|
Life
purpose is something that Catalysts in particular seem driven to find.
It's also a topic that comes up frequently during life coaching. I have
been blessed to help several of my clients find and step into their life
purpose. Following are some thoughts on life purpose.
*
* *
Blessed
With A Purpose
Your Life's
Work
Many people
are committed to professions and personal endeavors they never consciously
planned to pursue. They attribute the shape of their lives to circumstance,
taking on roles they feel are tolerable. Each of us, however, has been blessed
with a purpose. Your life's work is the assemblage of activities that allows you
to express your intelligence and creativity, live in accordance with your
values, and experience the profound joy of simply being yourself. Unlike
traditional work, which may demand more of you than you are willing to give,
life's work demands nothing but your intent and passion for that work. Yet no
one is born with an understanding of the scope of their purpose. If you have
drifted through life, you may feel directionless. Striving to discover your
life's work can help you realize your true potential and live a more authentic,
driven life.
To make this discovery, you must consider your interests in the present and the
passions that moved you in the past. You may have felt attracted to a certain
discipline or profession throughout your young life only to have steered away
from your aspirations upon reaching adulthood. Or you may be harboring an
interest as of yet unexplored. Consider what calls to you and then narrow it
down. If you want to work with your hands, ask yourself what work will allow you
to do so. You may be able to refine your life's work within the context of your
current occupations. If you want to change the world, consider whether your
skills and talents lend themselves to philanthropic work. Taking stock of your
strengths, passions, beliefs, and values can help you refine your search for
purpose if you don't know where to begin. Additionally, in your daily
meditation, ask the universe to clarify your life's work by providing signs and
be sure to pay attention.
Since life's journey is one of evolution, you may need to redefine your
direction on multiple occasions throughout your lifetime. For instance, being an
amazing parent can be your life's work strongly for 18 years, then perhaps you
have different work to do. Your life's work may not be something you are
recognized or financially compensated for, such as parenting, a beloved hobby,
or a variety of other activities typically deemed inconsequential. Your love for
a pursuit, however, gives it meaning. You'll know you have discovered your
life's work when you wake eager to face each day and you feel good about not
only what you do but also who you are.Register
here for your own free Daily OM
* * *
REMEMBER
THESE TWO DISTINCTIONS
There's an important distinction between your true, divinely inspired life
purpose, which is based in and arises from the universal attractive force of
unconditional love; and your inherited purpose, which is based in fear, lack,
and a need to struggle to survive.
The Life On Purpose Perspective says your life purpose isn't what you do.
It is, instead, the context, vessel or container into which you pour your life.
In other words, your life purpose is a powerful force that shapes your life and
all that you do.
THE WALL OF LACK & LIMITATION: Hitting the Wall
Consider this. For many of us, we've built a wall of meaning that's based in
lack and limitation. And many of us hit this wall -- hard and often, like a bug
smacking the windshield of a car going 90 miles per hour. SPLAT!
Of course, the Wall of Lack and Limitation is made of the same basic components
as the Inherited Purpose -- old thoughts, emotions and feelings based in lack and
a sense of scarcity. Here are some of the ways hitting the Wall of Lack and
Limitations might sound:
"I can't
really be and express my life purpose until I have more money."
"Show me
a way that I can be my life purpose so I can make money at it."
"I don't
have time to take on any purpose projects. I'm too busy just trying to stay
afloat."
"I'm not
smart enough, old enough, young enough, confident enough (or a number of other
"not enoughs") to live true to my life purpose."
For most
people, the Wall of Lack and Limitations is composed of 4 main parts:
-
Not
enough money (which also includes not enough other material things. I use the technical coaching term of
"stuff").
-
Not
enough time.
-
Not
enough talent, skills, knowledge, experience, or expertise.
-
Not
enough Self, as in "I'm not good enough, smart enough, confident
enough."
The "I'm nots."
Take a
couple of minutes to capture some of the specific thoughts and feelings that
make up your Wall of Lack and Limitation.
COACHING TIP
One of the common occurrences that can lead to your smacking against your Wall
of Lack and Limitations is when you commit to the next leg of your journey along
the Purposeful Path, whether that is to bring real clarity of purpose to your
life, or to expand your ability to live consistent with your purpose. The larger
the possibility you create for yourself, the harder you can hit the wall.
That's why, if you're someone with big dreams and visions, it's particularly important for you to be aware of your Wall of Lack and
Limitations, and to take the necessary steps to dismantle it. Otherwise,
you're likely to find yourself splattered against the wall time after time as
you attempt to bring those dreams and visions into reality.
-by
Brad Swift, Life On Purpose
*
* *
How do you
discover your real purpose in life? I’m not talking about your job, your daily
responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why
you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.
Perhaps
you’re a rather nihilistic person who doesn’t believe you have a purpose and
that life has no meaning. Doesn’t matter. Not believing that you have a
purpose won’t prevent you from discovering it, just as a lack of belief in
gravity won’t prevent you from tripping. All that a lack of belief will do is
make it take longer, so if you’re one of those people, just change the number
20 in the title of this article to 40 (or 60, if you’re really stubborn). Most
likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably
won’t believe what I’m saying anyway, but even so, what’s the risk of
investing an hour just in case?
Here’s a
story about Bruce Lee which sets the stage for this little exercise. A master
martial artist asked Bruce to teach him everything Bruce knew about martial
arts. Bruce held up two cups, both filled with liquid. “The first cup,” said
Bruce, “represents all of your knowledge about martial arts. The second cup
represents all of my knowledge about martial arts. If you want to fill your cup
with my knowledge, you must first empty your cup of your knowledge.”
If you want
to discover your true purpose in life, you must first empty your mind of all the
false purposes you’ve been taught (including the idea that you may have no
purpose at all).
So how to
discover your purpose in life? While there are many ways to do this, some of
them fairly involved, here is one of the simplest that anyone can do. The more
open you are to this process, and the more you expect it to work, the faster it
will work for you. But not being open to it or having doubts about it or
thinking it’s an entirely idiotic and meaningless waste of time won’t
prevent it from working as long as you stick with it — again, it will just
take longer to converge.
Here’s
what to do:
-
Take
out a blank sheet of paper or open up a word processor where you can type (I
prefer the latter because it’s faster).
-
Write
at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”
-
Write
an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a
complete sentence. A short phrase is fine.
-
Repeat
step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.
That’s
it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a counselor or an engineer or a bodybuilder.
To some people this exercise will make perfect sense. To others it will seem
utterly stupid. Usually it takes 15-20 minutes to clear your head of all the
clutter and the social conditioning about what you think your purpose in life
is. The false answers will come from your mind and your memories. But when the
true answer finally arrives, it will feel like it’s coming to you from a
different source entirely.
For those
who are very entrenched in low-awareness living, it will take a lot longer to
get all the false answers out, possibly more than an hour. But if you persist,
after 100 or 200 or maybe even 500 answers, you’ll be struck by the answer
that causes you to surge with emotion, the answer that breaks you. If you’ve
never done this, it may very well sound silly to you. So let it seem silly, and
do it anyway.
As you go
through this process, some of your answers will be very similar. You may even
re-list previous answers. Then you might head off on a new tangent and generate
10-20 more answers along some other theme. And that’s fine. You can list
whatever answer pops into your head as long as you just keep writing.
At some
point during the process (typically after about 50-100 answers), you may want to
quit and just can’t see it converging. You may feel the urge to get up and
make an excuse to do something else. That’s normal. Push past this resistance,
and just keep writing. The feeling of resistance will eventually pass.
You may
also discover a few answers that seem to give you a mini-surge of emotion, but
they don’t quite make you cry — they’re just a bit off. Highlight those
answers as you go along, so you can come back to them to generate new
permutations. Each reflects a piece of your purpose, but individually they
aren’t complete. When you start getting these kinds of answers, it just means
you’re getting warm. Keep going.
It’s
important to do this alone and with no interruptions. If you’re a nihilist,
then feel free to start with the answer, “I don’t have a purpose,” or
“Life is meaningless,” and take it from there. If you keep at it, you’ll
still eventually converge.
When I did
this exercise, it took me about 25 minutes, and I reached my final answer at
step 106. Partial pieces of the answer (mini-surges) appeared at steps 17, 39,
and 53, and then the bulk of it fell into place and was refined through steps
100-106. I felt the feeling of resistance (wanting to get up and do something
else, expecting the process to fail, feeling very impatient and even irritated)
around steps 55-60. At step 80 I took a 2-minute break to close my eyes, relax,
clear my mind, and to focus on the intention for the answer to come to me —
this was helpful as the answers I received after this break began to have
greater clarity.
Here was my
final answer: to live consciously and courageously, to resonate with love and
compassion, to awaken the great spirits within others, and to leave this world
in peace.
When you
find your own unique answer to the question of why you’re here, you will feel
it resonate with you deeply. The words will seem to have a special energy to
you, and you will feel that energy whenever you read them.
Discovering
your purpose is the easy part. The hard part is keeping it with you on a daily
basis and working on yourself to the point where you become that purpose.
If you’re
inclined to ask why this little process works, just put that question aside
until after you’ve successfully completed it. Once you’ve done that,
you’ll probably have your own answer to why it works. Most likely if you ask
10 different people why this works (people who’ve successfully completed it),
you’ll get 10 different answers, all filtered through their individual belief
systems, and each will contain its own reflection of truth.
Obviously,
this process won’t work if you quit before convergence. I’d guesstimate that
80-90% of people should achieve convergence in less than an hour. If you’re
really entrenched in your beliefs and resistant to the process, maybe it will
take you 5 sessions and 3 hours, but I suspect that such people will simply quit
early (like within the first 15 minutes) or won’t even attempt it at all. But
if you’re drawn to read this blog (and haven’t been inclined to ban it from
your life yet), then it’s doubtful you fall into this group.
Give it a
shot! At the very least, you’ll learn one of two things: your true purpose in
life -or- that you should unsubscribe from my blog.
-Steve
Pavlina.com
* * *
Note
from Vicky Jo: I believe one's life purpose statement must incorporate
some aspect of one's Temperament name in order to accurately reflect one's true
purpose. For INFJs, that would mean somehow being a "Catalyst."
If an INFJ is not somehow acting as a catalyst, they are not in fact living
their life purpose. I believe Life Purpose is one area where Being + Doing
come together in a magical, alchemical combination. You do what you
are; you are what you do.
If
you want to get inspired about your life purpose, watch this movie: The Secret
DVD .
* * *
What
is your destiny?
"The
significant business of your life is alive and well, awaiting discovery,
within your very soul. You and I were born to come into ourselves as
complete and distinctive persons. Accepting this, we build a valuable
life."
-Marsha Sinetar
What
is the significant business of your life? What is your purpose? Andrew
Schneider says that purpose "is more than just having a direction. It
is about one’s place in the universe. It is the journey of finding that
place and being there and living fully whatever that place is. It is your
own unique place that nobody else has, had, or will have."
How
would you describe your place in the universe?
"We
become powerful in the face of our fears when we have a sense that we
make a difference in this world. Affirmations of purpose communicate the
truth that we are all meaningful participants in this Universe and that
we are worthy of giving and receiving love.
Some
affirmations of purpose are:
- I know that I count and I act as though I do.
- I spread warmth and love everywhere I go.
- I am a healing force in the Universe."
-Susan Jeffers
* * *
Alignment
Alignment
comes down to working on these four questions until they all produce the
same answer:
-
What
do you want to do? (desire)
-
What
can you do? (ability)
-
What
should you do? (purpose)
-
What
must you do? (need)
* * *
Ways To
Stay In Touch With Your Life Purpose Over Time
Remember that one of the functions of the ego is to maintain safety, and one of
the best ways to do that means maintaining the status quo. Change can be
threatening to the ego.
As a result, the ego can often act as an obstacle to transformation. It
can do this by a variety of means:
- Filling
your schedule with minutiae
- Keeping you in the same old habits
- Making you forget your purpose
If you
don't keep your purpose fresh, it will fade. Your life will go back to the
way it was, and progress will slow.
The best
thing you can do to keep your purpose fresh is take action. (In a
nutshell, do things that are purposeful; don't do things that aren't.)
The next
important way is to stay in touch with the source of your purpose.
Hopefully you got your purpose via direct access with your soul, God, or some
other trusted source. If so, regular conversations with that source will
keep you connected.
You can also stay in touch with your purpose by keeping your purpose statement
in the front of your mind and heart. Here are some ideas for doing that:
- Post a
note on your bathroom mirror
- Frame it on your office wall
- Repeat it to yourself while jogging
- Set it up on your computer screensaver
- Have a friend or your coach remind you regularly
-byTim
Kelley
* * *
"The grand essentials to happiness in
this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope
for."
-Joseph Addison
* * *
| 
