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A Better You
by Jo Ann
Fore
Living Life on
Purpose
Are
you living a dull, lackluster life – without
joy and purpose? Are you melancholy, bored, or hopeless?
Have you given up on achieving anything great in life
and find yourself content to co-exist with purposelessness?
A release from this captivity is available, if you
are willing to be one of the ones to embrace the idea
that there is something you are specifically on this
earth to do.
Helen
Keller once said, “Many people have a
wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is
not attained through self-gratification, but through
fidelity to a worthy purpose.”
My Place in this World
A recent Google search on “How do I discover
my purpose in life?” generated over 44 million
responses. A barrage of advice is readily available
to us on how to discover and live our life purpose.
One such response made my lengthy research
seem paltry. The article, “How to discover your life purpose
in 20 minutes”, attempted to answer what is a
life-long journey for some in a mere twenty minutes.
I was insulted but decided to read on. In his defense,
the author actually shared a relevant, to-the-point
exercise intended to direct you to your life purpose
within short order. While it doesn’t span the
complexities of a life purpose plan, I must admit it
is a good first step.
First, the article admonishes us to
rid ourselves of any false purposes that we’ve been taught,
including the premise that we have no purpose. Then
it encourages us to sit – pen and paper in hand – and
do the following:
1.
Write at the top, “What is
my true purpose in life?”
2.
Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your
head.
It doesn’t
have to be a complete sentence. A short phrase
is fine.
3. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes
you cry. This is your purpose.
The
author shares that somewhere between 100-500 possible
answers, we will
discover our purpose – regardless
of how much we believe in, or doubt, the exercise.
(www.stevepavlina.com)
Journey to Purpose
In the lives of many, confusion often stands in the
way of purpose. Even individuals who diligently pursue
a specific purpose in life sometimes come up empty.
Dr.
Katie Brazelton understands. Dr. Brazelton – Ph.D.,
M.Div., M.A. – author of the runaway-selling
Pathway to Purpose series, was thrust into a transition
that left her without purpose. Almost twenty years
ago, Dr. Brazelton found herself divorced and suddenly
facing new roles in life. With nothing but ‘the
unknown’ in front of her, the sudden angst of
purposelessness almost tore her apart.
In retrospect, she says that she is amazed now that
she actually thought she could find her life purpose
in the midst of her frantic life. She was too busy
numbing her pain with overspending, travel, and work.
Dr.
Brazelton’s own journey to discover her
life purpose led her to Calcutta to talk to Mother
Teresa about joy, and to Belfast as a guest of Ireland’s
Nobel Peace Laureate to discuss inner peace. But it
wasn’t until she got still – still enough
to rise above the noise and confusion – that
she discovered the one great thing in life she was
designed to do.
“The reason I think I struggled so (as a lone
ranger)…is for the specific purpose of letting
me feel that desperateness that so many others feel.” After
learning firsthand the pathway to purpose, Dr. Brazelton
now spends her days training others to do the same,
with the goal of helping others bypass some of the
angst of purposelessness. She has trained women across
the USA, and into Canada, England, France, Australia
and Jamaica.
(www.pathwaytopurposeministry.com)
How to Live with Passion and Purpose
Life is designed to be joyful. As you learn to live
your life on purpose, you will discover a joy unknown
to you before.
I have discovered some common denominators in a search
for purpose in life. Your strengths, passions, and
talents seem to be the greatest indication of what
you are designed to do with your life.
Let’s
take a look at yours:
What are your strengths?
1.
What attributes do you have – what distinguishes
you from others?
2.
What assets do you possess – what
are your useful and valuable qualities?
What are your passions?
1. What excites you about life?
2. What energizes
you, what makes you feel fulfilled?
3.
What would you do even if you didn’t have
to?
4. What did you enjoy as a child?
What are your talents?
1. What do you do that seems easy and natural?
2.
What is your unique, natural talent: writing, skiing,
teaching, speaking, music, working with children,
working with animals?
3. What have you created
that people compliment you on?
Many of us have undervalued our natural strengths,
passions and talent. Yet, these are key to discovering
what our purpose in life is. Did your answers lead
you to a specific direction? Is there a worthy purpose,
a specific purpose for your life, which you are missing?
Jo
Ann Fore welcomes your comments about this article or suggestions
for material you would like to see in future articles.
Email her at: [email protected]. A
Better You is published every Saturday.
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