More?
Oliver Burkeman spoke somewhat critically about finding your “life purpose” in his book Help!. Surely it will take your whole life to figure that out?
Thanks for your comment Sverrir.
I truly believe that you can define your definite major purpose if you follow the steps outlined in this post. It surely doesn’t have to take your whole life to figure that out if you start to take action now, and have a clear direction of where you are going. If Napoleon Hill and many other successful people could define their DMP, I am sure you can do that as well, if you give it some time and thought of course. When you have determined your DMP, feel free to share it here 🙂
Hope this helps!
Navid
Wow … again! Once again THANK YOU for showing me the obvious! It seems pretty easy now! Just ask the questions and ponder about them … and then SWOOOSH! A big CHANGE!
Keep up the goooooood spirit, Navid! You’re truly an inspiration!
//
Thanks a lot Mia, really appreciate your kind and encouraging words!
Start by doing the exercises I provided in this post and when you have determined your DMP, feel free to share it here, I would love to know what yours is. But remember to give it a lot of thought and some time!
Have a great day,
Navid
Hey Navid,
Those guys sound like really smart guys and I’m so glad you’re enjoying what you’ve been learning from them. I actually never knew what my life’s purpose was until I worked with a spiritual life coach a number of years ago.
I don’t really want much from life. I mean I’ve always been a very happy person and I love the simplicity of my life. What I do love doing more then anything in this world is helping people so I’ve been able to take that and now do it online. It’s been so rewarding.
The only “freedom” I truly want is financial freedom. That as we all know sets everything else in place to be able to have the time freedom that we all desperately want as well. Even if I had more of that then I do now I would still be doing what I’m doing.
Thanks for sharing this with us Navid and keep up the excellent work.
~Adrienne
Great post once again Navid. I believe that we all have a definite purpose in life residing inside of all of us. Sometimes we look for things on the outside to define us, but we’re looking in the wrong place. Everything you need in life resides right within you. We just have to allow it to come forth but so many times the dreaded FEAR steps in and prevents us from becoming the SEED the was planted from birth. Keep up the inspiring work my friend. You are truly becoming the leader that you always was.
Thanks for all the support Jerry, really appreciate it!
I completely agree that it all starts within yourself. We just need to keep pushing ourselves, get out of our comfort zones and create the life we always dreamed of. No more excuses, just take massive action in the right direction and you will see massive results!
Thanks again for the kind words, it really means a lot and it keeps pushing myself even more!
Truly an inspiration, as always, keep it up!
Thanks man, appreciate it!
Our DMP are pretty much exactly the same. I wrote mine down as I started this article, but when I got down to the bottom with yours, I was like “yep, yep yep”. 100%.
Here’s what I wrote down –
Work for myself, where I want, when I want
Help & educate others
Write
Continual learning.
Yours are of course more detailed and more thought have gone into them, but I agree with every point. 🙂
Now we have the goal in mind, we will have to actively work towards them.
Sorry for the really late response Carlie, I’m catching up a bit in the next few days after some hectic weeks!
Thanks for sharing your DMP with us, and yea it is very similar to mine, so cool!
We always have to work hard towards our goals and dreams, and of course take massive action for the things we want in life. Without action goals are meaningless, so go out there and just do it 🙂
This is very true. If you do not define your goals and purpose you will have no clue if you are on the right track or not! =)
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment Victor, really appreciate it!
Hi Navid,
again a very high quality post, thank you for reminding us on this very important point!
Once you’ve found your DMP, you’ll need to ensure that your actions are aligned with it.
It really helps to do weekly (or at least monthly) reviews of your past challenges, actions, and successes and to plan your next actions related to your DMP and your vision.
Can’t wait to hear more from you!
Jan
Wow Navid, this is book quality writing man…
I don’t think I have defined 100% my DMP yet (this is a new acronym for me btw, did it even exist?)
I’m a guy that wears a lot of hats and are really happy about it, however some of those positions require a lot of work and some others don’t so it’s a bit challenging to define what’s my calling in life in just a short sentence.
The questions you posted are certainly really deep and not easy to answer but I have to agree these will definitely get (if not an exact) at least a very approximate DMP for each one of us.
Lots of things to think about, can’t really tell you what my DMP is right now but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do so very soon, thanks for the great mind provoking article man!
Sergio
PS. I’m becoming a fan.
Hi!
I need to ask you a question: I have the propensity to GO REALLY WILD in my dreams about the future – which is fun – but, then comes my doubts!!!
How can I boost myself in truly believing that both me, myself and I, actually can do this?
Do you have any advice for the doubters?
//
Navid: This is a great overview of a massive topic.
From the day I decided I was going to start my own business, until I figured out what my DMP is, I was like a ship lost at sea. I was definitely going *somewhere*, but I wasn’t sure where – and I was definitely lost.
However, sometimes you have to set out to sea, get lost a little bit, then find your way. If I had not set sail, I don’t believe I ever would have ultimately found my own purpose.
So the lesson for me is that a) You should absolutely aim to find your DMP as soon as possible, because once you have it everything else becomes clear, but b) Even if you don’t have it yet, fear not: take action, move in what seems to be the right direction, and listen closely – you will find it soon enough!
Mia: If you are a doubter, you should check out a great podcast called Doubt the Doubts. Everyone has doubts. It’s normal. Go wild in your dreams, and take small or big steps towards one or more of them.
Thanks for recommending this awesome podcast to my community! I love Doubt the Doubts and everything Paul Blais does. I will be on his show soon, so be sure to check it out when it’s live 🙂
See you inside of Fire Nation Elite, keep rocking!
I love this! The idea that you can design the life you want is so foreign to so many people. This is a hope inducing and illuminating idea. I found this so inspirational that I gave it a shout out on my podcast, Doubt the Doubts. http://www.doubtthedoubts.com/jeffrose/ I think this message needs to be spread far and wide. Thanks for inspiring.
This is amazing! Timeless! Just what I needed! Thank you!
Weldone weldone weldone! Nice article and happy to stumble upon it. I just have only two questions for you Navid Moazzez. Number 1: are you a rich man? 2: can you please help me financially?
I don’t think that is the purpose of this article! You sound like someone trying to get something for nothing, sad.
LOL! Am sorry that’s not what I meant. Literally, asking for a favour doesn’t relay getting something for nothing Sir. Thanks for your comment
Okay great to hear! ☺
Yeah bro. But it won’t be so surprising if you decide to bless your guy! At least for the end of d year tips. Thanks alot man. One love. My marriage is on the 30th December 2017. You are highly invited. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/442988f0e3cf7e784dee8d0b2798dc787f40aaaf63eb96b6ab4122713df907f4.png
The secret…
I like this concept and am currently reading Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich which I have borrowed from the public library where I work… It caught my eye as I walked past the shelf it was on…. I clicked on this page seeking help to define my MDP…. I am struggling to define my MDP because I do not want loads of money or fame etc. and maybe my desire does not burn enough, I do not feel strongly enough to burn my bridges to achieve my desire which is simply to share my passion for creating and recycling with others to improve their self esteem and to create my designs and inventions which are useful and can help make their daily living easier… I suppose I am too tired and getting old … I have made some positive changes since reading halfway through the book ..1. not to prevaricate about things just do them and not worry if I have less time than I need to complete a full task but get something done towards my goal… and yes to be positive about things I have done even if they are not quite perfect they are still useful and helpful… I aim to define my MDP by the time I have finished the book and get my Website and business plan honed by then too…
One the most influential and inspiring books that /
Hello Navid, thanks for this article, you see, have been confused all along, until I begin to read books, and one of the outstanding books have ever read is think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill, then I know I need Difiniteness of Purpose. And again I stubble into your article, to be honest with you, what your purpose is, is what I what to achieve either, I couldn’t just bring myself to put it down the way you have clearly put it here, now I need your help, to get started, how you get started, I will be glad if you can help