If you’ve reached a point in your life where you want to know ‘what should I do with my life’, then that is a good thing. The desire to do something meaningful and fulfilling with your time here on this planet something we all have.
What is it that’s at the centre of your life? What is it that makes up the main focus of your daily pursuits? For many, this creates a great divide in their lives and as many of our conscious pursuits are only designed to satisfy our subconscious desires.
Nowhere is this more evident in the pursuit of happiness. Ironically the majority of people fail to recognize one very important aspect and that is the fact that happiness is a relative concept.
Your own happiness and sense of fulfillment is deeply rooted in your spirit and is unique and special to you alone.
The common belief in our culture is that there are happy things to do and that there are unhappy things to do.
Most of us buy into it – just waiting for the next big happy thing to come along. More than anything this tendency quite literally takes your own well being out of your own hands. (maybe that explains why so many people are ‘victims’ these days)
Living your life on purpose and feeling like you are living the kind of life that you were destined to live is a fundamental part of your own inner happiness.
Finding your true calling in life and to express it in all of who you are, is the foundation of living a truly fulfilled life.
In many ways this is the reason why we are all here – to express and experience the highest and most sacred part of ourselves.
Discovering your life purpose is ‘deep water’ and only through introspection and maintaining a sense of spirituality about your life can you truly make contact with this aspect of your Self and re-align your Self.
History has left us with many ordinary people who became extraordinary simply because they chose to ‘be’ themselves. These are examples of people who managed to realize their potential by living their lives on purpose and expressing who they really are.
These are the people that left behind a legacy and managed to advance humanity by simply being themselves.
So many people feel that in order to be special or significant they have to be like someone else (who might be successful). They key things to remember is that to live your life on purpose does not require you to become something that you are not.
It’s simply about looking deep within – looking at your inner most desires, your talents, your passions and then finding ways to express this in service of humanity.
Now this does not mean that you don’t have to change. For many it means you have to change every aspect of what your life is demonstrating at the moment. Knowing what shuold I do with my life and actually doing it are not the same.
One requires self discovery while the other requires courage and trusting in your Self.
With this in mind, here are three lessons in living your life on purpose from three great people who managed to somehow do it – people who discovered and lived their life on purpose. Needless to say, they were all people who left behind a legacy and still inspire us long after they have left.
Lesson #1
Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With sufficient passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.
– VINCENT VAN GOGH
So many people go to work everyday only to make a living. Their lives are driven by a paycheck and even though they hate it, they still do it.
It’s true that we all have to make our way in the world, BUT you deserve to make a living doing what you love.
If you have a full time job, then you will spend approximately 70 percent of your waking life at work.
Regardless what your passion in life may be, you can make a living doing it. There is never a lack of support for your passion, but there is almost always a lack of resolve to take the risk and to step up to the ultimate challenge in life: to live on purpose and to become the kind of person you were destined to be.
Lesson #2
Where your talents and the needs of the world cross lies your calling.
– ARISTOTLE
Every last one of your talents came as part of the package called You. Everything that you are good at and everything that you are bad at are part of your purpose.
We all have at least one thing that we are great at – something that’s just effortless to you? By design, these talents speak to us when we express them and often we feel joy when we express them.
When you take these talents and express them to serve humanity, you open yourself up to the abundance of the universe.
Expressing your talents for the sole purpose of sharing yourself and your gifts, you are in harmony with the highest power in the universe and (ironically) you will find that this is when the blessings of life start showering down on you.
Don’t hoard your talents. Don’t deny your talents in favor of what you think you ought to be good at in order to be successful or famous. Express who you are and do it only to help, to serve and to give the gift of You to the world.
Lesson #3
I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.
– THOMAS A. EDISON
Working only to make a living is nothing but slavery. Your purpose will free you. As long as you are doing something that you do not love, you will never get to experience the true meaning of life and the sense of joy that comes from doing what you love.
Life was meant to be a joyful expression of who you really are. When you are on purpose there is no such thing as ‘work’ and you are able to move beyond the usual categories of life where you have to place different parts of your life in different categories.
We all have a life purpose. Think of it not as an ‘occupation’ but rather as an underlying idea that guides your entire life.
Think of your life purpose as a guiding light that leads and guides every part of your life. We are all here for a reason.
This is unique and different for every, yet it is something that remains illusive for many.
Discovering your life purpose is a spiritual process and when you look inside you can start to find a deeper and more meaning aspect of yourself and your life.
The reward: a deeply fulfilled life!
