Feeling spiritually awakened but still uncertain about your direction can be deeply frustrating. You may have done the inner work, explored healing, and learned to trust your intuition, yet still wonder how to find your purpose in a real, grounded way.
For Caleb Matthews, purpose is not something to force or invent. It is something already woven into your spirit, your early joys, your dreams, and the specific way you are designed to move through the world.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- Dreams, childhood fascinations, and recurring joys can reveal clues about your unique design.
- Purpose becomes clearer when spirit, soul, and body are brought back into alignment.
- You are allowed to release inherited expectations and choose a path that fits your own design.
- The seven DNA of Design types offer a framework for recognizing how you naturally contribute.
Purpose, Dreams, and Spiritual Alignment
Your purpose journey began with dreams. Why do you see dreams as so important?
My earliest vivid memories are dreams. From around six years old, I would wake up from a dream and run to my mom asking, “What does this mean?” She taught my brothers and me the Hebraic approach to dream interpretation, so I grew up with the understanding that dreams could carry spiritual meaning.
Many people dismiss dreams as random mental noise, but we spend a significant portion of our sleeping lives in dream states. That is a lot of time to simply write off. Dreams can be one of the ways we notice what is happening beneath the surface, including desires, fears, unresolved experiences, and spiritual promptings.
When you are exploring how to find your purpose, pay attention to recurring themes. What places, people, emotions, or callings keep returning in dreams? Do not obsess over every symbol, but do become curious. Your inner world may be highlighting something your busy daily mind has overlooked.
Why can someone do so much spiritual work and still feel lost?
I see this as a disconnect between spirit and soul. I do not believe we are only body and soul. I see us as three-part beings: spirit, soul, and body.
- The body is the physical vehicle through which we move in the world.
- The soul includes mind, will, and emotions.
- The spirit holds wisdom, conscience, inspiration, and what I call your God-given DNA of design.
When life is run entirely by the mind, decisions can feel exhausting. You become a hamster on a wheel, trying to reason your way into a future that may not even fit you. The soul was never meant to carry the whole burden alone.
Learning how to find your purpose involves allowing your spirit to inform your soul, not letting pressure, fear, culture, or other people’s expectations dictate every decision.
Childhood Clues and the Eye of I Principle
What is the Eye of I principle?
The Eye of I principle is about looking back at your own life. Every person has early fascinations, joys, delights, and unusual inclinations that reveal something important about their design.
For me, I was known as TTM, meaning “talk too much.” I talked to my neighbor’s dog, Ace. I read children’s stories to him. I had around 120 stuffed animals, each with a name and personality, and I spoke to them as though I were addressing a packed room.
Later, I spoke to live audiences, on podcasts, on radio, and in different nations. The ability did not suddenly appear when I was an adult. It was there in seed form when I was a child. I had been practicing long before I understood what I was practicing for.
What questions can help someone uncover those clues?
If you want to know how to find your purpose, get a journal and sit with these questions:
- What did I naturally love doing as a child?
- What could I do for hours without being asked?
- What did people notice about me early in life?
- What did I create, organize, explain, protect, imagine, or explore?
- What part of me may have been shut down because of criticism, trauma, or pressure?
These questions are not about becoming childish. They are about recovering childlike wonder and remembering what came naturally before you learned to edit yourself for acceptance.
Sometimes purpose is hidden beneath the very things others told you were too much, too intense, too sensitive, too curious, or too different. Those qualities may need wisdom and maturity, but they may also be clues to your assignment.
If overthinking has made it difficult to hear your inner knowing, this guide on how to stop overthinking and trust your intuition can help you create more space for that inner guidance.
How to Find Your Purpose Through Spirit, Soul, and Body Alignment
What is one practical practice for coming back into alignment?
One simple but powerful practice is blessing your spirit. You can do this in front of a mirror, with your eyes closed, or in a quiet place where you can become still.
Speak to your spirit as you would speak to someone you love. Invite it to come forward and lead your soul and body with wisdom. The point is not to perform the perfect ritual. It is to intentionally step away from noise and reconnect with the deepest part of your being.
You could begin with words like these:
“I call my spirit to attention. I bless my spirit to step into the opportunities that align with my true design. I release the paths that are not mine. I welcome wisdom, conscience, joy, and clarity to lead me forward.”
As you sit with this, ask yourself what doors feel life-giving and what doors feel heavy, performative, or disconnected from who you really are. Knowing how to find your purpose is often as much about recognizing what is not yours as it is about identifying what is.
What does it mean to step away from a blueprint that is not yours?
Many people are trying to fulfill a design given to them by parents, peers, culture, religion, or society. There can be enormous pressure to become the successful one, the responsible one, the healer of the family, or even the savior of the world.
But you do not have to be the savior. That place is already taken.
You are allowed to say, “That is not my design.” You are allowed to step away from armor that does not fit. You are allowed to choose the path that calls forth your conscience, understanding, creativity, and joy, even when others do not understand it.
That does not mean purpose is always easy. It may cost you comfort, approval, or familiar relationships. But the fruit of walking in your actual design can be greater than the cost of living someone else’s life.
For more encouragement when your current life no longer fits, read these signs your dream is near.
Jesus, Mysticism, and Direct Connection
Many people associate Jesus with institutional religion. How do you approach him differently?
I encourage people to distinguish Jesus himself from the layers of institutional practice that have been built around him over time. Jesus spoke in deeply spiritual language about living water, inner transformation, healing, the kingdom within, and connection with the Father.
For someone who has felt pushed away by religious systems, it can be meaningful to return to the Gospels and read the words of Jesus directly. Read the red letters. Notice what he actually emphasized.
This is not about being told that you must fit into a structure to be loved by God. It is about encountering a living relationship with God and allowing that relationship to shape your life from the inside out.
How does that relate to how to find your purpose?
Purpose becomes clearer when you stop treating God as distant and begin recognizing that divine wisdom can meet you in your real life: in dreams, quiet moments, conscience, beauty, grief, joy, and the choices in front of you.
There is no need to rush from one place to the next, trying to prove that your life matters. Slow down enough to notice the taste of coffee, the laughter of a child, writing poetry, dancing, nature, chocolate, kind words, and the moments that make your spirit come alive.
Purpose is not only a future destination. It is also the way you are called to inhabit the present.
Your DNA of Design and the Seven Purpose Types
What is the DNA of Design framework?
The DNA of Design framework is a way to identify the core pattern through which you naturally contribute. It is not meant to put people into a box. It is meant to help them recognize the engine already inside their vehicle.
The seven design types are:
- Activator
- Catalyst
- Navigator
- Builder
- Steward
- Healer
- Seer
Your body is the vehicle. Your soul involves your mind, will, and emotions. Your spirit, with its innate blueprint, is like the engine. When you understand your design, you can become more intentional about how you move through work, relationships, creativity, leadership, and everyday life.
Can you give an example of a design type in action?
Julia discovered that she is a Navigator. A navigator brings clarity through complexity and helps others find a path forward. That connects naturally with her desire to make spirituality more practical and accessible.
Historical examples of navigators include people such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, and Amelia Earhart. Their journeys shaped what became possible for others. The point is that one person’s design can create a pathway another person later walks.
Everything is connected. Whether you run a business, create content, care for a family, serve your community, or live a quieter life, your design still matters. Understanding how to find your purpose is not reserved for people with a public platform.
You can explore your own pattern through the free DNA of Design quiz, which takes about five minutes.
What is the most important thing to remember when searching for purpose?
Your purpose is not somewhere far away, waiting for you to become more impressive. It is already leaving clues through your dreams, childhood delights, recurring frustrations, strengths, and the kind of impact you naturally want to make.
Do not conform to an image that feels foreign to you. Return to your design. Let your spirit govern the noise of your soul. Choose the next honest step, and trust that purpose can unfold through faithful movement rather than frantic striving.
And if you already know your gifts and feel called to turn them into meaningful work, explore these spiritual online business ideas for practical direction.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Find Your Purpose
What is the first step in how to find your purpose?
Start by looking for patterns in your life. Journal about childhood joys, recurring dreams, natural abilities, frustrations, and the situations where you feel most alive. Purpose often leaves clues long before it becomes a clear career or calling.
Can dreams help me find my purpose?
Dreams can be a meaningful place for reflection. Pay attention to recurring images, emotions, people, and themes, then consider how they may connect to your present life, desires, fears, or spiritual questions.
What if my family expects me to follow a path that does not feel right?
Recognizing that an expectation is not aligned with your design is an important part of purpose work. You can honor people without living out a blueprint that belongs to them. Begin by taking small, honest steps toward what feels true to your conscience and gifts.
Do I need a public career to live my purpose?
No. Purpose is not measured by visibility. Your design can shape how you show up in family life, friendships, work, creativity, service, leadership, and your everyday choices.
