Sunday, February 06, 2000

9 Ways to Get the Most out of Living Your Life Purpose

by
W. Bradford Swift

You have finally clarified what your life is about, you know who you are and what your life purpose is. You have even created a life purpose statement. Now what? How do you get the most out of the work you've done. How do you have your life purpose shape your life? This list will help guide you to along the path to living a life on purpose.

1. Begin to recognize yourself as the life purpose you've clarified. When you first do the work to determine your life purpose, you don't fully know yourself as that purpose. It's like if someone suddenly gave you a new name. If a few days later somebody called you by that name, it's unlikely you'd respond because you still know yourself by your old name. Begin to practice knowing yourself as your life purpose.
   
2. One way to know yourself as your life purpose is to develop one or more simple purpose practices. These may be as simple as reading your life purpose statement aloud upon arising for a new day, or creating a little ceremony that will have your be fully present to who you are. The important thing is to do it regularly and with thoughtfulness, and be careful it doesn't devolve into a habit that doesn't presence who you really are.
   
3. Begin sharing your life purpose with others. While your life purpose may recide within you, where it truly lives is out in the world in the listening of others. If you don't share it, it won't be long before it goes out of existence,or becomes only a distant memory, something you once said but that ultimately made no lasting difference in your life.
   
4. Create different ways to say your life purpose. Practice sharing your life purpose in ways that fit your audience. Find ways to share it so the essence of your life purpose is captured even though it might be said with different words.
   
5. Start having your actions be shaped by your life purpose. One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is to create Purpose Projects in various areas of your life. Purpose Projects are expressions of your life purpose because they come directly from your purpose. They are what takes the possibility or vision of a life purpose and puts it into reality. Therefore, a Purpose Projects will have specific results or outcomes that can be measured. While you're interested in producing these results, Purpose Projects are really about you expressing yourself as your life purpose.
   
6. Allow your life purpose to continue to evolve. As you practice these steps your purpose will begin to take on a life of its own. Since it isn't something carved in stone, it will evolve to the next level over time. Allow your intuitive nature to guide you along this evolutionary path.
   
7. Involve others in your life purpose. As you become more comfortable at sharing and living your life purpose, you will become a powerful attractive force in the world because people who are living their life on purpose are very attractive. As this happens, resources will be drawn to you that will allow you to continue to express your life purpose. Some of those resources will be other people, who will either have a similar life purpose or see the possibility of their expressing their own life purpose with you. Enjoy the company.
   
8. Allow the 'stuff' of your current life that doesn't support your life purpose to drop away. While there's an additive effect to life purpose, there is also a subtracting effect as well. A lot of your life up to this point has been shaped by your "inherited purpose," that fear-based drive for survival. So, much of what's been in your life to support your inherited purpose will begin to drop away. This may include people who were in your life to support your inherited purpose, jobs that were based in your inherited purpose, many other things. While this can be disturbing and disruptive, it helps to recognize if for what it is. It's your life continuing to be shaped by your life purpose. You don't need to force this natural process. Let it evolve.
   
9. Trust the Universe to provide you with many opportunities to express your life purpose. There is a certain flow to living on purpose. A lot of the hard work and struggle will start to disappear from your life if you'll let it. It becomes more about being who you are as your life purpose and less about all the things there are to do. You may find that many of the things you've been working on have only been distractions to keep your from your true calling. This could include broken relationships, miscommunications, integrity issues, etc. As you live true to your purpose, trust the Universe to work with you in resolving these distractions. Your job, first and foremost, is to continue to life true to the purpose you've said yourself to be.
   

Thanks go to my client, massage therapist Kim Greenlee (daybreak@brinet.com) for inspiring this article.

W. Bradford Swift is director of Life On Purpose Institute -- an organization dedicated to people clarifying their life purpose and living true to it -- where he is a coach, writer and trainer for other coaches. Hundreds of his articles have appeared in such diverse publications as Modern Maturity, Hope, New Age Journal, Yoga Journal, and many others. He may be contacted by email: brad@lifeonpurpose.com; by phone: 1-800-668-0183; or visit the Life On Purpose Institute website: http://www.lifeonpurpose.com. For a FREE subscription to Purposeful Pondering Ezine, send an email to PurposefulPondering-subscribe@one-list.com.

C 1998 Brad Swift. http://www.lifeonpurpose.com/, lifeonpurpose@brinet.com, or call 828.697-9239 for more free information. This material may be transmitted freely with this contact and attribution information.