How to give your life purpose – and stick with it!

I have a pretty controversial take on this, so before I tell you about the most reliable way to achieve your life’s purpose, I have to say I really do believe there is a time and place for almost every approach out there. However, we live in a goal obsessed, left-brain dominated society, so I’m going to assume that most of you are already aware of the benefits of creating a plan and sticking to it.

Plans are helpful ways to orient our thoughts and actions and create emotional allegiance to our goals, however, the likelihood of falling short of our well-laid plans can be enough to deter all but the most ardent over-achiever from actually staying the course.

And the entire usefulness of a plan depends on having a solid picture of what it is we want to accomplish. This may work fine for large corporations that are intent on increasing their market share. However, personal happiness is a much more intricate thing.

Planning works best when it is based on clearly delineated, black and white options.

However, the reality in which our plans unfold is uncertain, cyclical, dynamic, and influenced by about seven billion other people who happen to share the planet with us, not to mention countless celestial bodies, intergalactic forces and so on. The idea that our individual life purpose is the one constant amidst the chaos is enticing, but quite inconsistent with the rest of reality. And it’s also a great way for us to constantly hold a mirror up in front of ourselves and punish ourselves for not being better, faster, more adept at achieving our purpose etc.

I propose that you free yourself from the burden of finding your purpose.

Decide today that you will no longer require a purpose to give your life meaning. I can almost assure you that in the process you will begin to live your actual purpose much more effortlessly and effectively than you did when you were busy thinking about it.

In place of a purpose, consider the concept of inspired action.

Inspired action means something like this: remaining in constant conscious contact with the source of prana, chi, or life force energy inside you, and letting that energy flow through you in as unobstructed a way as possible in each and every moment. We’re talking about the same energy that causes flowers to bloom, babies to grow, and new galaxies to be birthed – all fairly remarkable accomplishments when you think about it.

To live a life of inspired action means to have endless eureka moments about your purpose.

It means to live in alignment with that which nourishes your heart and body most fully in one moment, and to be open to that changing completely in the next. If that idea, that concept, is no longer the best current expression of your limitless potential, be open to changing it to fit your potential. Your mind’s role in this process is to give fresh life to the fountain of wisdom inside you. It is to recognize that there is a time and a place for everything, and to be completely evolutionary, expansive, and free in the vision it creates for your life.

From this starting point, you are free to have a plan one week, if that feels right for you, and set it aside the following week, if something else feels more right.

You might resuscitate your plan the following week or you might never look at it again. What’s important is learning to recognize when the thoughts you’re entertaining are supporting your well-being, and when they are not. I can assure you that you will not fall down, you will not lose your way, and your life will not fall apart when you decide to live this way. Flowers don’t forget how to bloom, babies don’t forget how to grow, and the earth doesn’t forget how to orbit around the sun. Rather, left unobstructed, every part of creation has a built in impulse to become uniquely and beautifully itself.