Knowing your purpose provides a foundation for making decisions.

How will you make a decision that’s right for you if you don’t know your purpose? When your purpose is clear, your options become much easier to evaluate.

• Whether your goal is to attend Harvard Law School, run a marathon, or start your own company, knowing your purpose makes the best option for nearly any decision much clearer.

When you know your purpose, you’re more likely to Persevere.

It’s easy to give up if you’re not committed to the purpose of a goal. Your purpose is the reason you want to commit to anything. When those inevitable obstacles pop up, you’ll be in a better position to overcome them.

• When you align all your goals to your purpose, that purpose becomes the theme of your life. This leads to a balanced successful life.

Life is short.

Why go through each day mindlessly wandering around? You have a direction for your life when you have a purpose.

• Your purpose might be saving the albino zebras or becoming a horror novelist. It doesn’t matter what your purpose is, but you can live a more meaningful life if you identify it.

Knowing your purpose provides clarity.

You know what’s important and what isn’t if your purpose is clear to you. If you’re obsessed with making the PGA Tour, there’s no reason to worry about politics or the fact that your neighbor isn’t mowing his grass. You have bigger fish to fry.

It minimizes distractions.

Many of the distractions in your life are the things that interest you, but not enough to be a genuine purpose. It’s the things that you like to dabble in that can be distracting.  When you have a real purpose, these semi-serious interests get kicked to the curb.

It all but guarantees success.

With greater focus and perseverance, you’re much more likely to be successful. It’s very difficult to be successful at something you feel half-hearted about.

• Imagine something that you’re totally committed to achieving. Now, imagine that it’s also very meaningful to you, and it’s also very interesting to you. How likely are you to be successful?
• Contrast that with something you’re only mildly interested in that you consider being rather meaningless. How successful will you be? The difference in your results would be staggering.

It adds to your charisma.

Someone with a purpose is much more interesting than someone who is just drifting through life. You’re much more attractive to others when your purpose is clear to you.

• Think of someone you know whose life is committed to something. Now think of someone you know who seems lost and inconsequential in the world. Which would you rather be? How would you rather appear to others?