Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Purpose

There is a constant need as humans to know and fully realize our purpose.

Even during the time before we fully understand the concept, we are trying out our abilities, talents and skills in an effort to express ourselves. Our entire lives become an endless investigation into the perfect way of expressing what we have to offer the world. When we deny those innate skills, abilities talents and impulses, we often become confused, restless, bored and depressed. It somehow becomes more important as we grow in years to finalize that purpose. Lately people have become almost obsessed with trying so hard to figure it out, as if their lives depended on it. People no longer are content with the same patterns and ways of living that have consumed them for decades, perhaps even generations.

In our younger years we instinctively lived our purpose. However we didn't need to define and address it out loud. We just did it effortlessly and selflessly. That's what I love about children. They are masters of living purposefully. They fully get the beauty of being themselves without apology and without question. Where does that innate sense of purpose go?

I was looking back on my childhood and the pieces of the puzzle are pretty clear: I was the leader. I organized the neighborhood plays, coordinated the picnics and kickball games, gathered friends to do fundraising efforts. I was also the star babysitter. I had an innate sense of what it meant to take care of and help people. My friends would always come to my door everytime there was something bothersome going on at home or they needed some support. My house in small town North Dakota was like a beacon for light. I remember distinctly the feeling of loss when I moved out, wondering how I would continue to help people after graduating from high school. I took a few detours, and now have created the perfect form for my innate expression of purpose in my life: a psychic medium and intuitive coach. I create events, organize people, meet with people one-on-one, just as I did as a child and young adult.

There is a danger I'm noticing in our search for purpose that can lead it to becoming more a function of the ego than a true journey of seeking. It is in stating that there is something missing in life, that it's somehow imperfect. Feeling a lack of purpose cannot be confused with the feeling of unhappiness in our jobs, our marriages, our lives. While purpose may be unclear in those moments, no job, marriage or perfect life can ever fix that feeling of a lack of being purpose driven. You can be purpose driven in any situation or circumstance. It is truly a choice.

I've become aware that more of us are not content living without a sense of purpose. However, there is such a deep uncertainty about it at times, it seems as if someone is hiding it from us. The great news is, it's right within us all along. Being afraid of not knowing or being able to uncover our purpose is sort of like being a grown adult and being afraid of not remembering your own name. You don't question your name when you sign a check, you just know it. It's like second nature. That is what purpose is. However, unlike our names, we don't often learn to sign our purpose as quickly. It often can be similar to one giant puzzle. In fact, it's the neverending puzzle. Purpose is ongoing, it's what we signed up here to spend our time uncovering piece by piece. It continues even after we die, in the endless and limitless realm of spirit. By asking about it as something missing, we are creating the illusion that it is out there somewhere waiting for us to find it. Start at the beginning, when you were a child, or young adult in those days when everything seemed possible and within reach. Make a list of who you were in your neighborhood, what sorts of challenges did you overcome or triumphs did you have? You will be a lot closer to clarity than before.

Ultimately your purpose is to be where you are right in this moment, creating and expressing yourself through the eyes of love. That is what we are all here to be and do. The form (jobs, projects, hobbies) with which you express your uniqueness will change and grow over time. However, there can be nothing else but now so why not stop to see how you can incorporate more of a sense of it into your current job, your marriage, your life? Stop waiting for it to hit you like a lightning bolt, and start to become a living expression of who you are inside.....that leader, the artist, the creative thinker, the organizer....you and your purpose have been in there all along, can you feel it?

I also have a secret that may help you open your eyes to it. When we release the need to have the answers right NOW, the freedom available causes a deeper sense of connection and purpose automatically rises to the surface of our awareness. The next step falls into place without effort. Stop to look at yourself in the mirror. What do you see? Be still and listen. Get present in your life and you will begin to see you are a living expression of your own purpose.

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