What is my purpose?

Many people these days are seeking to find what their true purpose is. It sounds so inviting—finding what will be fulfilling and becoming financially successful at the same time! If only one knew….

First of all, whatever you have been doing has had purpose for you. Whether you are working at a job, have a career, retired, or caretaker of your family, you are offering something of great value to the world: yourself and your service.

Maybe you want to do something different, however, or offer something different. Maybe you have many dreams that haven’t been attained yet. We all are wonderful dream makers, churning out new dreams as soon as one is realized!

It isn’t necessarily about what you are good at, or talented at, or what is easy for you, but what makes you excited—makes you eager to get out of bed, and you notice your mind often conjuring up new ideas for it. And you will notice that it is the same feeling as zest for life.

Anything you do while feeling zest for life will feel like you are fulfilling a greater purpose!

If you are still wondering, it is helpful to stand back and observe your life. What themes run through it? Have you loved to teach people things? Inspire them? Take care of them? Heal them? How about creating a piece of art, literature, architecture, or any other expression? There are as many ways to fulfill a purpose as there are people! Here are some general categories. Read them and see where your favorite roles are.

Teacher, counselor, guide
Someone who loves to share knowledge and gets a thrill from seeing people grow in awareness.

Caregiver, nurturer, gardener
Someone who loves to do for others what they aren’t able to do for themselves; taking care of children, the aged, and the more vulnerable groups of society as well as other life forms—animals and plants.

Artist, writer, and other creative expressions including problem solving
These people add so much richness to our lives, speaking to all the different experiences we can relate to and moving us with delightful beauty, and deeply felt emotions.

Healer
Someone who wants to help bring balance into others’ lives, healing body, mind and spirit; bringing about vibrant health.

Maybe you have another category that fits you that is not listed here. Write that one down.

You may find one resonates with you more than the others, even though you may relate to some, or all of them. One will make you feel strong, and give you energy. See how many times throughout your life you have derived great pleasure from this role. That is a good indication of your purpose. Write all the ways your life has expressed this purpose. Now it will be easier to notice more opportunities to fulfill it.

I believe we are here to become joy. Become love itself. No matter what you do for a living you can infuse your theme into it. If you work in a law firm you can nurture your co-workers and clients. If you work in a metal shop you can still find creative expression through innovative problem solving. If you are in retail you can guide and teach your customers.

If you stay on your wave of joy, new avenues for your unique expression will open up.

Copyright © 2011 by Kasey J. Claytor

 

Wealth Accumulation vs. Money Drains

A necessary ingredient to having a high money consciousness, or acumen for wealth, is the accumulation of wealth. This sounds simple, of course—to be wealthy means we have a lot of money! But there are some misperceptions in many people’s minds that are sabotaging their wealth accumulation.

The growing popularity of positive thinking and the Law of Attraction are opening vistas of new possibilities. This is wonderful. But for some people, the Law of Attraction doesn’t work. Why not?

One reason could be their spending habits; the other side of the coin. You’ve got income. You are working on increasing your income. That’s great. But what are you doing with that income? We can fall into the trap of thinking we need to act as though we are rich. We try to look rich and spend like we are rich, thinking this demonstrates confidence that we are moving into true wealth.

If we look at truly wealthy individuals though, we find that most live moderately. Most put a priority on accumulation: investments and savings, as opposed to worrying about appearing wealthy. Thomas J. Stanley (in his new book Stop Acting Rich…and Start Living Like a Real Millionaire), looks at how the wealthy live, and how so many people who have second and third homes, boats and several cars are so steeped in debt that they aren’t millionaires.

It all comes down to our view of our selves. Somewhere deep in our minds we might be uncomfortable with how much we are spending, but we act as if we are rich in an attempt to convince our selves we are successful.

There is the conflict. If you are spending more than you’re acquiring, not saving for retirement, or not building that golden nest egg, where is your wealth going?  Here is a suggestion. Take out a lined piece of paper and begin writing down every penny that comes to you, whether it is income, interest, gifts, refunds, whatever its source.  Focus on the income. Shift your attention from the outgo to the inflow. Set up automatic savings. For the spending, do a gut-check whenever you are ready to make a purchase. Is this necessary?  Do I want to be wealthy or just look wealthy? Your gut will answer for you. The discomfort you feel when spending instead of building is your obstacle to success. You are sending mixed signals to the universe that you want to be wealthy, yet you are choosing not to accumulate wealth.

Of course some of your spending is purposeful, necessary, and should feel good and be fun!

We all know it isn’t things that make us happy; it’s what is going on inside our hearts and heads.

Imagine the freedom we can experience when we watch our money grow; when we develop more resources, more creativity, more security, and less stress! This is true confidence and peace of mind—and it is what I wish for you.

Copyright © 2011 by Kasey J. Claytor

 

Self-Forgiveness

Do you know what one of the most self-destructive things we do to ourselves is? It is universal, seeps into our lives often unconsciously, we can’t get rid of it with our intellect, and it can cause us great unhappiness. Blame, guilt and shame.

These related emotions come about by judging ourselves. The voice in our head that tells us we really goofed up, what a stupid thing we did, asking “why did I say that or do that?” And there may be no end to it, it becomes like a repeated song in our head that leaves us feeling horrible. It may fade away eventually, only to re-emerge the next time we make a mistake.

We could have internalized our parents punishing us, and it turns into self-punishment. It could come from a feeling that we aren’t good enough, smart enough, or don’t have enough knowledge or education.

I made a mistake at work recently. There was blame enough for several parties. It reminded me of the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell; he wrote about all the small, insignificant mistakes that put together in just the right way, at the perfect time, cause an airplane to crash. We had a crash here at work.

For my part I became devastated. I went through my steps over and over, all my actions, thoughts and work associated with it, lashing myself unmercifully. The other parties were scrambling to cover themselves, a knee-jerk reaction.

I knew I didn’t intentionally cause a mistake to happen. As I worked on repairing my mistake, doing the research and coming up with solutions, I knew I needed to forgive myself. The only way out is to stop trying to intellectualize the situation.

Whether we are blaming another for something they did or blaming ourselves, forgiveness just doesn’t come because we want it to. If we stay in our head, re-playing, judging, pulling in all those archetypal personalities that make up our roles, (the judge, the victim, or the scolding parent) we will never get to forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of those gifts that befall us when we surrender and realize it is not just about us and what runs through our minds.

There is a greater gestalt going on with any occurrence.  I believe there is a greater reality than what we perceive by our intellect. Our heart is a key to widening our perception so that we can make room for more love, forgiveness, and peace. In the grander scheme of life, one that includes our inner-being or soul, there are deeper meanings to our events. We see such a small piece of what is going on.  If we can step back from the mind and know the innocence in ourselves, the love and compassion held for us by our higher-self, the forgiveness already bestowed on us, we begin to move out of our endless blame.

And oh, the crash mentioned above at work? Well, by the time this goes to print, it has miraculously shrunk down to a small but manageable glitch.