No matter what stage you’re at in life, getting clear on your purpose serves to bring meaning and direction. In our adolescence we struggle to define ourselves and frequently don’t come to any real sense of identity until our mid-twenties. As we age, we often begin to identify ourselves with the roles we adopt and the priorities we set.
Yet, we struggle when we find ourselves in the midst of great change, seeking direction as the old falls away and the new begins.
Perhaps you’re a young adult, just embarking on your first real journey into adult life, seeking your career path, perhaps your first real relationship, or establishing your sense of independence.
Perhaps you’re a bit older and at a crossroads like divorce or becoming a parent for the first time. Maybe still you’ve just watched your children leave home for college and the empty nest has created a vacuum of space you haven’t the slightest idea how to fill. No matter where you are in life, you will find that the need for vision and meaning can be overwhelmingly important yet often set aside.
In times of crisis, it is not at all uncommon to find yourself asking the ‘big’ questions like, ‘Why am I here?’ or ‘What is the meaning of my life?’ Have you ever wondered why we tend to only ask these questions when our world seems to be crumbling around us? There are many people who would tell you that you can be anything you want, do anything you want or even have anything you want, and while this may be true, isn’t it most important to be and do what you were meant to?
I’m going to discuss with you here how to set out on a journey to discover exactly that.
I don’t want to mislead and have you believing that you’ll experience and all-at-once ‘aha’ moment where you’ll immediately know precisely what your purpose is. It would be dishonest and downright insulting to presume that anyone could grant you this or that it would be so simple to comprehend. In all of my studies and research, what I have found is that you discover your purpose throughout your life, refining and redefining, solving the question like a mystery or a puzzle. Purpose is not about one single defining moment of time. If it were, we’d very likely live a much shorter life than we do, and it seems as our technology improves quite the opposite is beginning to be common place.
No, to discover our purpose IS the journey itself. Along the way, we interact and assist one another toward just that purpose. Our lives are built by many connections in both space and time, with people, places and things. The Norse describe it being like a spider’s web, each strand a single person’s destiny, yet crossing many others. This ‘web of Wyrd’ as they call it, is woven like a tapestry playing out the stories of our lives.
To be most effective, we must learn to live by faith and revel in the glory that our life is an unfolding saga. Each of us assumes the many roles on the stage of life to learn and grow and become all we are meant to be. We are given both purpose and free will to use as we will, thus allowing us to become the most or the least we can ever be, depending on how we use our time and resources.
So then how do we begin finding the clues?
- We can look at our lives so far and remember the moments that had the greatest impact or when we made the greatest impact on those around us. What were those defining moments for you at this stage of life?
- Who had the most profound influence on you?
- Who did you influence? In what ways did those events change you? What skills did you develop as a result?
- What areas of specialized knowledge did these moments inspire you to explore? When we begin this process of reflection, it is amazing how often we can find that these moments conspired to lead us to a next step in our personal evolution.
- What talents do you have? Where do you shine? What can you contribute to the world that doesn’t feel like work?
- What do you do right now, that you would do without any expectation of pay or reward?
- Who or what is important to you? Why?
- What ’causes’ do you feel passionate about?
- What moral standards do you believe in so strongly that even the threat of death wouldn’t make you compromise?
Asking these questions, and considering how your actions in life so far have supported them will inevitably reveal some clues for you.
What is most amazing is that as you begin this process of personal exploration, if you’ll simply state the intention that you intend to begin taking your purpose seriously, and that you will strive to live out your purpose, you will find your entire world beginning to restructure around you. Synchronicity will begin to flow as you begin taking action towards your purpose. When you pursue your purpose, you are flowing with the fabric of the web. Opportunities present themselves in amazing ways.
Rather than resisting reality, and working hard to manifest the things we decide we want, we instead seek to flow with our purpose and allow things to manifest as we need them.
Often I’m asked if that means we can’t have the things we want, and my answer is that in order to fulfill your purpose and have the things you want, which is truly the best of both worlds, it requires you to focus on what the reason of wanting those things is in the first place.
Once you can see how the things you desire can be assets to you in your pursuit of your purpose, they become justifiable and the strength of your manifesting ability will grow exponentially.
Life can either happen to you or you can make it happen. You can rise to your highest good or settle into your mediocrity. Which will you choose?
