7 Steps to Finding and Living Out Our Purpose

What's your purpose? What reason do you have for getting up each morning and going through the day? I'm not looking for some altruistic answer such as: to make the world a better place or to get rich (which is not so altruistic). It can be as simple as: to be a better parent or get a better education or to spend more time with loved ones. The point I am making is that without an overreaching goal or purpose for living we will be at the effect of life and not at cause with it. We would be like a rudderless and powerless ship on the surface of the ocean being forced to go wherever the wind or current takes us.

7 steps to help us define and live out our purpose:

1.     Articulate it. Speak it as if your purpose has already been accomplished. For example say: “I am a great parent” or “I am educated”.  There is power in the spoken word.
2.     Write it down or place an image of it in a place where you will see it daily. This act in and of itself will signal your intellect through the use of your subconscious mind to direct the body’s actions towards your purpose.  This worked for me as a young lieutenant in the Marines when I had purposed myself to become a Naval Aviator. I placed a picture of myself, seated inside the type aircraft I wanted to fly, on my bathroom mirror. Two years later I was assigned to a squadron and flew in that type aircraft.
3.     Trust it. Here is where many of us become discouraged and afraid because we fear the unknown and cannot lay out a specific roadmap or timeframe. In these instances we must trust that our mentor will always lead us in the direction of our highest and best good.
4.     Visualize it. As many times as possible throughout the day use your imagination to see yourself as if you've already accomplished your purpose.
5.     Live it. Allow yourself to act it out in your life. No longer allow yourself to be tied to old ways and habits. Become one and at cause with life and your purpose.
6.     Review it. From time to time review whether or not the results you are receiving are in line with your purpose. Be aware that many times our intellectual nature allows certain negative core beliefs to interfere with the successful achievement of our purpose
7.     Refine it. As we find ourselves nearing our goal it may be necessary that we tweak it to fit our individual circumstances. Don’t be too concerned about this because our mentor/spiritual nature will signal us when necessary.

I hope that you find these 7 steps useful in determining and living out your purpose. Did you notice how our spiritual-intellectual-physical natures complement each other in attaining our purpose? 

Until next time here's hoping that you live today and every day passionately and with purpose. Thank you and God bless!

Belief/Faith/Sight - Part 3 - Seek & You Will Find!

This is my latest post in the series on belief, faith, sight and their importance in helping us to experience a full and successful life.

In my earlier post I discussed the relationship between belief and faith. I stated that our core beliefs are directly related to our quality of life. Core beliefs can be positive or negative and either help or hinder how we experience life. They also act as our subconscious guide to life.

Our negative core beliefs are the primary reasons we have “problem areas” in life. These problem areas are the result of hurtful or painful events that we experienced in the past. These events left us feeling not very good about ourselves and with very strong negative emotions. As a result our subconscious mind influences us to do anything possible to avoid any circumstance or situation that might even remotely remind us of these fearful events and their attached emotions.

As stated in my last post, we will continue to experience these problem areas until we have the courage to face the fears and emotions contained therein. We do this simply by recognizing that we are our own worst enemy. We attached these hurtful sentiments of not being worthy or not being good enough to ourselves. These sentiments are value judgments. They are wrong and exist only in the shadows of our mind. If we have enough courage to ask ourselves the right questions we will find out that these value judgments, just like shadows, are Paper Tigers and have no substance.

Now here is where the rubber meets the road. How many of us know that if we believe in something and seek it with all of our heart, we will find it? Our quality of life starts in our mind and manifests itself in our visible world. Norman Vincent Peale once said: “In every difficult situation is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it.”     

If we believe we will find peace in the midst of chaos we will find it. If we believe we will find love in the midst of hate we will find it

The key is that belief precedes faith and faith initiates action. Our actions then lead to results.  It’s a process and the output of every process is a conclusion or result. The circumstance or situation in which we find ourselves does not matter. What matters is that our core beliefs be grounded in a sound belief system that activates our faith to obtain consistent, positive results.

This is why we must continually review our belief system to be certain that it leads us in the direction of our highest and best good because “A successful life is nothing more than a state of mind.”

In my next and final post in this series, I will provide practical examples on how to implement this concept into our daily life. Thanks for your interest.

Peace & God Bless.