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

Can we ever make a "bad" decision?

Nowhere can I find it written that decisions are meant to be easy. The choices we make are a mixture of intellect, intuition and instinct. And the more important the decision, the harder it seems to make it. Why is this so...?

I feel that it is because the perceived importance increases our fear of making the wrong choice and what might happen because of that. Remembering that our perception is only our impression and take on reality, while fear tends to disappear with knowledge and action.

You make millions of decisions on a daily basis. Do you agonise over each and every one? Decisions like what do I eat for breakfast; what will I wear today; will I go to work/school or the beach or will I use a black or blue pen? Now realise that these decisions will not dramatically change your life... or will they? How often was it something small in your life that when you look back, made a huge difference?

So how will you know which way to go and what to do? I suggest that with faith and using your intellect, intuition and instinct, you just pick one, any one really because it will not be wrong.

How can I say that? Because I believe that every decision made this way can serve our highest good and learning - that every choice leads to wisdom. So often, what others might term a "bad" decision have given me the best lessons in life.

What would have happened in the past if you had made different choices? Turned left instead of right, gone to a different school or accepted a different career or relationship choice, said yes instead of no...? Some things might have been great, some not so. In any case, you will never know. You have chosen this life, this way, this moment.

Are we alive to learn how to make an infallible decision so that everything turns out perfectly every time? Or is our lives about learning, discovery and finding wisdom? And what is a "wrong" decision anyway? Is you choose this instead of that and you go through a tough patch....does that mean that you made the wrong decision? is the easier path always the best one?

You might like to consider these questions - not because they will make decision-making any easier or bring you clarity, but because they will lead you into uncertainty and that leads to variety which we all know is the spice of life.

So from this perspective bad decisions, wrong decisions just don't exist. Some decisions will take you one direction and some another, but every direction will give you lessons and lead you to wisdom. There is no one technique to make a decision. Just remember that whatever decision you make is perfect for you at the time.

Your decisions also become part of others' lives - your family, friends, colleagues; they are a natural part of your learnings. Will you know what is ultimately the best direction to take?
Well ... no, you cannot. So doesn't it seems like a great thought to rely on the uncertainty or mystery of life and trust and have faith that every decision you make will lead you to the wisdom you need.

Can we ever make a "bad" decision?

Imagine

image by Art4Inspiration

Dream the impossible dream - but who decides what is impossible? Imagine being a caveman or medieval knight who encounters a time machine and lands in the middle of a modern city today. They would declare things we take for granted as impossible - air travel, computers, microwave ovens, flush toilets were once just ideas in someones imagination and were all called "impossible" until they were made happen.

What are your unspoken or impossible dreams and imaginings? Take the time to write them down, explore them fully and develop them. If we never imagine what can be, it never will be. When you imagine what you life could be like, your mind and spirit begin the unconscious process of change, and things begin to happen. When an inventor imagines and then takes action, the world changes.

Do not thwart a child's imagination by limiting their reality and discouraging their natural creativity. Reality is only what you choose it to be. Your life and your achievements can only be what you imagine and dream it to be, if you take action and create it.

Imagine