10 Ways to Find
Your Life-Purpose
by Diane Hall
"Everyone has been made for some particular work,
and the desire for that work has been put in every heart" Rumi
We
are currently living in times of incredible change and transformation
both personal and planetary, and as a result of these sudden shifts, it
seems that all around us people are looking at their lives and asking,
“What’s it all about?” Dramatic and unexpected changes
in personal, material, global, economic and environmental circumstances
and the seeming uncertainty of our times is causing many of us to question
the fragility of many of the structures and paradigms upon which our lives
seem to be based. This is causing many more people to not only begin to
open to the possibility of a more meaningful way of living their lives
but to also be asking “what is my purpose? Where do I fit in to
all of this? What am I here to do? Instead of just stoically ‘getting
on with it’ as we used to, and as our parents and grandparents most
probably did, we are asking some very big questions.
Every time I turn on the radio someone seems to be asking about their
purpose in life. I used to be one of those people. I seem to have spent
a life-time moving from job to job, constantly feeling dissatisfied and
misguided. But the simple truth is that I was always being beautifully
and wisely guided, by the still small voice within; the voice of my own
intuition; I just didn’t know how to listen to it. In this sense,
at some point in our lives, we are all called from within, to something
greater; something more fulfilling; some vocation through which we can
begin to express our highest creative potential in this life-time. So
you could say in a sense that rather than having to go ‘out there’
searching for our calling and hoping it will suddenly descend upon us
from somewhere in the wide blue yonder, we do, all, already have our calling
living and breathing within us; we just don’t always know how to
hear that calling when it begins calling us.
When I finally got tired of struggling with myself and began to meditate
as a way of finding some answers to my own endless questions, I had no
idea where this was going to lead me. I had always been consumed by an
avid interest in spirituality and read every book I could get my hands
on about mediums, life after death near death experiences etc. But I still
couldn’t see that “all that spiritual stuff” was in
fact my greatest passion. There were so many conflicting ideas in my head
about what was right what was ‘the done thing’, what was acceptable
and the kind of careers that would bring me the greatest success, achievement,
love admiration and respect. I was a long, long way from knowing myself.
Then slowly as a result of taking the time to really listen to what that
little voice was patiently whispering through the eventual silencing of
my fevered brain, I finally began to hear my heart speaking and to rediscover
the purpose for which I had agreed to be born into this life-time. Even
after beginning this dialogue with my Guides and my higher self, however,
I still wrestled with myself and my destiny and continued the quest to
find my true purpose; reading every coaching book I could get my hands
on, taking part in every career aptitude test I could find, consulting
endless psychics and asking everyone who would stay in the room with me
long enough “What do you think my purpose is?” As a result,
I’ve built up a veritable library of tips, tricks and exercises
to bring anyone to a clear awareness of their true purpose, and I love
the fact that I can help someone else to put an end to the kind of confusion
and pain sometimes caused by this kind of uncertainty and self-doubt.
For anyone who might be, right now, asking the question “What is
my purpose in life”, here are a just a few of those tips.
1 Realise that everything you have ever done in your life so far is offering you clues about who you are waiting to become. Look at your present and previous jobs and the skills they are teaching you. What might this be good preparation for? Write on a revision card, a list of all the skills you’ve gained so far in your career(s) and see whether there are any clues or recurring themes regarding what you’ve learnt and the sort of career these skills my help you to build on.
2 Look at the role
you play in friendships: Are you the person your friends always rely on
to listen; or to uplift them; to throw great parties or to go clothes-shopping
with them and give them great style advice? We often reveal our most important
values and express our deepest needs through our friendships so it’s
important to look at what our most formative connections can tell us about
who we are and how we can turn our natural inclinations into a satisfying
career.
3 Who have you envied lately? Usually, if we envy someone, to put it in it’s simplest terms, it’s because we want something that they have. This isn’t necessarily only related to possessions either; it could be that we want to be more like someone or to enjoy a similar lifestyle or way of being present in the world. So when it comes to finding your purpose, have a look at the occupations of three people you’ve envied in the past few months. Then, instead of allowing the energy of envy to swallow you up and make you even more miserable, appreciate these people for the wonderful lesson they are bringing you about the life you are secretly longing to live.
Admiration, after all, the flip side of envy and the people we envy most are usually, actually the ones we secretly admire the most. So try changing any feelings of envy into admiration by believing in yourself and embracing the possibility that you too can succeed in the same way and that they are simply showing you the way. In law of attraction terms, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to create amazing things in your life from a low vibration state like envy, so turning that envy into admiration by noticing it and thanking it for the lesson it’s bringing you, is the most constructive thing you could do in terms of becoming a powerful creator of your own desires and a being who is able to make the most loving choice. Once you’ve figured out which one person you envy the most and why, it’s time to start working on your plan for creating similar goals and a comparable level of success.
For instance, my True North is writing. Writing is the thing I always want to do, all day, every day if possible. But aside from writing, I love to see the techniques I write about being used to bring comfort and clarity to those who read my books. I have to know that they help and that they make a difference, so speaking, intuitive readings, coaching and running workshops around these themes is also essential. I love music, but it’s the process of song writing that’s more joyful and immediately satisfying to me whereas the idea of getting on stage and performing fills me with utter horror!! And because (as a result of several years of consistent meditation and various other practices) I now know myself and my preferences, strengths and weaknesses, I won’t resist what appears to be true about who I am.
I won’t sit around wringing my hands and saying “Why would God bless me with this voice if I wasn’t meant to be a singer?” I understand that I am, as are we all, an inspired being and that this inspiration can take many forms which needn’t contradict each other as they are all coming from the same infinite ever-loving source. I’ll just make some CDs at some point and that way people will still get to hear my music and I’ll still be able to focus on writing, giving readings and coaching. So bake your cakes, write your poetry and build your castles in the air. At some point, you will find that one of these things has somehow taken over your being and to the point where you will refuse to compromise your time in order to fully indulge everything else.
5 Know what your
career values are and work with themes rather than job titles. Ask yourself,
what do I value in a career situation? For example, if you know that the
most important things for you to experience in your career are: autonomy,
creativity and fun; this will enable you to immediately eliminate some
of the things you thought you wanted to do and narrow your search down
to a list of jobs which will allow you to experience those things every
day. Then you can just see which one you feel most drawn to. For example,
creativity, spirituality and the feeling of being inspired are essential
to me as well as the feeling that something I write might also be meaningful
to someone else...So however much I love the actual writing process, I
would probably be miserable writing about lipstick and deodorant. I love
doing what I do the way I do it because one of my most important values
is the feeling of contribution.
6 Create collages
and vision boards using pictures which illustrate how you’d like
your working life to feel. You might be surprised when you do this if,
for example, you thought you wanted a fast-track high-flying career, only
to find that your collage is full of pictures of beach scenes and people
at yoga retreats. Make sure that your picture really makes you feel excited
when you look at it. That’s what makes this exercise so powerful.
Creativity is a magical gateway into the unconscious mind and the higher
self. So when we put these images together and they surprise, excite and
inform us, we know we’re learning something new about ourselves
and our true desires and motivations, and we sense that we’re probably
on the right track. If your picture gives you butterflies when you look
at it, you’ve chosen well; you’ve discovered what you truly
desire. Don’t question it or have any doubt that you can really,
truly have it.
Of course you can!! If it excites you and makes you happy, just put it
somewhere you can see it every day and let your unconscious mind and the
law of attraction do the rest. It’s also important to remember that
this isn’t the same as manifesting a car or a home; it’s manifesting
purpose and meaning by first clarifying how you want to feel every day;
a kind of values collage. So for example if teamwork and great relationships
with fun colleagues is important to you then you might want your centrepiece
to be a picture of a group of successful-looking fun people with their
arms around each other’s shoulders on their way to a bonding night
out. Allow your heart to choose what you add. And choose moods, situations
and events rather than things. When you know what you truly desire, you
can begin to dream it into existence. When you don’t have a clue,
you’re just drifting and taking whatever comes along. (For more
information about vision boards, watch the film,
“The Secret” or search online).
7 Write a list of three things you would have to do career-wise if you had just six months left to live. Then write a little about why it would be so important for you to do these things, and finally, try to figure out why you haven’t started to do them already!! Sometimes we know jolly well what we need to be doing, but fear stops us. However, if we were suddenly faced with a time-limit, we’d probably become clear about our purpose very quickly.
On the train on the way home, something told me to look up from the book I was reading. I glanced up just in time to see a huge fluffy white feather falling onto the tracks as we trundled by; a clear Angel trademark. Later on that evening I had a huge rush of inspiration and spent a few hours writing even though I was completely exhausted. Some other force just seemed to take over, and looking back, I now know that I was channelling. My Guide was showing me a reassuring glimpse of what was to come. Then later on, I had the most incredible songs going around and around in my head and found myself jumping out of bed in the early hours to scribble some of them down. It really was the most incredibly inspired day and I couldn’t have asked for a clearer or more inspired answer.
10 Ask yourself whether you have any pet peeves or injustices that you
just have to put right. My daughter, Laura, for example, always complains
about the misuse of language and punctuation. She gets so worked up about
it. As she was growing up, she was always an avid reader and I found it
hilarious the intricate points she used to make about the misspelling
of homophones or misuse of apostrophes or just plain bad diction and grammar.
She’ll be (surprise, surprise) going off to study English Literature
and American Studies next year. She wants to be a magazine editor so she
can right those wrongs; those crimes against language she sees around
her every day! (Thankfully, she loves my books)!!
©2008 Diane Hall www.dianehallsbooks.com
Find out more about
Diana Hall on:
www.dianehallsbooks.com