Knowing Our Purpose: Which One’s The Right One?

Knowing Our Purpose: Which One’s The Right One?

A reader writes:

One thing I struggle with is that I’m passionate about so many things. Discovering your purpose in life means ditching the things that are NOT your passion. And I have difficulty doing that . . . giving up on things . . . although I know what I really want most, I’m afraid that what I leave along the way might be my real purpose in life . . . What if I’m wrong and I’m just telling myself this is what I should want? How do I move on and in the right direction?

You know what’s cool about life? Everything we do is interconnected.

For example, I had a passion for writing, painting, psychology, teaching, spirituality, meditation, and the tarot. I had no idea that one day ALL of those passions would come together in The Game of You and The Game of Insight. I was amazed at how all my loves creatively co-joined in two little boxes.

So often, we think our purpose has to be ONE thing.

They say that on average we have 3 to 5 careers in one lifetime. I suppose that’s because we’re always changing and fine-tuning what we most love and want.

It reminds me of past relationships. They reflected where I was at that point in my life. When they no longer served, they went out and a new relationship replaced it — more often than not, as an UPGRADE from where I once was.

If you’re drawn to something and it fuels you, keep doing it. ALL of it, whatever it is. If you feel your energy lower, set that one aside. Follow the energy, and it’ll guide you.

Have you ever felt afraid of letting something go? For instance, have you felt like a particular relationship no longer seemed to benefit you?

Our passions are like lovers. It’s sad to let them go — but it’s better on the other side as we grow.

There isn’t ONE life purpose you should do to reach absolute attainment.

TRY AN EXPERIMENT:

Put the interests you’re afraid to let go of aside for a little while. Then feel it out. Do you miss it? Do you crave it? Do you feel a draw to keep doing it?

Then watch your energy if you return. Do you feel joy, love, ease, fun, or relief to be reunited with an old lover?

Or does it feel like “a you” that is of the past, not meeting your current circumstances any longer?

I started writing a memoir in my 20’s and put it on the shelf. I came back to it in my early 40’s. I worked on it full time even though I struggled with it. In fact, every time I came back to it, I suffered.

I worried that I wasn’t pushing myself enough to manifest one of my life purposes — to be a literary published writer. But I came to the realization, my past life story no longer resonated with who I was in the present.

So, I asked myself, What would REALLY give me joy right now? What brings the most ease, fun and lightness?

The answer was writing a book on creativity, which has given me great pleasure. Something stronger and more alive is calling me.

It’s how we identify with our creative process that causes us to contract and worry.

We think it MEANS something about us if we let go. We think we failed, or there’s something wrong with us. Or think we missed the train that’s supposed to take us to our ultimate destination.

But that’s not how nature works. It doesn’t just sprout and grow on one straight linear path. It drops seeds and then twists, reaches, stretches, and dies. Then those seeds grow into something else.

To blooming and going towards the sun’s light!

2 thoughts on “Knowing Our Purpose: Which One’s The Right One?”

  1. Thanks, Lynn for another great article. I’ve been bouncing around between writing non-fiction essays, short stories for ten years and after a jaunt with coloring books last summer my love of painting was re-ignited. Since then I’ve been actively engaged in mixed media. And find some days it’s watercolor, other times pastels, acrylics, pen and ink, collage, zentangles. I just continue to let the mediums take me places and the most important part is what gives me joy in the creative process.

    Today I’m planning to experiment painting with palette knives after watching an inspiring video about artist, Hans Hoffman who believed brushes could some times be a limitation.

    Thank you, too for opening for comments there’s a lot of inspiration here and nice to be able to respond in the moment.

    • Thank you for commenting! I am inspired by your creative process:) So many fun ways you are expressing yourself. I love hearing that your experience with coloring books ignited painting and then mixed media. I find it fascinating how one creative outlet can open doors to so many other wonderful explorations. Enjoy your experiment with palette knives! Let me know how it goes. xo, Lynn

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