Life Purpose

Life Purpose

“When you’re doing what’s important, there’s fulfillment, the genuine heartfelt kind that makes you feel like nothing else in the world matters. That’s when you know you’re living your purpose.”

This recession is a great opportunity for transformation, pursuing your life purpose, and shifting your relationship with money

This recession is a great opportunity for transformation, pursuing your life purpose, and shifting your relationship with money

Many people are highly stressed by current circumstances. Others are rolling with the circumstances and using the inherent opportunity to re-craft their life to their specifications and values, to make their life and their work congruent with their values, to move toward having more fulfillment, more freedom, more satisfaction, and perhaps more income as well. They see this as an opportunity to launch their dreams. They may feel they have little to lose at this point so why not go for it.

I’m reminded of a news story I read in the mid-1990s when a lot of middle-level managers were losing their jobs. The article interviewed a number of these out-of-work people. Some of them were very stressed, worrying about making ends meet. Some of them, however, were very happy and seemed to exhibit no stress at all.
People in this latter group experienced being fired or laid off as an opportunity to do something they had always wanted to do and had never done because they were “stuck” in their jobs. They either created one-person consulting firms, opened some type of retail store, or went back to school and changed professions entirely.
If losing your job means you will never find another way to make money, you will be very stressed. If losing your job means you can now do something even more nurturing, self-expressive and satisfying, you will be excited about the same event.  If you see it as an opportunity to pursue your life purpose and shift your relationship with money, you may be thrilled (even while being a bit nervous).
You see, events don’t have any inherent meaning. Circumstances don’t mean anything until you give them a meaning … and one meaning can be stressful while another might be enlivening. Stress is caused by the meaning we give to events-which in turn comes from our negative beliefs and feelings about ourselves, our relationship with money, people, and the world we live in.

What do you choose? What is your dream? What do you have to lose? Are you willing to risk it? If so, what’s the first step? Take that first step. The rest will follow.

Create Time Abundance in your business and in your life

Create Time Abundance in your business and in your life

I write about our relationship with money, Money Mastery, and how it interrelates with our life purpose, our happiness, fulfillment, and enjoyment of life as well as our success and self-expression.
I believe our relationship with time is at the core of what allows us to be successful, fulfilled and living our deepest purpose. Many of us get stuck in time-related traps. We struggle with too many things on our to-do list. We get overwhelmed in our work. And we can’t find time for our most important priorities and for living our purpose.

When we are able to be fully present and engaged with what moves our lives and businesses towards our desired destination, magic happens:

· We feel alive
· We create unimaginable prosperity
· We feel open to possibility
· Even effort feels effortless

There is one person that really fully embodies this way of being: Satyen Raja.

So I want to share with you an opportunity to learn from Satyen Raja about Time Mastery and Time Abundance. It won’t cost you a cent! That’s right; it’s free! And it’s at lunchtime…..does that make it a free lunch? And you don’t have to go anywhere; it’s a teleclass offered by Bill Baren. You may recall that I recommended his Time Mastery Telesummit last year.
You’ll walk away from this call having a deep knowing of what Time Abundance truly is – as simple and powerful as that.

So, are you ready to create Time Abundance in your business and in your life? If so, Register for this rare interview with Satyen Raja on being a master of your time here: http://www.billbaren.com/interview/satyen.html
It will not cost you anything to participate. Your only investment is your time.

This ONE-TIME FREE TeleExperience takes place on Thursday, April 2nd at 12 noon Pacific Time/3:00pm Eastern Time.

I hope you can make it live on the call. If not, they’ll be sending out the recording to all who registered.

Really Living, Life Purpose, Survival, and Selfless Service

Really Living, Life Purpose, Survival, and Selfless Service

This weekend I attended a 3-day Diamond Approach retreat with Hameed Ali, the founder of the Diamond Approach and of the Ridhwan School (he writes under the name A.H. Almaas; If you’ve read any of his 13 books, please leave me a comment and introduce yourself); I’ve been a student of the Diamond Approach for 20 years now.
The retreat was an inquiry into life, death, living our realization in our daily lives, the survival drive, the enlightenment drive, and what limits our sense of aliveness, life force, and our love of life.

We did an exercise at the end of the third day inquiring into our fear of death and our love of life. It was fascinating to witness myself inquiring into this and discovering that BOTH my fear of death (which for me has to do with fearing not using my life well) and my love of life have motivated me to discover, pursue and fulfill my life purpose! It makes perfect sense; I simply hadn’t articulated it in that way before.

Discovering my life purpose and fulfilling it has always been critically important to me. Since I was fairly young, I’ve known that being of service to others was a key part of this for me. According to Hameed, this is universal. Love of life is inherently selfless, service-oriented, and sharing. Selflessness is needed for an individual life to mature and ripen.
I certainly had no idea, all those years ago, that my life purpose would involve helping others to discover their life purpose and get out of their own way to be able to fulfill their purpose.

If you’ve read my other posts on the topic of life purpose, you may recall that life, and the soul, have this amazing mechanism whereby we are continuously preparing, unbeknownst to us, for our purpose even before we discover what our purpose is. Isn’t life just grand?!

Creating a strong foundation for 2009 and for having the life you really want

Creating a strong foundation for 2009 and for having the life you really want

Much is being said these days about what businesses and entrepreneurs can do to survive this economic downturn. One can apply this same basic thinking to one’s life. Ask yourself what’s working in your life, what’s giving you a sense of satisfaction, and what is not? What can you extrapolate from what’s working and apply it to what’s not working so well? Creating positive rituals is one way to create lasting change.

Positive rituals are powerful on three levels: they help us to insure that we effectively manage energy in service of our mission, they reduce the need to rely on our limited conscious will and disclipline to take action, and they’re a powerful means to put our priorities into action and embody what’s most important to us. Every time we participate in a ritual, we’re expressing our beliefs.

Rituals provide a level of comfort, continuity, and security that frees us to improvise and to take risks. Rituals provide a stable framework in which creative breakthroughs often occur. They can also open up time for recovery and renewal, when relationships can be deepened and spiritual reflection becomes possible. Civilization advances by extending the number of operations which we can perform without thinking about them. A well-defined ritual pulls us rather than requiring us to push ourselves forward.

So, as we wrap up 2008 and look toward 2009, what do you want to take with you, what do you want to leave behind, what do you want to set in motion so that you’ll wind up with a life you love and one that embodies your values? What are three small changes you can make that will have a great effect on your life, your performance, and your satisfaction? Put one in place, do it regularly, as you define it, for a month. Keep doing that one as you add the next one and do it regularly for the next month. Continue the process till you’ve got the life you want. Need some support? Get an accountability partner or a coach. Good luck!

How HAPPY are you?

I have been reading Marci Shimoff’s newest book: Happy for No Reason and I cannot recommend it highly enough- even if you’re already happy. I heard about this book and thought I’d skip it because I’m pretty happy and didn’t think I needed to read a book about being happy. I was so wrong. I have learned so much reading this book, it has inspired me, reminded me of many things that are good to be reminded of, and I’m becoming happier by the week. I’m reading the book in 50 days with 50 other people and we’re going to see how happy we can become.

How happy are you, really? Care to find out? Try this.

The Happy for No Reason Questionnaire

Rate each statement on a scale of 1 to 5:
1 = Not at all true 2 = Slightly True 3 = Moderately True 4 = Mostly True 5 = Absolutely True
1. I often feel happy and satisfied for no particular reason.
1 2 3 4 5
2. I live in the moment.
1 2 3 4 5
3. I feel alive, vital and energetic.
1 2 3 4 5
4. I experience a deep sense of inner peace and well-being.
1 2 3 4 5
5. Life is a great adventure for me.
1 2 3 4 5
6. I don’t let bad situations keep me down.
1 2 3 4 5
7. I am enthusiastic about the things I do.
1 2 3 4 5
8. Most days I have an experience of laughter or joy.
1 2 3 4 5
9. I trust this is a friendly universe.
1 2 3 4 5
10. I look for the gift or the lesson in everything that happens.
1 2 3 4 5
11. I am able to let go and forgive.
1 2 3 4 5
12. I feel love for myself.
1 2 3 4 5
13. I look for the good in every person.
1 2 3 4 5
14. I change the things I can and accept the things I can’t change.
1 2 3 4 5
15. I surround myself with people who support me.
1 2 3 4 5
16. I don’t blame others or complain.
1 2 3 4 5
17. My negative thoughts don’t overshadow me.
1 2 3 4 5
18. I feel a general sense of gratitude.
1 2 3 4 5
19. I feel connected to something bigger than myself.
1 2 3 4 5
20. I feel inspired by a sense of purpose in my life.
1 2 3 4 5
Scoring section:
If your score is 80 – 100: To a great degree, you are Happy for No Reason.
If your score is 60 – 79: You have a good measure of being Happy for No Reason.
If your score is 40 – 59: You have glimpses of being Happy for No Reason.
If your score is under 40: You have little experience of being Happy for No Reason.
Whatever your score, you can always move toward being more Happy for No Reason. The book is full of simple quick things to move you in this direction.  Decide to do one or two exercises each week; it’ll feel less daunting.   After you buy the book, there are online resources you can use on the book’s website.

How to be Happy in the Current Economic Circumstances

How to be Happy in the Current Economic Circumstances

Being happy is not a matter of chance. People who are happy have certain things in common; much of this involves the choices that they make. Much research has been done to ascertain this and make it accessible to those of us who’d like to be a little or a lot happier.

9 Choices of Extremely Happy People

• an active intention to be happy (this may cause many people to say/think “DUH!” however, although most folks want to be happy, they don’t set an active intention to BE happy.)
• accountable for one’s thoughts, actions, feelings (having set that intention, take note of your thoughts and your actions for a month and see how many of them are actually not supporting you becoming happy/happier).
• identify what makes you happy and make that central in your life (most folks don’t actually prioritize these things to the extent that they schedule them into their lives, make them a regular part of their lives. Regard this as you would any other new habit that you want to establish for yourself: practice it daily for a month, get an accountability buddy to check-in with about whether you’re doing it, get a buddy to do it with on a regular schedule).
• find meaning in the face of tragedy or adversity (happy people, without being pollyannas, look for the lesson or the gift in difficult circumstances. This often leads them to greater self-knowledge, greater sense of family or community, greater sense of their own values and priorities.)
• be flexible and open to life’s many options (you may’ve noticed that life rarely goes according to our plans yet, to the extent that we can roll with it, it works out ok- sometimes better than our plans. This attitude is key to discovering and fulfilling one’s life purpose. I’ve written some posts about this and the connection to happiness and making more money.)
• appreciate one’s life and the people in it (this is another one that may prompt the “DUH!” response because it’s so obvious, yet, people do not do this to the degree that they could)
• give unceasingly without expectation of a return (research shows that people who have and practice a generosity of spirit have a much greater level of satisfaction and fulfillment in their lives. Volunteerism is actually on the rise in our culture.)
• be truthful with yourself and with others (it’d be pretty difficult to be happy if you’re deceiving yourself or others. It just feels so awful. The truth, however painful initially, always feels better and affords the opportunity to connect with yourself and others that wouldn’t exist otherwise.)

Given the extreme degree of stress and suffering over current economic conditions, I will write more on this topic because we can always choose our response to circumstances that seem out of our control. As Swami Satchidananda said “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” How many unhappy surfers have you seen?

What are the qualities of happiness that don’t depend on changing circumstances?  You, knowing yourself, enjoying your Self, enjoying being alive, being as alive as possible, appreciating what is, acceptance, self-acceptance,….. keep the list going.

THE SECRET TO INCREASING YOUR INCOME MORE EASILY, Part 3B

I’d say that there are different layers of purpose just as there are different layers of experience, different layers of Being, etc….
When I was quite young- maybe 10 or 12, I remember pondering my purpose and thinking that it had to do with freedom. I didn’t have the vocabulary then to articulate it as well as I can now, but I knew it had to do with finding the way to be the fullest manifestation of myself…….self-actualized, free to Be.
Now, that sense of my purpose is unchanged; I still perceive that to be my purpose, and I look for work and other opportunities in life to manifest myself and utilize my gifts as fully as possible. So, while purpose need not have a Doing layer, if it does, that layer will have to do with doing the things that cause us to feel most alive, most useful, most excited, most giving, most open to magnificence.

I think this is why career counselors and books on career/changing careers suggest that people sense back to what they enjoyed and made them feel alive and happy when they were 10. It often provides some clues or reminders about feeling alive, doing what we love, while being unencumbered by adult realities and constraints that people can then extrapolate from to find their purpose or work that they enjoy. I’ve heard and read delightful stories of people discovering their passion in this way and creating work that they love. When our work comes from this place, it doesn’t feel so much like work, there’s less struggle and frustration, and it’s much easier to be motivated, excited, creative, and inspired. As a result, this is likely to lead to us being more successful and making more money.

THE SECRET TO INCREASING YOUR INCOME MORE EASILY, Part 3

THE SECRET TO INCREASING YOUR INCOME MORE EASILY, Part 3
Let’s say you’re fortunate enough to have a sense of your purpose.  Now what?  It’s not all downhill cruising from here.  You’re likely to meet up with resistance internally and externally. People resist consciously and unconsciously. The reason we resist is fear, for a few reasons: 1. We know that it is a road we must travel alone. Even if others are going with us, we now answer to a higher call and must follow that inner guidance. 2. Many people will not and cannot understand what we experience because they have not experienced it themselves so we must seek out people who understand the process so we can relate our experience. 3. We have an ego.

Your ego, the part of you that you think of as “I”, makes choices and takes action in the world. It is responsible for your safety. One of the primary ways that the ego ensures safety is to maintain the status quo.  The ego is not keen on any growth or change that diminishes the ego’s hold on you or reality as it knows it.  Your ego isn’t going to let you find or pursue your purpose if it thinks that it is or will be unsafe from it’s perspective.

You’re probably aware of your desire to know your purpose, or you wouldn’t be reading this.  Are you also aware of the part of you that DOESN’T want to know your purpose, or is AFRAID of knowing your purpose? If not, sense into it. Watch what arises in you as you entertain notions such as: “what if my purpose tells me to change jobs?”, “What if my purpose doesn’t involve making a good living?”.

Our fears come from our attachments and resistance to step into the truth and accept it’s reality.

Stay tuned for Part 4

THE SECRET TO INCREASING YOUR INCOME MORE EASILY, Part 2

THE SECRET TO INCREASING YOUR INCOME MORE EASILY, Part 2

Discovering your life’s purpose requires choices. The
two most important choices are these: Do I want to know what my
life’s purpose is? And, having discovered my purpose, do I want to
live my life in a way that is consistent with that purpose? However, in contemplating whether to discover one’s purpose, people may fear that which is unknown to them. Contained within this unknown, though, is the part of you that already knows your purpose and how to fulfill it.

In order for us to manifest our purpose, we must be properly trained. Fortunately, the soul develops and executes our training plan. It does this by influencing our decisions and helping us to choose things that will develop us in ways that serve our purpose.
The soul also “arranges” experiences for us that will cause us to grow and develop. These experiences can often be unpleasant, such as car accidents, being fired or laid off, and losing loved ones. However, it is most often our “worst” experiences that can teach us the most. The soul doesn’t cause these things to happen in the normal sense, but often steers us toward learning opportunities that our ego would naturally avoid. Along the way, as we try out different things, we act in ways that are in alignment with our fundamental purpose, and also in ways that are not. While we are usually unaware of the purpose itself, these two ways of behaving feel very different to us when we reflect on our actions and behaviors.

By looking back over our lives and reviewing the qualities of our previous experiences, we may see that there were sets of qualities of experience that correspond to times when we were on-purpose and other sets of experiences that correspond to times when we were off-purpose. By looking for similarities in those times or events, we can draw conclusions about our purpose.
We’re looking for times when we felt fulfilled, passionate, intensely alive, thoroughly utilized, that we make a difference, when things happen easily and seemingly chance coincidences occur to support our goals and projects, and our efforts produce results, as well as times when there is serendipity, flow or grace. At such times, it’s as though the wind is at our backs and is moving us along with very little sense of efforting on our part. The process is enjoyable even if it’s challenging, and we aren’t concerned about having enough energy or motivation to achieve our objectives. These are the times when we are ON PURPOSE although we may not be aware of our purpose as it’s occuring. When we are doing things in our life that support our purpose, our soul and life gives us positive feedback.

When we are out of alignment with our purpose, it feels very
different. We find obstacles at every turn. We have to muster up the energy and the will to follow through and complete things. There is a sense of swimming upstream or walking headlong into the wind and having to effort to move forward at all. We don’t enjoy the process much of the time. We are not satisfied by our accomplishments, or the satisfaction is fleeting. We wonder, at times, why we’re doing what we’re doing, and imagine greener pastures. I call this experience “slogging through mud”.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 3