What if your life purpose wasn’t preordained? What if it wasn’t determined by your inherent skills and talents, or even the ones you’ve chosen to cultivate?
What if there was no single life purpose that you needed to discover, instead it evolved as you evolve?
What if your life’s purpose was determined, not for your life, but in every moment?
…And what would that mean for you right now?
Most of us have grown up with the idea that we need to discover our life’s purpose. That purpose is supposed to help us determine once and for all, our path in life, and once we know it, whether we’re achieving it or not. It’s like our navigational north star, our rudder that keeps us sailing in the right direction, even the motivation that keeps us moving when seas get rough.
This is a wonderful idea. It offers an anchor in a constantly changing reality.
But it presents several problems, the biggest one of course is that most of us struggle to find it.
Additionally, even when we think we’ve found it at last… it doesn’t. Our passion for our purpose drifts away on the tide… it slips through the net.
“All models are wrong, but some are useful”
George E. P. Box, Statistician
So, here’s a nice idea that I’ve been playing with recently. What if your life doesn’t have a predetermined purpose? What if there’s no single life’s purpose that you need to discover or cultivate? What if your life doesn’t have a single purpose the whole time, but that you can discover your purpose in every moment?
What if every time you found yourself asking the question, “What is my life’s purpose?,” instead of looking for an overarching theme, you looked for, “What is my purpose right now?”
Teal Swan and mathis DeStaphano were both talking about God not having a Plan recently, and it inspired a whole load of reframes for me. And this life’s purpose idea is one of them. My thinking goes a little something like this: we’ve been laboring under the idea that Source or God (or whatever or however you think of whatever Intelligence is bigger than you), has a Plan. Or, if you don’t believe in an Intelligence bigger than you, that there is somehow a correct or overarching direction or path for your life. That somehow you came in with an inherent set of skills and talents that you are supposed to employ in this life vis à vis your purpose. Ok, again, comforting in it’s way. Except that how often does it work? How often do you discover your single purpose and it sticks? Many people assume that they’ve just misidentified it, and that now with hindsight, they see what it really is, “I didn’t realize how it all fit together, and now I get it!”
But what if there is no Plan or right thing to do other than to create? to evolve? to see what happens when we do what we do?
I’m not saying that this is True. I don’t know either way. And since I don’t know, and thus get to choose what ideas to live by, I’m playing with this one, and wow is it easier. It misses out this huge issue of looking for an overall life’s purpose, that I still haven’t identified for sure, and lets me get down to the important work of figuring out my purpose in this moment.
Less angst and energy wasted. More focus and a clearer sense of purpose.
That’s what we really want in the end anyway… a clear sense of purpose. Easy.
Skip the stuff you don’t need and get down to what you really want to know: what’s my north star right now?!
So here’s what I suggest:
Next time you find yourself asking, “What’s my life’s purpose?”
Ask yourself, “Given all the things I’ve experienced in my life up to now, and all that I’ve learned and become, all that I am capable of and interested in right now, what do I want to do right now? What heading do I want to aim for in this moment? What feels best and makes the most sense right now?”
And then head that way, and the next time you ask that question, reassess. Ask the same questions and do the same review again. Take stock of what’s happened, and given what you’ve learned from what you’ve done… what sparks your interest now, what makes the most sense and feels the best, and do that.
Welcome to your purpose.
Happy sailing.
What I’m Watching:
Wonderful interview of the brilliant Anna Breytenbach, who if you don’t know you’re in for a treat, that covers communication (telepathy), spirituality & presence, and has so many gems about animals (human and otherwise) that I kept pausing it to reflect… and coming back. It literally took me months to watch the whole thing.
How to Communicate with Animals | Anna Breytenbach Interview – Animal Communicator