What is Life Purpose? Part 1

Many people are asking the question, “What is my purpose?” It’s not something that was talked about several years ago but has now come into the collective consciousness.

The first thing to consider when exploring your purpose is to understand what purpose really means. Most of the people who come to me for coaching are concerned about finding meaning, joy and impact in their work, which is certainly a question of purpose.

I see purpose as both a path of your own spiritual growth and your unique contribution that you came to offer to others. In this first of a two part series, I’d like to address the idea of spiritual growth. In the second article, I’ll speak to your life’s work, or divine contribution. While they are, in a sense, different, they do intertwine and overlap.

Purpose as Spiritual Growth:

You came here as a result of the desire of your soul to grow and expand into something more. As a soul, you wanted to explore different emotions and situations that would help you to become a more perfect light. So, everything in your life has a higher purpose to it. Every form you have created—every relationship, job, financial goal, house, state of health or illness—has in it a purpose. The question you want to ask yourself is, “What did I learn? What was the higher purpose within the experience?”

In our society, we often use acquisition of things or status to mark our progress. It’s absolutely fine to want a beautiful home, a wonderful life partner, great friends, robust physical health, an engrossing career and a healthy bank account. But those things are not the measure of success. We’ve actually done the real work before the things manifest. It’s by getting into alignment—into the higher flow—that we allow those things to show up. And the point is really about being in the higher flow. That’s the real accomplishment of purpose. It’s about who we become as we work to bring about the things we want to see in our lives.

Did you learn patience, how to open your heart more, how to stay in your peaceful center no matter what was going on around you? Did you get into more alignment with your Higher Self? Develop more intuition and learn to listen to it and trust it? Did you acquire more courage or self-confidence? More wisdom? Perhaps you learned to let go of needing things or status to feed your ego, but to create simply for the joy of it! These are the things to reflect upon in your life to understand your soul’s purpose for being here on the earth plane.

In her book, “Living With Joy,” Sanaya Roman states:

“Purpose represents movement of the soul, the energy that connects heaven and earth. It is marked by concrete forms—the new house, marriage, those things that you have been seeking. But those are only ceremonies that mark the new growth in the soul.”

The Importance of Letting Go:

Just as we create, its also important to know when to let go. We slow our spiritual growth by holding on to things that have lost their essence. This shows up with careers, clutter and relationships. Often when relationships break up people think something has gone wrong, when in fact, the purpose of that relationship has been fulfilled and it is no longer needed. Release it with love and ask yourself what you have learned and gained. That way, you acknowledge your growth and make room for new relationships to come into your life. The same is true for a career that has become a drudgery or even items around your house that you no longer use or are broken.

Holding on is a form of lack thinking. Its fearing that nothing else will come in. By clearing away the things that are no longer needed we are free to expand into the next phase of our growth and purpose.