[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by {aspiring_to_clarity}

Thanks, Bruce and merc.

You're welcome, Aspiring.

I'll share a few more tools. I'll share them in separate posts so it's more clear and less confusing.

Here's the first one:

Steve explores "what" purpose is
While I was working on another project I found an old article where Steve talks about the ideas behind his actual "purpose finding" exercise:
The Meaning of Life: Discover Your Purpose

Also useful, in combination with the above, is this statement (as well as the article it comes from, but the rest of the article is more about applying purpose to actions; might be useful to you later):

My personal GTD system starts with purpose. At that level I have a one-sentence statement of my life’s purpose plus a longer mission statement. My mission statement takes my high level purpose and breaks it down into the different areas of my life: physical, social, mental, career, spiritual, etc. I’ve only made very minor tweaks to my mission statement in the past couple years because it just seems such a perfect fit for me. Because my purpose and mission change so little year after year, they act as an anchor for me. At this level I’m not at all focused on goals, projects, or actions. It’s more of a focus on who I want to be, so it’s mostly about principles and character. This is even a step above values (which can shift over time). So my purpose and mission are about who I am, what I’m here to do at a very high level, and what I want my life to mean.

What you need to remember when reading any blog post from Steve is that each post is a fragment of the bigger picture. By definition, a fragment is incomplete. That's why in The Consciousness Revolution--a post separate to the one where Steve explores what "purpose" is--Steve says this:

Meditation, journaling, and other introspective practices can definitely help, and there are some articles on this site that can help you clarify your purpose here and here. But what I didn’t mention in those articles is that it’s immensely helpful to seek out people who’ve already gone through this transition and ask them for guidance. That isn’t always easy, but the best place to begin is by putting out the intention for such a person to come into your life, thereby activating the law of attraction. It isn’t necessary to establish a coaching relationship; all you really need is a person you can model to keep reminding yourself that your transition to a practical, purpose-centered life is in fact possible because someone else has already done it.

Always keep the idea that "blog posts are fragmented; they are not complete, like books mostly are" in mind when reading Steve's posts, since it'll help reduce confusion.

Interestingly, the fragmented, incomplete nature of blog posts not only makes it difficult to comprehensively understand specific ideas (such as finding your purpose), but it also makes you consider practices in isolation. E.g. In the same article I linked to above--The Consciousness Revolution--Steve says:

[...] Over time you’ll be able to attract and build a support group of like-minded people. It’s a lot easier to live a purpose-centered life when you’re surrounded by friends doing the same thing.

Steve hasn't spoken much about how immensely useful a local support network is. I first figured this out when I saw (A) how instrumental Erin was in his work, and (B) Steve mention the idea of writing a book about the idea of building a support network. (Erin--at least, her influence, and that influence is pretty big--is secretly in all of Steve's work if you know how to look for it.)

* * *

All that may seem confusing, but that's what you're dealing with. There are no absolutes in personal development, and to the degree there might be, we don't understand them very well.

Embrace the chaos and do the best you can within it.