Tracking Our Purpose in Life

Note: This is continuation of the previous blog on Finding Happiness...

I cannot say this enough times, everything on Earth has a purpose, every person has a purpose in life, and the whole of creation has a purpose, if this were not so nothing would exists.

In reality, we don't actually have to know our purpose in life and it will always keep trying to manifest, to push through us into the world.  In fact you are probably already doing things that are very much in line with your purpose in life; but also, you may be doing things that are very much out of sync with your purpose in life.  The value of conscously recognizing, affirming and actualizing our purpose in life is that we can help birth it and we can consciously allow it to be a guide for what we do in life.  In this way we will be more successful, we will feel more fulfillment, happiness and joy, and less frustration in our lives.  It is the many expressions of our purpose in life that makes each of us unique and important beings in the universe - there is no one like you!  When you know and express your purpose, you are clearly sounding your particular note in the symphony of the universe.  Can you imagine what flow this brings to your life - The doors of life open to you of their own accord.  Your purpose is for you but it is also a gift to the world, and it always manifests as a benefit to others.

Finding the Signs of our Purpose

In searching out ones purpose in life the easiest thing to do is identify three signs which can be current or past:

1. Things you just really love doing (they can be simple things); 

2. Expereinces you've had or things you've done were you struck with a particularly strong sense of joy, peace, or fulfillment;

3..Things for which you have a particularly strong talent or ability - (you may not even like the outer form of the activity but still you have a talent for it);

4. Experiences of 'rightous indignation' - times when you've been abosoluty insensed by some injustice or wrong (this shows by contrast something you highly value).

Write down as many of these things as you can remember.

Tracking the Signs to our Purpose

It is not the individual activities that are key here but rather what is behind them. Now you must question, contemplate and interrogate these activities and experiences both individually and also as a whole, for each has a secret to tell. Ask questions of yourself, such as 'why did I feel at peace there', 'what was it in me that was triggered by that situation?' 'why do I have that talent?' 

If you can ask a question you already have the answer - the question will draw out the answer.

This may seem like a lot of work, but it is all worth it when you begin to get a glimmer of your purpose in life and you will!

Actually you probably already have an idea of what it is - It is something fulfilling, someting you love and enjoy doing, it is something for which you have a definate talent.

Brining our Purpose out of Hiding

Once you get a sense of what your purpose in life is you'll find it probably to be an impression of some kind, or it will be a sense of the core qualities that drive your interests or live, or things you have a real talent for.

Now you need to try it all out in life.  Start to do find ways to do things that you feel are in line with your purpose in life, eventually you will hit on one or two things that feel very right to you and you will stay with those.  Still, don't be afarid to make changes, in manifestation everything changes, everything runs on cycles and generally we must find new ways to manifest and create as one cycle runs down and a new cycle needs to begin.

Some specific examples from my life ...

Example 1.  I love to polish things, I love to polish my car, my silverware.  So I ask myself, 'what is it in polishing that I so enjoy?'  I find I like to see things shine and be bright. Hum what is it in shiney and bright that attracks me so?  It is clarity, to see clearly, this is a manifestation of the light of truth.  It is also how the soul appears in life.  Ok, fine this information away for future cross-reference.

Example 2. I love to read fantasy novels. What is in the fantasy novels that attracks me?  I find it is not just any fantasy novel, I love the ones where there is a highly skill person, usually possessing magic, who fights for salvation of others. Interestingly these characters are usually hermits or loners.  Hum, what does my attraction to magic and those characters say about me?  I want to help others, I want the power and skill to help others.  I love a cause and I'm will to fight for the right!  The magic is the inner power used to overcome darkness or evil - can I develop and use that inner power? Yes indeed, through meditation.  Also, I realized in this contemplation that I had been a celtic priest in a past life.

So now I know I am deeply attracted to helping others in a cause and I find the light of truth a very powerful force in my inner being - does this relate to my purpose in life? What can I do to test this assumption out?  I've tested this out in many ways in my life over the years.  I first tried going into the health professions because this was helping others, I was a transplant coordinator and a respiratory therapist but I really disliked direct patient care, this told me someting, that was not the right manifestation of this aspect of my purpose.  Then I feel into being an Education Coordinatory in the Healthcare field - I really love this.  Hum, what was the difference?  I liked helping the people who helped the patients.  This taught me that part of my purpose in life is indeed helping others but more along the lines of supporting, helping and reinforcing the good actions of others. I realized I love and could not help but want to share useful knowledge with others - this took the form of teaching CPR, teaching tennis, teaching in a course called the Mastery of Life in life long learning programs, teaching communication colleges, etc. 

Example 3.  I was attracted to study Human Communications in College.  From this I learned that I had a talent for communicating with others both verbally and in writing.  This talent is not so much one-on-one communications but more in groups. However, oddly, due to childhood conditioning I was also petrafied to speak in front of groups but still I know this was where I had a talent.  I could not help myself and I would force my self into situations, such as 'readers theater', where I had to speak to groups.  Why? It all fits together, I can't easily put it into words but all these things have qualities that build upon or reinforce my purpose in life.

It is easy to write about in hind-sight but the unraveling of my purpose in life is and has been a continual process.  Sometimes I do forget, and when I do I am miserable and that misery is a sign to take a look at what is going on and to remember Amin's guidance: 'If you are unhappy, you are out of touch with your soul nature!'

 There is nothing in this world without purpose, and, though the place of one in the scheme of life may seem different from that of another, yet in the sum total of things we and the lower creation, together with the jinns and angels, have our purpose; that purpose is the realization of truth, and it comes to all in the form of bliss.

Hazrat Inayat Khan