Need help discovering your life purpose?
What gets you out of bed in the morning? What keeps you going despite the difficulties?
It’s not only your professional life that benefits when you discover your life purpose—knowing your “why” positively impacts all areas of your life.
The Benefits of Knowing Your Life Purpose
Life purpose, personal mission, your “why”—call it what you will, but being aware of it gives you the following:
In addition to the benefits mentioned above, knowing your why increases your longevity.
In research led by University College London and published in The Lancet, research respondents who felt that they had a sense of purpose or meaning in their lives were shown to live longer than those who did not.
Take note that your life purpose is different from your job, title, or different roles in life. Rather, it is the essence of what you’re doing in all of these roles.
Having learned this, finding your life’s work takes on a different sense of importance.
A life purpose questionnaire can help assess where you find meaning so that you can use your abilities for your own benefit and to uplift others.
This questionnaire can be in the form of a printable worksheet or an online quiz. We’ve collected several examples to help uncover your purpose in life.
11 Best Life Purpose Questionnaires to Help Discover your “Why”
Let’s check them out.
1. Living a Life of Purpose
What is your true calling? Use this questionnaire to find out.
There are three parts to this questionnaire. Part one explores your life purpose. It consists of several guide questions about:
Part two of the questionnaire help you uncover your “why.” Finally, part three asks “What do you want?”
In this last part of the questionnaire, you will reflect on several prompts, such as:
When searching for your purpose, remember that the answers will not come instantly. Be patient with yourself. Enjoy the process of self-discovery.
2. The Soul Purpose Test
Children often have a good idea of their life purpose. When asked what they want to be when they grow up, they often have a ready answer. “I want to be a doctor!” “I’m going to be an astronaut!” “A chef!” “An explorer.”
However, as they get older, these dreams are typically forgotten. Most of these children settle for jobs that provide financial security but do not utilize their full potential.
If your higher purpose is still hazy to you right now, this online quiz might help clarify things. It consists of seven questions. Your answers will show you your purpose in life and reveal who you are truly meant to be.
3. Finding Your Purpose: The Questions You Need to Ask
This self-discovery worksheet has the necessary questions you need to be asking to find out what your life’s purpose is and connect with it to start living life in line with what you’re truly meant to do.
It consists of two pages with nine guide questions or writing prompts that encourage a deeper reflection on matters related to discovering more about you. Sufficient spaces are designated for your answers to each of the guide questions.
You can find the download link in the original post. Scroll down towards the bottom of the article and click on the tiny box marked “Download.” This takes you to the PDF file that you can print out or save to your computer for use later.
4. Who Are You Meant to Be Self Assessment Quiz
According to Anne Dranitsaris, the creator of this online quiz, we all have seven “striving styles.” These striving styles direct our search for satisfaction.
Furthermore, Dranitsaris says that although we all possess all seven styles, every person has a dominant style.
This quiz helps determine your dominant striving style. It is composed of 64 questions and requires at least 10 minutes to complete.
Once you’re done, you will receive an in-depth description of your striving style, as wells as a summary of what to watch out for.
[See some deep questions to get to know people better!]
5. Find Your Purpose Worksheet
Many of us struggle to find our true purpose. For some, it takes their whole lives to develop self-awareness and discover what they’re meant to do.
This worksheet from Positive Project is your guide to uncovering your skills, talents, and true purpose in life.
It contains 13 guide prompts specifically developed so that you can reflect on your passions and abilities that help align you with your specific life purpose.
Some of the prompts in this worksheet include:
This worksheet is accessible after signing up for the site’s newsletter.
6. My Purpose Worksheet
When using this template to find out your life purpose, you’re also discovering the true essence of your being.
By taking time to reflect on the questions before answering them, you’ll arrive at the core of what you are meant to do here. Hopefully, the answers you find will inspire you to take action and live in alignment with your life purpose.
There is sufficient space provided in this three-page worksheet for you to write down your answers to the guide questions. You can also use your personal journal for recording your answers and ongoing reflections.
7. Find Your Purpose, Live Your Passion
This questionnaire is adapted from Tina Su’s Life on Purpose questionnaire.
In this example, there are 18 questions that help you explore your source of inspiration, happiness, and strength.
As we mentioned earlier, being resilient is one of the major benefits of knowing your purpose in life. Without this awareness, setbacks can be extra challenging.
Resilience is essential for success.
Moreover, in knowing your true purpose, you are inspired to do the kind of work that utilizes all your abilities.
8. Wisdom Times: What Is my Life Purpose?
Wisdom Times has a very short quiz to offer. It consists of 10 questions to help determine what your life purpose is. Most of them focus on your thoughts about jobs and relationships. One of the questions, for instance, asks what your view is on marriage.
The quiz is easy to answer, and once you are done all you have to do is provide your name and email address to receive your results.
Note that you need to think carefully about your answer because the questionnaire does not have a “back” option. Once you choose an answer, you can’t change it.
9. The Life Purpose Quiz
This online quiz helps you discover what is holding you back from your life purpose.
The questions were formulated using researched-backed methods, and help realign your values to reflect what you are meant to contribute during your lifetime.
The questions require some contemplation. However, you are encouraged to answer instinctively. The quiz takes less than 10 minutes to complete.
10. Have You Decided Your Purpose?
This questionnaire has three parts:
In the first part of the questionnaire, you will work through 10 guide questions. These encourage you to reflect on your authentic self and discover what makes you happy.
The second part helps you identify opportunities in your personal and professional life. This part also encourages you to write up to five possible callings (stuff you are passionate about, are interested in, and/or that motivate you).
The last part lets you identify traits, deeds, or skills that you need to do more of, as well as those that you need to do less of. In this part, space is also provided for writing down a possible life purpose for you.
11. The Minds Journal: How You See These Images Dictates Your Master Purpose in Life
This questionnaire is rather unique and interesting. Instead of words, it uses images to ask questions. There are still words for the instructions, but you will mostly be asked to describe what you feel about the images. Once you are done, your results will be measured and your purpose in life will be determined.
There are 15 images in this test. You need to think carefully before choosing your answers, since there is no back button. When you’re done, the results will display automatically with a brief description.
Final Thoughts
Discovering your life purpose helps you live more passionately. It becomes your most important tool for overcoming setbacks.
Having a purpose for getting up in the morning is also your key to happiness and longevity.
A well-designed life purpose questionnaire can point the way to your personal mission, but it is up to you to walk the path it reveals.
To understand more about your life’s purpose, you might want to check out this post for a step-by-step guide on finding your why. After which, you can read this post to learn how to write a life purpose statement.
And if you need help with some planning, here are the best life planning apps to use. To read more about this topic, here are great books about finding your purpose.
Also, you might want to read this post for a roundup of five core values quizzes to identify what’s important to you. Finally, if you’re looking for specific examples of core values, this post lists a hundred core values to live by.
Finally, if you want to take your goal-setting efforts to the next level, check out this FREE printable worksheet and a step-by-step process that will help you set effective SMART goals.
