FIND YOUR PURPOSE BUT ENJOY THE JOURNEY TOO

I would like you to start keeping a journal. I want you to start your journal by writing a list of things that you love doing or that you are passionate about. Once you have done this – and I don’t expect that you’ll cover everything in your first go – I want you to try and write down an indication of the direction you want your life to take – where do you want to go with it?

Finding your Purpose is one of the most important and critical aspects of seeking to live an Authentic Life. Finding and following your purpose is the best way that you can utilise all your unique gifts, talents and abilities to improve your place in the world – and to improve the world around you. So it is essential that you take a sharp focus on the direction you are headed, utilise your tremendous passion, and use your precious energy wisely to pursue your life’s purpose.

You will find that happiness doesn’t just reside in the ‘end point’ of achieving your purpose; it also and mostly lies in the enjoyment of the journey you take on the way to that destination. In other words, our the beauty of our purpose is not just about the goal we have set for ourselves; it is also about the journey we take to get there.

Along that journey there are things that we must accept, face or endure. These fit generally into three categories:

1. Accepting that we are responsible for our own creations. This is about owning the things we do, including those things we do wrong.
2. Facing Life’s challenges. I refer you back to my earlier post about How to be Authentic: First Steps. There I talk about the barriers of repression, projection, delusion and denial.
3. Enduring our suffering. In particular, the type of suffering that occurs because we have resisted the challenges that have been presented to us. 

In short, we need to learn how to realise and accept that both positive and negative experiences are there to help us grow and therefore feel more alive.

The path of least resistance is the path we must consciously choose to pursue growth. This will mean that we take on all the challenges that confront us head-on, doing so without fear and by living on the edge. My good friend John Ryan of the Savita Education Trust refers to this as “Flow”.

HOW TO BE AUTHENTIC: FIRST STEPS - An Introduction

Our actions affect those around us and largely determine how our life is shaped. It is important that we recognise and accept that we are inseparable from the events and situations in our life. When we see and appreciate our connection to the world around us, we can begin to understand the control that we actually have over our own destiny.

Integrity and Character go hand in hand:

Character is the sum total of the result of all the choices and decisions we have made in our lives to date. It is about the relationship that we have with ourselves that is projected outwardly for others to see.

Integrity is the measure used to express our adherence to the moral principles and core values that we have set for ourselves. This adherence is identified by others as honesty, wholeness, trustworthiness and respectability.

Combining these two critical traits and projecting a character that is elevated by a conviction to sound principles and wholesome values is indeed our only pathway to true happiness.

The important point to be made here is that, in Shakespearean terms, if we cannot be true to thy selves then we cannot be true to others.

In order to be true to ourselves we need to:

• Realise and embrace our connection to the world around us; to our Environment. But we need to do this not from an observational and separatist perspective bit from an entirely immersed and unified way that enables us to take total responsibility for our Life and actions.
• Love, honour and Respect ourselves for the amazing beings that we are and to live up to our Integrity measures: our core Values, Principles, Ideals and Truths.

Another critical part of being true to ourselves is recognising that because our connection to the world largely determines how our life is shaped, we often try and fight against that connection rather than accept or even embrace it. We tend to do this in four primary ways:

• Repression: we put our efforts into push our experiences back. A good example of this is the proverbial “hiding our problems under the carpet” cliché.
• Projection: we choose to project negative or avoidance qualities onto the people around us. This is often exemplified as blame – “They didn’t give me the job although I was best qualified because they didn’t want someone who was male/black/short/gay/straight/etc”; i.e. it can’t have been anything you had done.
• Delusion: we ignore reality and opt to live in a make believe world manifested from misguided beliefs and perceptions. The most extreme end example of this is the stereotypical conspiracy theorist who believes they are best to withdraw and disengage from society because ‘someone’ is out to get them.
• Denial: we refuse to face Truths or Reality about the segments of our Lives and of our Selves that we feel are undesirable. This is the major single cause of mental and psychosomatic illness. Denial is like lying to ourselves.

Let’s conduct a small exercise. I want you grab some paper and a pen (if you keep a Journal which I recommend you so – use that). Now I want you to ask yourself “What is it in my Life That I am Not Facing?”

Write down all the ideas, thoughts and feelings that go running through your head as you contemplate this.

Now sit back, read and interrogate what you have written. Are you ready to discover what it is in Life that is holding you back? Are you ready to accept that most of it is probably, most likely, to be YOU? Are you willing to take the required steps to address this – to become an agent of change?

Remember, it takes courage to face your self-doubts, anxieties and fears. But the only solution is to face them head on. Stop procrastinating. Move towards resolving your self-doubts, anxieties and fears and you will be unstoppable.