How do you find your life purpose and stay on track?
At a certain point, your life calls out to you to become more. This is a deeper call, beyond self-improvement or doing more of the same just better.
How then do you get to this higher octave, where you hear and play the wonderful music in your everyday life?
Our Life Purpose Story
In his forties, Phillip started to feel a growing dissatisfaction with being an educator. He felt good about helping children in the classroom, but somehow he was missing the boat, staying in the harbor of his life.
Jane had a more severe wake-up call. She burned-out at her high-stress architect job, finally getting chronic fatigue and was unable to work full time. She felt her soul was dying.
Eventually, we both found our truer callings as healers, coaches and energy pioneers, and were fortunate enough to stay together and become stronger in the process.
At First
To get an overview, let’s briefly track the path to realizing your life purpose. At first life is about growing up into adulthood. By early adulthood you can probably take care of your own needs and maybe support a partner and family.
That’s the starter pack most of us are given, a default place to arrive in life. Yet at some point, it dawns that you can go beyond this confined place, as valuable and important as it is.
This blossoming includes your interests growing. You have a broader and broader connection, and potential impact, beyond your immediate needs and that of your family, although they may benefit as well from your transcendent pursuits.
In this awakening process, you explore becoming a citizen of the world. You start to experience what we describe in our recent book as the Ultimate Paradigm Shift: “transition from a limited reality that’s dominated by fear, pain, and lack to an expansive reality where love, joy, and abundance prevail.”
You align yourself with a higher calling, which will benefit yourself and reverberate out to the world.
Three Ways to Get Your Life Purpose on Track
Here are three key indicators for going forward from an automatic purpose (serving self and family), even though you may already be leading a productive life. The transition takes using your gifts, talents and skills to aid a larger mission, to help the world grow as you grow with your butterfly wings.
Here are three telltale signs that you are following your deeper purpose and living fully:
1. From lower to higher needs
You start life dependent on others, until you can learn to support yourself and perhaps a family by adulthood. Maybe you are supportive of others in your group or genetic, ancestral “tribe,” based on race, religion and geography. This starter pack defines your identity.
Your initial conventional way of life rests on basic needs, such as safety, security and belonging. Once you get a handle on those basic needs, with occasional urgencies, you look further beyond immediate needs and conventional success.
Then higher needs come into play: creativity, self-actualizing and self-transcending. Eventually these needs drive you to create more light and love in the world through your presence and actions.
2. From attached to non-attached
Instead of getting lost in your life, and identifying with things (the good, bad and ugly), you start to take things more in stride.
You do stand up for yourself and what you believe in, without yelling or being defensive. You are sensitive to others, while not being pleasing or controlling. You also learn to forgive yourself when you overreach and for past transgressions.
3. From timid and risk-averse to adventuresome and taking calculated risks
Holistic-minded people are sometimes rightfully aware of being criticized for being outside the mainstream. But this can make them too cautious, nervously worried about offending others. Sometimes life calls for taking calculated risks, even a leap of faith, to carry your message and dreams forward.
You then become more courageous. Sometimes you brace yourself, knowing failure and rejection are part of the journey. Conforming and playing it safe doesn’t get you anywhere, except maybe stuck.
Your Life Purpose Story Changes
Your transition from default purpose to conscious purpose means you get a different narrative about your life. You will see yourself differently — and begin to describe yourself in keeping with this greater you that is emerging.
Your original story went something like, “I’m doing okay/ fine/ really good…” Now you’ve embarked on the hero’s journey. This heroic journey has no battles with dragons but rather profound challenges. The journey is not motivated by self-gratification, although you do get your needs met.
You then describe your story more like, “I’m called to do this; I’m following my soul and spirit.” You feel fortunate to play your part, however small or large. You realize that you are part of the unfolding story of humanity and life on earth and in the cosmos.
Final Thoughts
So keep this short article on life purpose handy as a reference and tracker for you. It can help you know that you are on your way to a greater purpose, a greater life.
To learn how our holistic coaching and healing program can help with your life purpose go here.