Stop WASTING Your Life | Mindshift 4

What would this world be like if the greatest world changers that ever lived, the Mother Teresas and the Gandhis, had never fulfilled their purpose? What if the Wright brothers never pursued their passion of mechanical engineering or inventing? What if Abraham Lincoln settled to live life on the farm? What if J.R.R. Tolkien had decided, as he almost decided, to not finish The Lord of the Rings?

And what if, for myself, if I never pursued my passion for natural health and healing, What would the world be like? How would it be different? And how would the world be different if you never went after your passion, your purpose, your dream? Well, it would be a lesser place. And on today's episode, I'm gonna dive in and talk about finding your why and how to be a purpose-driven person.

Welcome to the show. I am Dr. Josh Axe, and on today's episode, I'm covering why it's so important to find your why and how to adopt a mind shift of being purpose-driven. Now, I'm also gonna talk a little bit about, uh, a section from my new book, Think This, Not That. You can get your copy of that at joshaxe.com.

And by the way, if you go there, you'll get hundreds of dollars worth of free gifts, a mindset masterclass. I have a workbook. It's all for free there at joshaxe.com when you get the book. Now, before you can become the person you were born to be— by the way, I believe everybody— God has designed people, all of you listening and watching this, to do something extraordinary with your life.

Now, that might be a rockstar parent and raise the next president. It might be you write that book. It might be you starting that business. It might be you doing something really unique and special with the giftings you've been given. But if you don't do that, you're not fulfilling your purpose. And there are 2 fundamental components of purpose.

Number one is meaning, and number 2 is an emphasis on serving others. And so your purpose should be meaningful. It should add value to others' lives. And so, It's important that when you're finding your purpose, that those 2 things happen. And you know you're living out your purpose when what you're doing is extremely fulfilling.

You know, after you get done with a good workout, you have this sort of sense of feeling that you've done something. Well, it's like that or even better when you know you're living out your purpose. Now, here's the problem. According to a recent study, only 25% of American adults report having a clear sense of purpose.

And not having a purpose has been tied to everything from depression to loneliness to also shortening your lifespan by about 7.5 years. So not having a purpose in life and a mission that you're a part of contributing in a major way actually is very detrimental to your health. And if you live without purpose, you're, you're not likely to use your skills.

You're likely to waste a lot of the talents you've been given. And it's so important that you are using your giftings. And people, when you are using your purpose, it brings happiness. Okay? When you're using your giftings and fulfilling your purpose, that brings happiness.

If you're in a state right now and you don't feel like you're living a meaningful life, you don't feel significant, you don't feel like you're really contributing in a major way. If you're feeling that, there's a really good chance that you're not living out your purpose.

And so if you wanna feel like you and know that you were born to do something significant and be accomplishing that, then it's so critical that you discover your purpose. And I'm gonna go through exactly how to do that today. Now, here's the other big reality.

If you don't fulfill your purpose, not only do you miss out on the greatest parts of your life, but also the world misses out on the best parts of you. Without you fulfilling your purpose, there's less love, service, less leadership, fewer ideas, less songs, less books being written, less art, less great things.

Now, I'm not saying everybody is a book— an author or, or an artist, but there's something there on that list. That the world is missing. For instance, if you're not showing up and part of your purpose is being a rockstar mom or dad, well then your kids miss out, their generations miss out, other families around you are missing out.

So if you're not living out life's greatest purposes that God has called you towards, then not only do you suffer, everyone around you suffers. In fact, this is something that not a lot of people think about today.

We live in a very individualistic society, and so most of the people in society Uh, believe that, well, hey, if, if I have this addiction over here, alcoholism, pornography, shopping addiction, or self-harm, whatever it is, most people think, well, that's only hurting me. The reality is that's never true.

When you hurt yourself or you don't live out your purpose because of an addiction or a vice or whatever it might be, you're hurting every person around you and you're hurting the entire world. I know this might seem kind of crazy. But, but this is related to the butterfly effect.

If you go and tell somebody that you love them and you serve, and you, you serve them through your purpose, let's say you find out that you are a great, um, a great musician, okay? And, and you decide to either practice music or not practice it. Okay?

But let's say you decide to practice it and you create an incredible song that makes someone's day, and they tell a friend and they tell a friend and they tell a friend that Someone being in a better mood affects one person, another, another. It literally could affect everyone in the entire world.

I know that sounds crazy, but the reality is, is that when you are fulfilling your purpose to do good in the world, it affects not only you, it likely affects 7 billion people on the planet in some way, shape, or form. It's called the butterfly effect, and that's a reality. So your purpose is tied to you and everyone on the entire planet.

Now, I wanna share with you what really allowed me to find my purpose, and then I wanna help you find what your exact purpose is in life, and then how to live that out to the highest degree possible. But for me, it was when I was in junior high, and I remember my mom coming home one day in tears, just sobbing. And she, she, she, she sat down with my dad and she shared with us, our family.

That she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. And I remember at the time just being a total wreck, but I remember something came into my mind in being in, just going into 8th grade. I remember thinking, um, you know what, I want to help my mom. I want to be there for her. I remember giving her a hug as she was crying.

And I remember as she started going through chemotherapy and radiation treatments, I remember thinking a couple things. One is, um, I never want to see anyone have to go through this again, and I want to help people prevent this. It was so painful to me. I want to prevent the suffering of others to have someone else's mom go through, through cancer.

And the second thing I thought was, there has to be a better way. And part of me, even at that time, being a kid that was 13 years old, I started thinking, I, I want to help relieve this one day.

Like, it's— this purpose started welling up in me, and my purpose became finding the root cause of disease and finding a way for people to heal in a more natural way so they don't have all the side effects of things like chemotherapy and, and, and the, the side effects of medication and unnecessary surgeries. And you know, here's the reality.

A crisis can either paralyze and destroy you, or it can unlock an opportunity within you. That pain can be turned into purpose, and it oftentimes— pain awakens the potential within us. And so one thing that you really wanna tap into is what are those things that bother you in life? Those things you're saying, that's not right, that's an injustice, or you're like, that needs fixing in the world.

That is typically the first sign for most people that you're scratching the surface of finding your purpose. What is that thing? And so if you allow that pain to sculpt you and allow it to kind of penetrate you a little bit to where you feel it, and then you can start thinking about what you can do about it, that can really be birthed into your purpose.

Now, I wanna switch gears and then I'm gonna get into more about finding your own purpose, but there's a great story that really ties into part of what purpose is. And purpose can be everything from landing a man on the moon to, or being the person actually, you know, the Buzz Aldridge or the Neil Armstrong that lands on the moon.

Or it could be the janitor that was cleaning up, you know, the area around the rocket that took off. And there's a story about President John F. Kennedy during a visit to NASA in 1962. And when the president noticed a janitor carrying a broom, He stopped what he was doing and he approached the man and, and he, and he said, what are you doing?

He said, well, Mr. President, I'm putting a man on the moon. And this is important to recognize. Most people do not attach enough meaning to what they actually do. And, and this is critical. So with your career, and I, I wanna give you an example as a teacher. So my mom was a teacher. My mom taught, was a spe— uh, taught gym class. And she taught special ed.

And then later in her career, she taught 1st and 2nd graders in the inner city in Dayton, Ohio, where around where I grew up. But my mom, I think about it, she could go in as a teacher and think that, well, I'm a teacher and I'm doing this to just get a paycheck. You know, I'm just doing this to pass the time and get a paycheck. That's a very low level of meaning.

Another step up for a teacher could be, well, I'm doing this to make money, but also to provide for my family. Okay? I wanna send my kid. To, you know, this camp because they have this gifting and I want to do this. And, and, and, and there's that.

And then there's another level, and this would be a highest level where a teacher says, you know what, I'm doing this because I've got a gift of teaching and because I want to transform the lives of kids. I want to take the kids, especially maybe those kids that, that, that are outcasts of society or told that they're not good enough.

And I want to help them become the next president, the next CEO, the next world changer, the next person that gives it their all in finding their purpose. And I experienced that in my own life. I had one teacher who was not living out of purpose, and she basically told me, in, in a sense, like she discouraged me from fulfilling my dreams.

And it really caused for me believing I wasn't smart and really sort of a limiting belief and a psychological issue. Well, later on I had a teacher who tell me, Josh, you're incredibly gifted. You're an amazing writer. You've got a great talent. You could do, you know, I mean, she said, you know, you, you could write a book. You could do, And that changed my life in incredible ways.

So just know, I mean, it, if you think I had one teacher who almost destroyed my, who, who I almost let destroy my purpose via creating a limiting belief in me. I had another teacher who totally opened my, up my eyes to what my purpose was.

And so you can see here, you can do anything, either being, let, let, let it, letting it be meaningless or letting it be purpose-driven, which adds so much value and meaning to your life. Into the life of others. And I would ask you right now, in your career right now, how much meaning have you attached to it?

Do you believe and know I am doing something really good in society, in the world, and I, I'm putting a man on the moon, I'm saving lives, I'm transforming lives, I'm adding value, I'm making someone's life easier, I'm contributing? Do you believe that about what you're doing right now?

If you're a parent, a mom or dad, do you think about being a parent as, well, I'm just, you know, birthing a kid and then trying to not let 'em get killed? Or are you thinking at the highest level of, I'm creating world changers. I'm creating kids that have great character, and I'm going to help them tap into their giftings and take that to the moon and making the world a heavenly place.

And I'm going to not only affect them, but their grandkids and their grandkids for— and help them live better, not only now, but help set them up for living through eternity with the best life possible. Right? There's such a big difference there.

And so if you realized and you're living a purpose-driven life, Then you have in your mind, you know, that every word you say, everything you write, everything you think, everything you do, every moment matters when you are living in a state of purpose.

And can I tell you, for me, I, this is something that I don't think I've always, I've always had, but when I started having this sense of purpose in life and knowing that my life mattered, and then what I did had impact on other people and sometimes lasting and massive impact. It's so motivating.

You know, I had a point in my life where I didn't feel like necessarily getting outta bed all the time. And, um, and then something happened where I really found my purpose. And then it was like I was leaping outta bed. I was so excited because I was full of purpose. And so I'd ask you, how, how do you feel right now about your life?

Do you feel like you're really in touch and tapped into your purpose and your calling and ways you can contribute to this world? And listen, it's not always flashy sometimes. As we talked about with the John F. Kennedy story and the janitor, sometimes it's mopping the floor. Sometimes that's what it is. It's mopping the floor.

Sometimes your kids spill spaghetti sauce all over the place and break a, break a glass, and sometimes you're cleaning it up, right?

But if you know that you're doing that in a way, and the way you're doing it is in a way to teach your kids and show them what it looks like to serve and lay down your life, and you pull them over during that time and teach them a life lesson, that's what purpose is like. That's gonna change the trajectory of their entire life.

So there's a quote by the famed psychologist Friedrich Nietzsche, and he said, he who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how. So, and that's the reality. You know, this is something also quoted by Viktor Frankl, uh, who, uh, who was a survivor of the Holocaust. He was another psychologist.

And, and he said, he said he, he noticed the difference between people who survived the Holocaust and didn't, for the most part, was the people that survived had the greatest sense of purpose in their life. Now, it's not with every single person, but generally speaking, he said they had a a why to live, and that why got them through. It might have been they had family members somewhere.

It might have been they had dreams that they wanted to accomplish. For Franco, he wanted to share his message of logotherapy and how to heal the brain and restore relationships and live your best life through the power of his teachings in psychology. But it's important to know when you have a why, it gives you— it extends your life as well.

I mentioned earlier, there are studies that show that when people retire and they, if they don't pick up a mission or a purpose after retirement, it can take 7.5 years or more off of their lifespan. And so it literally shortens lifespan if you don't have a purpose. So it's probably one of the most critical, critical components for your health.

In ancient Asian thought and medicine, uh, they would say purpose is a key component of your health because it's what gives your body energy. In fact, they say it's the number one, um, uh, sort of thing that taps into your mind that gives your body what's called cellular energy, or, or in Chinese medicine they would call it chi.

But it's really what helps strength you, strengthen you, gives you vigor, brings health to your body and wholeness. And so purpose is key for every area of your life. You know, purpose gives your relationship more meaning. It's like for Chelsea and I, we, we got married. Why did we get married? Right? That's always the question is why? Yeah. Why is always tied to purpose. Why did I get married?

Well, I got married because I believed it was gonna create the best life possible for me and for Chelsea. I believed in marriage. My why is making my wife, helping her grow, helping her fulfill her dreams, making her more Christlike. And the same for me. So us, it's like, hey, it's iron sharpens iron. We're helping each other grow. We're serving each other. We're submitting to each other.

So our why is we know that if we both sacrifice and submit and love each other, we're both gonna grow to the highest level possible. And that'll also help our kids grow to the highest level possible. And by doing that, we're loving others, we're honoring God, and we are creating this sort of culture and atmosphere of love.

So, so if you know your why in marriage, you're gonna have a better relationship. If you know your why in your other relationships, like for me, it's very much typically iron sharpens iron. Or I'm being mentored and allowing someone to sow into me and contribute to me in that way. Or I'm contributing to someone else by sowing in their life and blessing them.

But if you don't have a why in your business, if you don't have a why in your relationships, if you don't have a why for your health, like why would you wanna live to be 90 years old? I had a pastor one time and I asked him, his name was John, and I said, hey, Pastor John, why do you wanna live to be, you know, I said, what, what? Well, I, at first I asked him, I said, hey, you're my best patient.

Because he came in constantly. He was always in there doing more. More, uh, wellness things. And he said, you know, cuz he said, because I wanna be preaching and going on mission trips when I'm 95. I thought, wow, that's amazing. That's why you're in your 80s and still, still thriving. Cuz he had a why with himself. This is critical in business.

The, the best businesses in the world, they all have a why. You know, Simon Sinek wrote a great book. It says, start with why. It's important if you wanna live your best life possible, you need to start with why and who. That's really purpose and identity. And if you know those 2 things, you're gonna thrive. In every area of life. I think about Disney when it was thriving.

It's not thriving as much right now today, but when it was thriving, when Walt Disney was running it, he said, my why is to create the happiest place on earth, a place that families can go, have great family values, and they, a place where they can just live in a state of happiness. You know, talking about dreams and princesses and kings and kingdoms and creating this fairy tale.

And, and what an amazing thing. And he built an amazing business because he started with why. You know, in Japanese culture, purpose is fulfilled when the following 4 facets are accomplished. So here is how you can start to find your purpose. Number 1, what do you love? Okay? And I also would tie into something else here. What do you hate? From this standpoint, what's wrong in the world?

What is something that pains you? So what do you love? So for instance, I love health and I love personal growth and I love leadership. Like, I, I love, I love spirituality. Like, I love growing body, mind, and spirit. That's what I love. Now, what pains me at the same time breaks my heart.

It breaks my heart when I see somebody who is struggling with their weight and has hypothyroidism or type 2 diabetes or autoimmune disease, and they're eating poorly, but maybe they want to get better, but they just don't know there's a better way. They have no idea there's a better way. And so for me, that breaks my heart.

And so for me, it's, it's such a passionate purpose of saying, I want to help that person that's suffering. Like, that breaks my heart. Another thing that breaks my heart is, you know, when I see someone that doesn't really know their true identity or their purpose, the thing that God's called them to do, and I see them just wasting, wasting their talent. That breaks my heart.

I want to help that person accomplish and live out those things that they're, they're great at. And so those are the things that I love and I feel strongly about, but you need to determine for yourself. What do you love and what breaks your heart? What's that injustice, that thing in the world? And what is that thing that you love to do? So answering those questions is one.

That's the number one thing in finding your purpose. Number 2 is, what are you good at? Okay, what are you good at? An example of this would be, okay, I, I tend to be a better educator, being able to educate people on a topic. So I know I'm good at that part. Now let's say someone else.

Loved what I love too, but they're not maybe the best communicator, but maybe they're amazing at operations or amazing at marketing. So I have a marketer come in. I have people like this on my team. I have a marketer and they care about health as much as I do, but hey, they're not the educator.

They're maybe not the lead person out there, you know, speaking and leading the mission in the community, but they are writing great articles and they are creating great courses and partnering with me in changing the world. So you don't have to be the person in the lead.

You can be part of the person who is tied to this mission, but you also need to, That's the question number 2, what are you good at? Number 3, what does the world need? What does your family need? What does your community need? But what is that need or that problem that you're solving? What is the need or what is the problem? So here, here, here, here's an example.

One need I saw, and this is why I co-founded a supplement company with, with Jordan Rubin. But Jordan and I were sitting there and we said, what's a need in the world? Well, we believe that most supplements are synthetic.

And, and so when we're taking care of patients with, for instance, hypothyroidism, we know, well, they need herbs like ashwagandha and they need methylated B vitamins and they need selenium. So we created supplements like that, right? And, and what is something else people need? Well, people need a program to heal.

For instance, I saw a lot of people with leaky gut syndrome, so I said they need a course for healing leaky gut. So I created a course with my team to help address that issue because I knew I could write articles, but they needed more handholding. They needed more. And so my point there is, what does the world need? And the last thing is, what brings you the greatest reward?

Now, oftentimes this is financial, okay? And so what allows you to do what you love, do what you're good at, address a need or problem in the world, and that you can be rewarded for financially most of the time. But sometimes it could be in the case of someone like a Mother Teresa or a Martin Luther King Jr. or something on the side that you have. It might just be personal satisfaction.

You know, sometimes I'm involved in things at, you know, at my place of worship or, or, or in the community that I'm not getting paid for, but I get a great reward in my soul and spirit for doing it. And that's great as well. And so all that being said, I think that's something else you do wanna think about, especially if it's a career, is which will bring you the greatest reward.

And so those are the 4 things. And so if you're watching on YouTube, you can check out, you can look at this graphic here right now that goes through. What do you love? What the world needs? What brings the greatest reward? And what are you good at? In Japan, they call it ikigai, which is purpose.

And so using this and thinking about it, and I wanna challenge you to do this right now or right after you listen to this, but go and write down those 4 things, address those 4 things for yourself to find your purpose, because purpose is the fuel for your life. It's what gives your life meaning. In, in many, many ways.

Here's a few other solutions and things that really give your life more meaning and can help you live out your purpose. Number one is life value. It's really important to know that you are valuable, you are worthy, and you're significant. If you don't believe that you're worthy or valuable, if you don't believe you are valuable, then you can't give value to others.

So it's important that you recognize that you're made in the image of God. That you were created. Listen, there's no one like you in the world. There's not a single person like you, and God has given you a unique gift, and you need to think about how you can use that to serve the world.

But if you don't see yourself as being valuable, then what I would recommend you do is spend some time reading books that help instill that in you, being around a community of support that allows you to know that. For me, you know, I read what God says about me in scripture, and that has taken my worthiness and value to the whole nother level. But that's number one.

If you don't believe you're valuable, you cannot add value to others. You cannot give what you don't have. Number 2, principled living is the way to live a life of purpose. Life principles and philosophies guide your decisions and life path. And so, and, and by the way, I see a lot of people not living out principles. So, so what tends to happen in the world today?

Is we're living in a state of what's called relativism, where people believe almost everything is true all at once. But there, but, but if you believe everything is okay, then, then, then it's hard to just determine, well, what's actually good and what's actually bad. What's— it's, it, it's hard to determine that.

You always wanna be moving the world towards the good, towards— it's actually called, uh, human flourishing. That's what you wanna lead the world towards. So principle of living, for instance, I have life principles. No matter who it is, no matter what they've done, I need to treat that person with honor and respect. That's a life principle. Okay?

Another life principle is, is that all life is precious. All life is precious, right? And, and so those are just examples of life principles. Another one is like, live on less than you make. That's like a Dave Ramsey principle. It's a good financial principle. Another one is always be generous, sowing into other people.

Your family, your non-family, the person that you're tipping at the restaurant. You know, so sowing and reaping. There's another life principle. Be the change you wanna see in the world. Stop pointing fingers and judging everybody and live by the principle to where don't judge anybody. Just go out there and you be the change in the world, right? So principled living brings your life purpose.

Because if you don't have any principles of which you live, live by, you don't know what's good or bad, or you don't know what's right or wrong. So you don't know how to be a good mom or a good dad or a good boss or a good leader. Or whatever it might be. So you gotta be a principled person. Number 3, goals and achievement, right?

When you achieve your goals, you feel satisfied and that helps you fulfill your purpose. And so what you wanna do is have a purpose, but then be able to attach goals to it. I'll give you an example for myself. And so when I started, you know, my supplement company, we attached financial goals to it.

We attached goals of number of lives transformed, of people, like for when I did courses, that's another one. But you wanna have specific goals that you're going after. Number 4, excitement. Here's the thing, your purpose, it should be exciting. There should be a sense of curiosity and wonder, and it should excite you. Okay?

So if you, if you, you'll know your purpose because it'll be something you start to feel passionate about and love, but it should be exciting. Number 5, growth. Your purpose should allow you to progress in your life to be to where you are becoming a bigger, better person.

You're growing in character, you're growing in your skill, you're contributing more, but there should be a, a, a An element of growth. Number 6 is community and connection. Your purpose, it typically is not something you're doing absolutely alone, solo. You should have a family or a tribe that has your back that you're going and bringing along with you.

Like even in my work life, by the way, I'm excited. I have a 3-year-old right now, but I'm so excited for when she's 19 or 20 and she's ready to kind of come into work with me and us, you know, doing the family, family, family business together. So. Anyways, community and connection and a team of people you're locking arm with to change the world with, that's important.

Number 7, contribution and impact. You know, you're doing something that feels meaningful. Number 8, it's bigger than you. Your purpose should ideally bigger— be bigger than you. I mean, part of my purpose is helping people, all people. Like, like the ideal for me is we get to a place where every person alive is fulfilling their their God-given purpose. They're, they're optimal in their health.

They are, you know, absolutely free of disease. Every hospital is shut down because, because we don't need 'em. Because people are eating so well, people are exercising, people are, you know, living out their best life. They're gardening. And so that, now, will that vision come to pass while I'm alive? Probably not. It's way bigger than me, way bigger than something I could ever accomplish. Right?

But that's the ideal. That's what you want to have. You know, there's a, there, there's a great tagline for for one of my favorite charities, and it, it, it is make, you know, make poverty nonexistent, right? Well, there are so many people in poverty right now, but that's, that, that, that's a big, that's a big why, you know? So the bigger the why, the better.

It's kind of like if you've ever read Jim Collins' book, Good to Great, big, hairy, audacious goals. You should have a big, hairy, audacious purpose and vision for your life that then allows you to determine what that goal should be in the first place. Now, here's the other reality and the thing I wanna share again. You don't need a big platform to make a difference.

Whether you have 1 million followers on social media or you have one follower on social media, you just need to use your skills to serve, to love, to lead, to teach, to create and innovate. You know, just one of those things within your family and your community. I mean, think about the mother of Martin Luther King Jr. If she wasn't a great mom, he would not have led the civil rights movement.

Now think about the mother of Hitler or dad of Hitler, to, to, to my point as well. If they, I mean, obviously if, if he was nurtured and challenged in the right way, he wouldn't have done what he did. And so all that being said, even if you just impact one person or one small group, your family, that's how you change the world. And that enough is such a massive purpose.

This is something I tell moms constantly. And, and I share with Chelsea constantly, it's like you've got the most important job in the world. There's no bigger, better purpose than going out there and saying, I'm gonna love and help transform my family and help my kids grow to be the best people they can be. It's so, so powerful.

And I wanna share this, as you continually become a person you are proud to be and live with purpose, your actions will have ripple effects on your legacy and their legacy and beyond. And I wanna show you a graphic here if you're watching. On YouTube, and then I'm gonna explain if you're listening on iTunes and Spotify and some of the other, other channels here.

But this is called Maslow's hierarchy, and it's a great example if you're wondering, well, how do I help somebody? And you wanna find some problems in the world that you can help solve. There are 6 levels of, of Maslow's hierarchy, and he was a really famous and brilliant psychologist, Abraham Maslow. And so here are the 6 levels. The first one is physiological. Okay?

So, so these are our, it's, it's the hierarchy of needs. Here's the things that we need in order to thrive, uh, as human beings. Um, water, food, sleep, shelter, you know, clothing, health. If you don't have those things, you're, you're gonna die, right? If you don't have water, you're gonna die. If you don't have food, you're gonna die. If you don't sleep a single hour, you can't live. Okay?

So all that being said, the first needs are Physiological. Well, one thing of purpose might be, well, helping people who don't have water, don't have food, don't have shelter, don't have clothing, don't have health. Those are the very basic things. And so part of your purpose could be helping people on the foundational level. That could be your purpose, is solving problems in those areas.

The level up from that physiological needs are our needs for safety. It's Bodily safety. You know, I think about, there's a ministry that Chelsea and I and friends of ours have sowed into called Mercy Multiplied, where they took in women who had been sexually abused. Or there's another group that we love, that Chelsea and I love to sow into, and they rescue women from sex trafficking.

Safety, right? That's safety. That's security. It's rescuing people that are being imprisoned in that way. And so we need safety in our bodies, our physical bodies. We need to feel safe within our families. In relationships, safety of employment. You know, if somebody doesn't have a job, um, there, there's a real security issue around that.

Um, not being provided for, uh, safety and morality and even, even your physical property, you know, that you own your home, right? You wanna feel safe there. And so if somebody doesn't feel safe in any of those areas, so think about that. If you owned a company that, that put alarms on homes, that's really purpose-driven.

I mean, you're taking care of One of those levels of Maslow's hierarchy, if you're a real estate agent and you're out there helping somebody find their dream home, that's actually several levels we'll get into. But you need to attach a lot of meaning to your job. The next level up is love and belonging, feeling included.

And this is where family and friendship and even sexual intimacy come into play to where you have to know you belong. There is a human need. I've mentioned this study before. But if you feel lonely in a sense of lonely, I'm not talking about if you feel lonely for one day, but if you chronically feel lonely, it's the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day according to the studies.

That's mind-blowing. Think about that. That's how bad it is for your health. So it could take decades off your life feeling lonely. So we have to be connected to other people. Could be a family, and listen, it could be a family, it could be a, you know, a, uh, and, and maybe you're grown and single and maybe you, you don't, didn't have a family.

Well, Do your best to create that family environment. It's friendships as well. Um, so love and belonging is critical to our mental needs and wellbeing. And another one, the next level up is esteem. In order for you to thrive and be living out your purpose, you need to have a strong sense of self-worth. You need to have a sense of accomplishment, respect, and recognition.

And so if you don't feel like you're respected by anybody, That really hurts your self-esteem if you don't feel a sense of value and self-worth. Now, these things of course are very tied to identity. If you have a weak sense of identity and who you are, well, that affects your purpose.

Actually, that, that's the first thing that will weaken your purpose is if you don't have a strong sense of identity. And so that's important. And so listen, if you're a person out there and you're helping, let me give you an example.

On Instagram, one of the things that I see most people doing that are young women is they're posting pictures that are probably gonna make other women feel bad about themselves cuz they're posting a picture of a perfect life and maybe a picture of them puckering up or, you know, body parts or whatever it is.

And so, and the studies have shown that, you know, uh, high school girls that are spending time on social media, their self-esteem is dramatically lessened. Well, let's say you wanna be a purpose-driven person and you know those girls have a low sense of self-worth.

Why don't you start an Instagram or a Facebook or a YouTube or whatever social account to where then you can go on and you help women build their self-esteem and their self-worth and let them know they're called to do great things with their life and that men should be laying down their lives for them because they're that valuable, because they're worth dying for, right?

So again, you can see where you can start to find your purpose in Maslow's hierarchy here. The next level up is self-actualization. We need to become more virtuous. That allows us to be happy. That allows us to thrive. So us virtues are Becoming more loving and more wise and more generous and more kind and more hopeful. Those sort of qualities. It's contribute.

It's self-actualization is where you're contributing a lot to the lives of others. It's personal growth and self-development. It's reaching your full potential by using your gifts for the good of the world. That's self-actualization.

Now here's the highest level, and so if you're a life coach or a you know or a pastor or a rabbi or a priest or a teacher or a you know a lot of you know you you oftentimes are helping people grow. Grow in their character, grow in their personal growth, reach their full potential. If you're a coach coaching somebody, helping them do that.

So that's a very high level that, that you're operating under, and none are better than the others. In fact, the lower, the more foundational. But we need all of these for us to be fulfilling and living out our purpose in life and helping others do the same. And the last is self-transcendence. When you're living at the very highest level of purpose, it's divine.

You've tapped into, you have a divine identity. There's a level of spiritual growth that's happening in you. You're very purpose-driven and you're self-sacrificing. You understand sacrificing yourself to love and give to others to make the world a better place.

And so if you're operating in more of that spiritual component, internal component, then you're operating at the highest level of Maslow's hierarchy and you're con— and you're living out your greatest level of purpose in life. Here's a challenge I have for you, uh, that I wanna share.

You are on this earth to contribute, to add value, to use your skills to alleviate the suffering of others and to help others unlock their potential and to know the deep joy each of these things brings. And I wanna give you an example of this, but think about it this way too.

Part of our job is when you see a friend or somebody who is fallen, fallen, fallen in a ditch, you help pull them up out of the ditch. It might be they need money. You're pulling them up out of a ditch. It might be they need an encouraging word. You're pulling them up out of the ditch.

It might be they're depressed, you're— or, or maybe they got a medical condition and you share some health advice with them and you pull them out of the ditch. That's step one. You're pulling somebody out.

And then what you're doing is you're mentoring and discipling them and saying, okay, help me now pull other people who have fallen in a ditch in their relationships, in their health, in all the areas of your life. And when you're doing that, You're living a life of purpose. Now, what I want you to do is write down your individual purpose.

And by the way, you can have multiple purposes, but I want you to think about, first off, what's your career purpose? Why do you do what you do? And maybe you're in a job, you're saying, you know what, this, this company I'm a part of, they're not doing good in the world. In fact, they're doing some pretty, uh, unmoral, unethical, shady things.

And so listen, you might be in that situation, then start looking for a new career. Okay? But I would say, think about and write down what is your purpose in your career and work life? Next is, what is the purpose of your relationships, your marriage, your friendships? Think about that.

Write down what is your why in your relationships and as a parent, if you are a parent or as a child, you know, think about that. Like, I see myself as a kid, like I'm here to take, take, help my parents get healthy. They helped raise me up and gave me money and fed me, did all those things. When they get older, I'm gonna do the same for them. Uh, the next is your faith.

What is your why and your purpose in your faith? Okay. Um, why would you have a relationship with God? What, what, what is God calling you to do? What's your why there and your purpose? Uh, the next would be financials. Once you bring in finances, what should you do with those? Should you save? Should you give? Should you invest? Think about that. And the last is, what is your why for your health?

So, so think about the, your whys in those 5 categories. Yeah. A few takeaway principles. And by the way, some of this information I just went over, it's from— these are ideas that have been inspired by my new book, Think This, Not That. And by the way, this is— I just scratched the surface of just one of these mind shifts on purpose. There's 12 in the book.

And so, if you've enjoyed this content, you're going to be blown away by the book, Think This, Not That. And you can get it by going to JoshAx.com. I've got hundreds of dollars worth of free content on there if you go to JoshAx.com.

So, If you buy the book, you get several hundred dollars worth of— some people even said it's gonna be worth over $1,000 worth of free content once we get a few of the other things on there. And so anyways, wanna encourage you, joshaxe.com. You gotta also go to your local bookstore, amazon.com. You can get the book there, but if you go to joshaxe.com, you'll get all the bonuses.

So here's the thing I wanna tell you. Think this: my life has value, meaning, and a specific purpose to make this world a better place. Don't think this, I have no purpose and no power to make a difference. You do. I know you do. And I wanna say this as well. I think all of us have a universal purpose as humanity, and I think all of us have an individual purpose and individual purposes.

The first one, our universal purpose. Here's what I believe it is. I believe it's to love God, love people, and make earth a heavenly place. That's what I believe it is. I, I think those are the things.

If, if we're able to have a deep connection with our creator and knowing what we're called to do, if we have If we're loving people and we're making this earth a heavenly place, we are fulfilling the universal purpose. All of us locking arms and doing that together, creating a paradise, heaven on earth.

And the other thing is, and then you have an individual purpose that's part of that where you're sowing into creating, uh, this, this, this, this utopia of the world. And so I wanna encourage you to think about, um, think about, you know, again, remember, purpose is about doing, uh, about doing things as a community. Yeah. And also about you sowing into something as an individual.

But again, it's all very community-driven. And in order to live a life of purpose and meaning, you have to shift. Last thing here, from being self-focused to others-focused. The people that made the biggest difference in this world, there's 2 things. One, they thought the most about the next life, not this life.

I mean, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr., all these, they were thinking about eternity and about future generations, and they were also very focused on others, helping set others free. So the more you can take the focus off of, hey, how can I, how, how do I make my dreams come true versus no, how do I make other people's dreams come true? That, that's purpose right there.

How do I help someone else achieve what they truly need and want in life? So I just wanna say to everybody listening, thanks so much for tuning in here to my show, the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I love doing this show because it adds value to my life. I hope it's adding value to your life.

And this podcast is all about being on a mission to help save and transform lives, to help people live their optimal life in body, mind, and spirit. And I wanna encourage you, if this, if this episode resonated with you today, would you do me a favor? Would you just share it with somebody?

You could text it to somebody, you could post it on your social channels saying, hey, you should listen to this. You could post it on Instagram with a, you know, with, with a link to the show. It, it'd mean a lot to me because I really am doing the show because I want to help people live their best life. And the people that have sowed into me have blessed me so much.

I just want to share what I've been able to learn from the people who've added value to my life. And hey, if you're not subscribed, hey, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing. If you like this episode, like it, share it. And if you're watching on YouTube, hey, I'd love to hear what was your favorite part? What is something that you're going to walk away with?

And did this help you get a little closer to finding your purpose. Hey, thanks so much for listening. I can't wait to see you on the next episode.