We've talked a lot lately about knowing your life's purpose. If you don't know what you are supposed to do in your life, how do you find out?
Sometimes a liberal education or talents in one area aren't enough to pinpoint your purpose in life. It helps to know what direction you're headed so you can be on the right path and start fulfilling your soul's mission and your life's aspirations.
Some people just seem to be born knowing. They say things like, "All my life, from the time I was little boy or girl, I wanted to be a writer, or a doctor, or a musician, or an archeaologist."
Some people are born into families where their choices feels restricted. Your father was a lawyer, his father was, your great-grandfather was and everyone assumes you will study law too. But you want to be a baker. Kneading dough for bread is like making love to you. How can you tell your family you are breaking with family tradition to bake?
Here's one important way to discover your purpose in life: It is always going to involve something you love to do, something that doesn't even feel like work to you. When we know our true purpose in life and wake up every morning to apply ourselves to fulfilling it, we can't wait to get up and start the day. Feelings of joy and excitement begin to percolate as soon as we open our eyes and realize we have another opportunity to do something we love so much.
Ask any artist, writer, painter, musician, sculptor, dancer or actor how they feel about getting up and starting another day in which they know they will get to use their talent. They can't wait to start!
How do you feel about what you spend the majority of your time doing? If you dread getting up and going in, if you start feeling quesy on Sunday nights because Monday is right around the corner and you have to go to work, you need to find your life's purpose.
It's always best when we can discover it in our twenties or even our thirties. In the prime of our lives we can work arduously at whatever the mission is. Our lives in those decades is all about becoming established in a career, as a family member, as a home owner, as a member of a community in good standing. It is a splendid time to know who you are and what you want out of life.
But what if you don't have an iota of a clue what purpose your life could possibly have? You collect tolls all day at the tollbooth. You sometimes feel like you might start screaming from the tedium of it and the complaints and angry words yelled at you by drivers. Your stomach is acting up and you drink too much. It's affecting your marriage and your wife is talking about getting a separation. You have lost whatever interest you used to take in people, places and activities around you. You feel like you've been condemned to hell and you will never be free.
Sometimes we have to take risks to discover our life purpose. We have to try different lifestyles and careers on like we're shopping for a pair of shoes. You can't know if something fits without trying it on.
But it's hard to just get up one day and say "F*^k it I quit." It's much easier when you have a direction, a path to follow.
HOW TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE
I really was surprised at how much help I got with this from a book. The book is The Purpose of Your Life: Finding Your Place in the World Using Synchronicity, Intuition, and Uncommon Sense, by Carol Adrienne. This book is no phony scam book of junk. It's the real thing and it will help you learn a lot about yourself and it may even help you determine your purpose in life.
It begins with finding a power greater (higher power or H.P.) than yourself to which you can unite. Your desire for union with God or this H.P. causes you to want to take action that you believe is God or H.P.'s will for you. Things fall into place when you do this. In fact, they work out perfectly and better than you could have done doing your will.
Try an experiment tomorrow. If you don't usually consciously make an effort to follow God's will during the day, decide that you will and ask this higher consciousness to guide you in that direction in all your words, interactions with others and actions that day. Then during the day, pause from time to time and remind yourself what you're doing by asking, "Is this what you want?" You will get a "Yes," "No" or "Wait." Listen and follow.
Notice all the coincidences and things that are in Divine Order throughout the day. You might get the very last parking space, a small thing, but you notice it. You get a check in the mail that is totally unexpected. Out of nowhere, your daughter tells you how very much you mean to her. Your boss gives you a raise and a great evaluation. A car headed right towards yours just misses hitting you in a miraculous last second move.
Ask yourself: Do you want to live in the flow of your life purpose? Can you admit what's working in your life and what's not? Do you believe that your intuition is guiding you to fulfill your purpose? Are you willing to commit to taking small steps toward the things that mean something to you? Can you let go of struggling for power and attempting to control others? Do you believe that everything happens at the right time?
1. What did you want to be when you were a child?
2. When you were a child, what did you love to do?
3. What activities do you love today?
4. What are your best qualities?
5. When do you shine?
6. What do you excel at?
7. When are you most yourself?
8. What do you do effortlessly?
9. What do you keep being drawn to?
Review your answers. Put it all together as "I seem to be in the business of..."
Come up with a working purpose statement.
My working purpose statement that I came up with from these questions was:
My purpose in life is to be my authentic self, and share my vision and dreams in creative, loving ways that will have a positive impact on the world and its people.
Today my purpose is less grandiose and more specific, but it definitely was something to go on which was a lot more than I had. I knew I was writer, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with my writing.
When you start getting some ideas, perhaps even some images of yourself in various roles will come to mind. Try making a collage of your life's purpose. Cut out magazine pictures that remind you of your goals and dreams. Glue these to poster board. Scatter photos of yourself and glue them among the magazine pictures to get the idea into your subconscious. Watch for real life images you run across that remind you of pictures on the collage. Become aware in dreams and coincidences of the manifestations of connections to your purpose.
Finally, to know your life's purpose and operate from it, pray and meditate. Nothing is more powerful. You will find that answers come in people you meet, situations that appear, opportunities that open up and more. You will know you are on the right path. When you lose that sense, it's time to ask again to do God's will. Pray and meditate some more.
You will find abundance and joy.
