DISCOVERING A SENSE OF PURPOSE



Writing an essay on the subject of the “power of purpose” would seem relatively easy. Everyone who has ever experienced the state of having a “sense of purpose” knows that it is powerful, indeed. Living with a purpose, possessing a “clarity of purpose,” helps to enable us to perform at our highest capacity and fulfill our greatest potential. That’s nothing new or difficult. What is difficult, what is problematic about purpose, is that it is often hard to discover what our true purpose in life is.

Some appear to have it easy. Some few are born with a seemingly innate talent or inclination that they develop from an early age. Mozart is an oft-noted example. It seems unquestionable that his purpose in this world was to create divine works of music. Furthermore, it appears to be the case that those who, like Mozart, realize their purpose from an early age become renowned in their field of endeavor, given that their formative years are devoted to their subject.

Most of us, however, have to struggle a bit to realize our purpose. Some show early promise in a particular area, only to give up or change their course before having achieved mastery. Others, like myself, are “late bloomers” who do not develop a real sense of why they are here until reaching a more mature age. Not that I feel I have finished with this subject; my purpose in writing this is to get a little clearer about it.

I do not want to generalize, but what appears to be the case is that those who are most happy and fulfilled in life have found their purpose and are doing the work that they love. Somewhere along the way this class of people learned to listen below the din of external voices – those of parents, peers, tradition – to the calling of their heart, and they chose to honor that and to follow that.

When we love something, really love it, we give our full attention to it. Whatever we “pay attention” to most is what eventually, inevitably, we will become, and that thus is our intention, our purpose. So if we want to discover what our purpose is, we need to ask ourselves what we give our attention to most, what we love most. This seems so simple, but sometimes we get so caught up in our lives and work and hang-ups that we forget to or are unable to listen to the calling our hearts. And sometimes, as if by grace, we are awoken from our mundane reveries…

There have been such brief moments in my life, times when I felt certain of my purpose here. Tears were almost always involved. Tears of recognition, of joy, of sweet sorrow. To me, there is nothing as clarifying as a good cry. I had one recently. The message I received again is that I am here to become and express unconditional love. The message also was that we are all here to do that, all of us. We may have a calling or purpose in the sense of the kind of work we do in the world, but for me, this is just a means to an end. In fact, if we are working but have not sufficiently faced our fears, desires, and shadow, then we are defeating the purpose of work, which is to help liberate us from conditional existence. And that means freeing ourselves from our conditionings, the biggest of which is that I am only a limited body with a limited life span in a limited world.