A Life of Meaning
In case you’re wondering how doing all this personal development work connects with finding your purpose, be reassured. Our best work always comes from within. Whether your craft is the written word, a knack for design, innovation or delivering a service, when your output is an unadulterated, under-thought outpouring from the boundless well that is within us all, the honesty of your effort will always supersede anything you produce with your thinking mind.
Pretence is exhausting. There’s a selfless power in honest sharing that radiates at the highest frequency. Our truth speaks to the truth in others on a level that transcends typical human conversation, evoking a response in the listener whilst liberating the person sharing. That’s a transaction of the highest order. True, free from distillation and preservative, pure communication.
The power of authenticity is your ticket to success, the key to fulfilment, and the investment required is that of being courageous enough to peel off your mask and bravely show up as exactly who you are.
Leap!
When we take full responsibility for our lives without blame or resentment, we gain complete clarity about what must be done. If you’re ready to shift into your next phase, an exciting new chapter of your life, then it’s time to leap. Just leap! It’s as simple as that. If you want to sing, sing. If you want to blog, blog. To start a business? Start it right now.
You aren’t the sum of what you do or what you have. Who we are is our personal truth, and we all have an obligation to quieten the noise of jobs, roles and responsibilities long enough to get in touch with the calling that’s just waiting to be given the space to reveal itself. It doesn’t matter one bit what occupation or purpose is calling you forth. It matters only that you’re doing exactly what lights up your soul.
Suppressing it leaves us unfulfilled, living a lie and ultimately sick. So batten down the hatches – for the adventure stepping into the next phase of your life is always going to require a courageous core. Take comfort in the fact that when we embrace our God-given reason for being on this planet, the universe kicks into action and will support us at every juncture for as long as we stay connected to this source power. It’s a hell of an adventure, so leap!
Project You
Every little thought we have or action we take will lead us either towards that ultimate goal or away from it. In every interaction, we can lift the conversation or pollute it. No matter how limiting your current circumstances seem, or how cavernous the distance between your reality and your desire, your journey across the bridge to the greatest you can still begin. All you have to do is start right now to entertain the idea that the biggest barrier between your today and your tomorrow is in your ability to see yourself in that future and not external factors contributing towards it. Your outlook and perspective are everything. Perspective is the fairy dust that shifts a no-hope situation into a new realm, from which possibilities are revealed.
That redundancy that came unexpectedly out of nowhere is the lifeboat ready to carry you to the pursuit of your passion. Your heartbreak is a pivot to reposition you towards an even greater love. The traffic is a chance to dive into the audio track holding a message that might just change your life. Single parenthood is a golden ticket to an unbreakable maternal bond and unbridled strength. Selecting our perspective isn’t, however, as simple as opting for a positive mental attitude. It’s a strategic tool for living a life that works. When we decide an event or situation is negative, we box ourselves into submission and we deflate. Our point of view about any and everything determines our life and what shows up in it – choose it wisely.
Embrace Visibility
We live in a world in which the divides and threats of walls risk leaving it a place where we’re shoehorned into clinging to cliques based on politics, race and socioeconomics. Those ideals we can opt into for safety in numbers. But most beautiful of all is that beneath the fickle mirage of circumstance, status, ethnicity and gender, we’re all the same. One and the same – a manifestation of source love.
In loving relationships, the most rewarding partnerships are those in which two people become vulnerable and ‘fall in love’, overriding the fear of rejection or disappointment in order to enjoy a feeling of connection with another person. Our day-today interactions aren’t so dissimilar. While we might not feel a compelling desire or attraction for the individuals we work with or pass on the daily trip into the office, if we viewed our fellow people without this default setting of judgement and suspicion, we’d awaken an opportunity to truly meet each other. Separation and difference are a lie. Our human need to belong to cliques is a symptom of our disconnection from our truth. The only medicine then is a return to that truth, a return to being who we are, once again becoming love.
Every day that we step out into the world, it’s ‘own clothes day’ and the world is waiting to see your outfit. Rock your frizzy hair and jazz shoes with pride. Be the change. Be love.
Your Why
Let go of the pursuit of riches and immerse yourself in service of the bigger goal. It’s not about neglecting bills, which of course still need to be paid, but about doing what you have to do until you can afford to do what you want to do. Living a life of meaning isn’t just reserved for the privileged, who have the luxury of time and money to ponder their purpose, and I’m the first to understand what it means to struggle, but that is all the more reason to transcend the hamster wheel of survival. When your goal goes beyond the benefit of you alone, financial success and recognition will often be the deserved by-product, but you have to have faith in and commit to your vision in order not to compromise on your legacy. Trust that when you’re on the path that’s meant for you, you’ll be supported by the universe.
Let your why form the foundation of your enterprise, and your cause and its meaning will keep your ship afloat through rough seas. This will enable you to smile at your reflection each morning, content in the knowledge that your worthiness stems not from the car you drive nor your bank balance, but from who you are. Our challenges are ripe for leveraging, for our breakdowns can be our greatest breakthroughs. In falling apart, there’s the opportunity for our rebuilding with stronger material, soul power and a new reliance on our inner guidance to map out our route.
Become Who You Are
The fog will rise – venture in.
Each day, step out with intention to bring your thoughts and actions in line with that ultimate version of the person you intend to become. Let the qualities you admire in others be a reminder of that same light within you.
And when you revert to your old self, because you will, be gentle with yourself, with the same tenderness you’d afford a child. Nurture yourself mentally, physically and spiritually with the soul food you need to blossom into the person you always were before life chiselled you into hardness or submission. And as you bloom, watch in wonder as the world responds to your new song, meeting you at your new level, your new line, your raised bar.
With every step, let your majesty be felt, own your presence. Step forth with your power and an aura that announces that you fully claim the greatness from which you were birthed and need no permission. Let your quiet power announce that you’ve arrived before you even enter the room. Own it, with strength, with grace, with humility. This road isn’t easily travelled and my friend, you deserve it all.