Rare is the person who knows what they are truly meant to do in their life. I know that I often struggle with the idea…the thought of wasting effort down the wrong path sometimes keeps me from taking action down any path. But when I am not taking action down any path, I get irritated that I am wasting time. So like many of life’s puzzles, it’s a catch-22.
Steve Pavlina blogged about how to find your life purpose at http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/01/how-to-discover-your-life-purpose-in-about-20-minutes/. He claimed you could figure out your purpose in a very short time period. His method: Open up a word processing program, type out “What is my true purpose in life?” on the first line, and then start typing. When you type something that makes you cry, you’ve found your purpose.
How simple quick and easy? Of course, when you are presented with such an easy pathway to something that could be life-changing, somehow…you get busy, things come up, life is soooo crazy. I found after 2 weeks of reading his article that I had spent more time thinking about doing the “find my life purpose” exercise than it would actually take to do it! What is really happening in that scenario is that you are scared on some level to find out.
I finally did the life purpose exercise. It is included below. I’ve typed play-by-play commentary in italics of what I was thinking in my head as I typed.
What is my true purpose in life?
Be a leader
Be a spiritual leader
Educate people about spirituality through my writing
totally stolen from a psychic reading I had
Educate people on the joy of life Share my joy and interest in life with the worldtoo vague
Write a blog that becomes well known
you’re reading it, I guess time will tell how well known it becomes
Write a book that helps people take themselves less seriously
Make people laugh while also educating them on spirituality and meditation and how to find joy in life
this felt good but too damn wordy or something
Become a highly successful trader and use the money to revolutionize how a charity should be run
Be a conduit so others can be guided to grow and learn about themselves through my stories
forced
Live free
Live free of all constraints of money, time, space, mind, body and share my adventure in finding freedom with the world.
very warm, chest is feeling very emotional
Live free and help others live free of all limits.
Live free and ecstatic and share this experience so that others may do if they wish
Live free and relish it all and share it with the world
at this point I have realized that when I type “Live free” my internal response is extremely positive. I am just not quite at the point where there are tears…and the article says go until you cry
Live free and love everyone like a modern partying Jesus tantric guru
I love this one in hindsight, but it didn’t do the trick…plus I didn’t want it too affiliated with religion as much as I think Jesus is great
Experience true freedom and share this with all
Life free and ecstatic, help others live free by sharing my experiences
so close, got a lump in my throat
To live consciously and creatively
To lead and educate on how to find joy and freedom
sounds right, didn’t cry though
Leave this world in ecstasy.
Remember every day that I will die
Don’t waste time
To live free, present, ecstatic, joyful, loving, look at everyone as God, share this experience with anyone who wishes to hear it, enable others to live free and joyful. Explain how I do this.
I kept typing this run-on sentence, thought it was going to trigger the tears, just didn’t for some reason
Decided to just list nouns/verbs/whatever in short spurts
Freedom
Joy
No limits
Share
Lead
Inspire
To experience the joy of having no limits on life, consciously present with ultimate freedom, and inspire others to follow this path
Jackpot, I was sitting in my office, tears down my face, first time I had cried in a couple years. It took around 20 minutes
So there you have it. It can’t hurt to try. And feel free to let me know how I’m doing with my purpose.
beautiful!
:-)
Simone from tni & alifeulove.com
Posted by: Simone Peer | March 12, 2007 at 07:37 PM
Nice, best of luck as you move forward with your newly found purpose.
Posted by: Mark Murrell | March 13, 2007 at 12:47 PM
Good luck brother. Love to see someone make "it" happen for them!!
Posted by: Andy | May 04, 2007 at 12:40 PM