Living on Purpose

To get the most out of life, it must be filled with passion and significance. For this to happen, you need to know what your purpose in life is. When you discover your life purpose, or better yet when you are actually living it, you are filled with an overwhelming feeling of joy and fulfillment. It gives you the way to direct your values and passions in a meaningful way. Your life purpose is the foundation of what makes you a unique and special individual, it is the very essence of who you are.

People can be divided into two categories in terms of having a purpose in life. There are Leaders and Sleepers. Leaders are out there taking charge and responsibility of their own lives, have a compelling passion for life and are respected for what they achieve in their lives. Sleepers are those who meander aimlessly through life with no purpose. Leaders thrive on overcoming adversity on their path through life. While sleepers are just waiting out their time before they expire. When a Leader meets a challenge, it is head-on until they are triumphant. When a Sleeper finds a problem in their way, they turn around and wander away. Which are you?

There are numerous inspiring tales throughout time of Leaders who appeared to know what their destiny was in life and spent most of their lives accomplishing greatness. While that's awesome, most of us are not that fortunate. We get to discover our own destiny and alas the majority often discover it very late in life, if at all. So to make your adult life much more rewarding and easier, let's go about discovering what your life purpose is.

Lots and lots of people mix up their life purpose with their role in life or career (such as mother, father, husband, wife, teacher, lawyer or many other roles). While these are just vehicles by which you can achieve your life purpose, and are not by themselves your life purpose. For example, your life purpose may be to help people achieve wellness. This can be done through the roles of doctor, nurse, ambulance officer, dietitian or many others.

Being aware of what your purpose is in life drives you towards numerous achievements and allows you to live a full passionate life. There are two elements involved in discovering your life purpose. They are your highest values and your strongest passions.

Your highest values are the base level beliefs, morals and standards that guide your behaviour and make you, you. Other things in your life may change, but these values do not.

Your strongest passions are how you express and share your values. These are what you absolutely love doing in life. They may include specific skills or talents you have. As well as things you would love to do someday but haven't tried yet.

Defining your purpose in life can be done in 4 simple steps and requires only some paper and a pencil. Divide the paper into two columns and on the left list your values and on the right your passions.

Values are those things that describe you as an individual. They can include such character traits as love, humour, strength, creativity, compassion, resourcefulness. you can come up with at least 5 to 8 relevant to you.

Then list how you express that value, these are your passions. For creativity it might be artistic endeavours, dance, problem solving or whatever is right for you. They are what you love doing or would love to do. They can include goals and dreams you plan to have in your life.

Now looking back at your column of values, select the top three that are extra special. The MOST important ones for you. The three that there is no way you could live without them.

Finally take these top highest values and their related strongest passions and create your own mission statement. The following statement is just a basic guideline.

"My purpose in life is to [highest values] through [strongest passions]"

My own mission statement is "The purpose of my life is to create and inspire with beauty and wisdom to help myself and others learn and grow even more."

Use you own words until you get a mission statement that feels right for you. CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have just discovered the purpose of your life. Now go and live it. And know that you are the master of your destiny and can change or modify your mission statement as you grow and change as an individual.

Living on Purpose

Spring - Lessons from a Small Flower

Image by Bronwen Hall

Spring has Sprung

Here in Australia it is spring time and the weather is warming, the birds are swooping and all the flowers are coming out in colour. Spring is a sign for new life and renewal. Spring is when nature frees her internal energy that has been hibernating for winter in the form of blooms, blossoms and babies. In Spring the death rate drops as people see the signs of rebirth and new life around them.

Outside our office window is a small garden and path. Over the last few days, I have watched a small flower break through the earth. The garden is also full of new blossoms, yet one small flower has fought the obstacles in its way, and burst into the world with a blaze of colour, facing the risk of being trampled on by careless individuals away from the masses.

What an inspiration this small bloom is to the world as it pushes past life's roadblocks with innate wisdom, courage and determination on its way to fulfill its purpose.

Think for a moment. Imagine you are the flower seed. You are paved over and buried in the cold and the dark. Is there hope? What are your chances of survival let alone thriving? Which way is up? What do you do when you hit those inevitable obstacles? Well as a seed, you do not worry about such things. It start taking the necessary steps to move towards the light and working around and through those obstacles. Does it quit? Do it give up? NO! Because that means it will die.

So, be like this little flower and live with determination, so you too can spring forth and realise your purpose in all the beauty that nature intended.

Let us remember the message of spring and release the seed of life that each of us holds inside.

Under the bitter snow is a seed which in the spring will become a rose

Every oak tree started out as a nut who stood their ground - Henry David Thoreau

Spring - Lessons from a Small Flower