What’s In Your Suitcase? Your Purpose In Life
If I were to ask you the question; “If you had all the time and money in the world and knew you would be successful, what would you do?” how might you answer? What about the question; “What will you do with your life?” What then? At first glance they appear to be easy questions; however when you start to dig into what they really mean to you, the word ‘easy’ no longer seems relevant.
Most people go through life each day on autopilot, sometimes arriving at the end of a week, month, or year and wonder where the time went. We generally find that although time has passed we are usually in not much of a different place than from where we started. Imagine if we traveled that way for vacations… we would pack up our cars, unsure of what exactly to pack or for how long and then just start driving. But where is it that we’re going? When will we arrive? Are we even on the right road? Are we prepared for the trip? These questions all seem like common sense for a road trip; however when it comes to our lives these questions largely remain unanswered.
Finding your purpose in life can be looked at similar to how you would prepare for a vacation. Just like in planning for a vacation, it helps immensely to know where you’re going, what you’re planning to do there and how you can best prepare yourself for the journey. Your life purpose can help you answer all of these questions, plus more, about your life. The last thing anyone wants to have happen is to arrive somewhere and realize that we are not where we are supposed to be.
Many of us have numerous glimpses of our life’s purpose at various stages of our lives. We may be the closest to, and yet furthest from it as children. As children we usually listen to and follow our inner urges and desires on a pretty regular basis, what we find however is that when these urges and desires cross paths with others they generally lead to pain and frustration for us. As children we then unconsciously equate these pursuits of meaning and inner joy with pain and roadblocks. These ideas are carried with us into adulthood and as we approach the cross-roads where our purpose once again presents itself as an opportunity, we run as fast as we can from the approaching train.
Other times in life such as what some would call a ‘mid-life crisis’ the desire for more meaning, purpose and fulfillment once again breaches the surface of our conscious and can cause us much grief and discontentment. Why? For the simple reason that we begin to see that we’re not where we should be, and the gap between where we are and where we feel we should be begins to appear to us more clearly, and at an alarming rate. We begin to see that our inner passions, talents and gifts are not being used to their full potential. And that our true nature of being of service to others has been largely ignored while we pursued more material and ego driven desires.
So how do we rectify this situation in a positive and pro-active way? We commit ourselves to finding a life of meaning and purpose once the question first arises within us. How can you identify and know when that is? Honestly, if you’re reading this, it’s time.
