How to Find Your Purpose

Do you know your purpose?

If not, you're in the company of a lot of other people. Like those other people, you might share a feeling of aimlessness and dissatisfaction with life. Something seems to be missing, and you know there's got to be more. But how does someone go about finding their purpose? Is there a course you can take? A book you can read? Someone you can talk to who can tell you what it is?

There is no magic bullet, no step-by-step formula which you can follow to suddenly be able to say "Voila! My purpose!" Instead, finding your purpose is better looked at as a self-discovery process. The answer lies not outside of you in books, formulas, or the opinions of others. The answer lies inside you, by getting connected with your heart.

This is a key, because it takes getting out of automatic pilot where you're living unconsciously and going through the motions of life, to living consciously and "being with" yourself. It requires paying attention to your feelings and emotions when you do something in order to notice what you do and do not like. It takes allowing yourself opportunities in order to figure out what really is important to you. Then, when you make choices based on what you learn about yourself, your life will become more focused and effective. You'll find that even when you admire what someone else is doing, you'll know whether or not what they are doing is also for you.

At first, learning to live consciously takes intentional effort. It's like driving a stick shift for the first time and having to think about pushing in the clutch while moving the stick into gear, and then moving your other foot off the brake and onto the gas while you let the clutch out. In a similar way we have to consciously think about the things we're so used to ignoring. This can feel a little awkward at first. With practice, though, your ability to pay attention and be with yourself becomes smoother and easier.

As you go through this process, it's imperative to learn to trust what your heart is telling you. As we discussed in our last newsletter, this can be scary at first as it takes you out of your head and into your heart, and sometimes beyond logic. You may find yourself questioning, "What if I trust myself and it doesn't work out? But as you act on the things you sense your intuition is telling you, you will build evidence that your intuition is there to correctly guide you, and that leads to having confidence to take bolder and bolder steps based on what your heart is saying.

Discovering your purpose also takes ongoing self-discovery work. That's where workshops such as the Klemmer & Associate's Heart of the Samurai come in, a setting which encourages you to explore your purpose. With the help of books, CDs and other workshops, you can replace the belief systems that tell you that you aren't good enough to live out the unique purpose you are here on earth to fulfill, replacing those beliefs with healthy views that open up options for you to live out your dreams. The deeper you go into understanding who you are as a human being, the more likely it will be that your purpose will reveal itself to you.

In The Compassionate Samurai, Brian Klemmer wrote that satisfaction is "found in being where you're supposed to be. It's found when you're in alignment with your purpose." If you haven't begun the process of discovering your purpose, determine to make that a priority today.