What is YOUR Life Purpose?

[annie]

I think it would be fun to share what our purpose here is. If you know yours and can write it succinctly...GO FOR IT!

Through being a powerful, passionate, inspiring, loving woman of light, I empower others, encouraging all to live to their full measure. I live in the moment and intuitively, following my heart and the spirit, serving others to create a world where compassion, Christ-consciousness and authenticity exist.

[Adam]

Mine is a bit simpler than that... Most of it stems from being a soldier from 1999 to 2004.

To bring peace to everybody.

[annie]

What else do you stand for Adam?

(btw, I took a look at your blog. Did you really write that disertation on Evil? WOW....I read about 1/2 of it and plan to read it again, and in depth. It's intriguing although I disagree that Evil doesn't exist.)

[Henry]

My life purpose is to love my friends and family.

[ebradlee10]

My purpose is to be full of love, passion & exuberance in everything that I do and everyone I touch in my life.

[Adam]

What do I stand for? Equality and tolerance are at the very top of my list. To have that, we must have integrity and responsibility. I see fear as the direct enemy of peace. The old saying that ignorance is bliss is wrong, because ignorance leads to fear, so the pursuit of knowledge, not just of facts, but of the various opinions of several different groups, is very important to me.

And yes, I did write that article on Evil... I had a little bit of help and feedback from Jeff Lilly of DruidJournal.net and from my wife, as well as a lot of inspiration from the Pavlinas, but most of it is my intuition and philosophical nature.

[Brendon Colby]

Originally Posted by Adam

To bring peace to everybody.

That really strikes a chord with me. Very touching...

As for me, my general purpose is to be a "light worker" (I like that term) but as to the specific application of which I am still unsure.

[Jerigan]

Relaxation. To live a relaxed life and show others how to put more relaxation into their busy lives.

[ImamKhalid]

Originally Posted by Brendon Colby

That really strikes a chord with me. Very touching...

As for me, my general purpose is to be a "light worker" (I like that term) but as to the specific application of which I am still unsure.

That's what I'm thinking of, Brendon - "light worker".. but something like what steve pavlina is doing right now is not light I think. Maybe we have to change it to "smart worker", because "light worker" means "light money"

Like steve, he works so positively-but-not-light, but he's like soooo energetic. I was like, how can I be like him? Ughhh...

[thef0x]

Originally Posted by Adam

Mine is a bit simpler than that... Most of it stems from being a soldier from 1999 to 2004.

To bring peace to everybody.

This is a tangent but, Adam, do you believe that war can bring peace or have these experiences taught you otherwise?

[Theobinomy]

You think this is new? Check out ken wilber. check out leary, check out the people who didn't grow up underground. people, this is open beta. welcome. questions are, how do we keep this going, and the question a few weeks/months/years down the road is when do we go golden? when do we make the final release? spore is still in the waiting, but when do we decide we are happy? Cultural victories, inward growth vs outward expansion. how many of you have heard of the question "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" ok, decide for yourself. take a vote of those around you, cast your vote, and see what the answer is for you and those around you.

rock wins, but paper wins more often, the chicken came first, and a woodchuck would-choose- to-chuck-between 12 and 25 kg a day.

so... how many gas stations are in the us?

[sunshinelady]

My purpose is to inspire, help and assist to live the life of your dreams...

[David Hausladen]

I am now working for the present and future happiness of humankind.

That's my general purpose. I'm still working on succinctly defining my specific purpose, but basically it will involve seeking to discover and test potentially better ways to live, and then using my gift of writing to offer what I've learned to others.

[Milo Riano]

There are so many things I want to do and achieve but in the end all I care about is having done my best and went after my goals with everything I got.

[7thStranger]

To love all, to cherish every moment.

[dmauder]

Originally Posted by 7thStranger

To love all, to cherish every moment.

For some reason, this really resonated with me! In fact, I felt this strange surge of emotion when I read it. I even came back to it after reading everything else and I still caused the same weird feeling for me.

I'm not sure if this is really my own purpose or not, but there's something about it that feels right.

Now, here's my thing... I've always wanted to be a full time investor/trader. I'd like to treat stock trading as a business, and would love to do this more than any other type of business I've tried. I'm certainly not ready for this yet because I have a lot of learning to do before I would be able to.

But, how does one reconcile the desire to be a stock trader with having a life purpose that really adds value and helps other people? I want to do those things, but I'm not sure how that fits with trading the markets. For a trader to make money, someone else loses money.

Gemini4X

[Radical]

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein

We are only human, so just do the best you can.

[Jeremy Bennett]

Originally Posted by Gemini4X

For some reason, this really resonated with me! In fact, I felt this strange surge of emotion when I read it. I even came back to it after reading everything else and I still caused the same weird feeling for me.

I'm not sure if this is really my own purpose or not, but there's something about it that feels right.

Now, here's my thing... I've always wanted to be a full time investor/trader. I'd like to treat stock trading as a business, and would love to do this more than any other type of business I've tried. I'm certainly not ready for this yet because I have a lot of learning to do before I would be able to.

But, how does one reconcile the desire to be a stock trader with having a life purpose that really adds value and helps other people? I want to do those things, but I'm not sure how that fits with trading the markets. For a trader to make money, someone else loses money.

Gemini4X

Gemini,
What about green investing? - I can't remember the bank in Europe which specifically invests in social concious activities (art galleries, organic farms, etc.) (Read in a copy of "Ode" magazine, earlier this year)

also there's trading weather bonds/futures (don't know the right term)
which basically mitigates the risk for those businesses whose businesses are dependent not the weather (if there's more snow then ski resorts win in the winter, or farmers (where more rain is better ) vs. event planners (where you want no rain) - like a hedge fund (i think) that way the risk is balanced out... please let me know and I can dig further for things (I heard this last on e on NPR)

Power on!

[wjw]

Originally Posted by Gemini4X

But, how does one reconcile the desire to be a stock trader with having a life purpose that really adds value and helps other people? I want to do those things, but I'm not sure how that fits with trading the markets. For a trader to make money, someone else loses money.

Hi Gemini4X,

This isn't necessarily true. People sell stock because they want the money more than they want the potential upside. People buy stock because they want the potential upside more than they want the money. It isn't necessarily zero-sum. (If it was, the overall market would never go up).

My answer to your direct question is: if you learn how to trade well, and once you've learnt that skill you pass it on to others, then you're doing good. Sometimes it's necessary to spend time focusing on your own skills before you can help others. Skills that you enjoy exercising are the ones you're most likely to get good at.

[BillPerry]

I honestly have no idea. I can't seem to get my mind quiet enough to do Steve's 20 minute purpose exercise. Right now I'm working in 2 different jobs that I've no real passion for. Working at Pizza Hut in delivery, and at a Circle K as a graveyard Counter dude.

The other night, I took a nap before going to work, and did what Steve mentions in his "Contacting your Intuition" podcast. I asked my mind, "What can I do to dramatically boost traffic to my website so I can earn enough income from adsense and affiliate marketing to drop at least ONE of my jobs". I ended up falling from waking consciousness directly into some sort of hypnagogic alpha dream. I was semi-lucid and the whole dream involved me working at Circle K and some girl comes in and tells me she wants to have sex, so we end up doing that behind the couter. No idea why...

I guess I DO have a passion for lucid dreaming. Maybe I can do something with that too.

Bill

[BrightHearted]

To always stay young, and never forget the power and necessity of love. To help others stay young and never forget the power and necessity of love. To have a passionate faith that love is truly all we need.

[TechnoGuyRob]

To live for, with, and in happiness.
To nourish and maintain the happiness of others.
To make it all worthwhile.

[RandomJohn]

My purpose? To help others grow, to help others make their own health and peace, and to enjoy life.

[Smarky]

To create insanely great things.

To experience, express and enrich the world through creation and cause others to do so.

To create insanely great things that express, enrich and cause others to experience life at a greater level.

[andyking]

With a strong, open body, pulse love and forgiveness; sweat for change and understanding.

[RandomGuy101]

I am not 100% sure but I know that my purpose needs to help others in a significant way while utilizing my engineering skills to the fullest.

My dream job is probably something in neuroengineering helping to assist crippled people to move and people with brain stem strokes to function somewhat normally etc. Eventually I believe neuroengineering will help all people to live happier more productive lives, so I would love to be involved. All I need is a PhD from a top university lol...

[Living2xcess]

My purpose is to become an economist and make economic policy for the country or world that may help hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. I also want to be a true friend and be surrounded by many loved ones throughout my life.

[CHill]

My purposes are to see as much of the world as I can, rock climb a whole lot, make lots of friends, raise a family and live as sustainably as possible.

That's at age 22. Who knows what I'll want next year?

CHill

[Scott Lipton]

I've been thinking about this one for a while now. I've tried Steve's exercise, and of course came up with a hodge-podge of the various answers you see in this thread, help others, consciousness, etc, but I wanted to try thinking a little bit deeper about this.

I am currently a graduate student in applied mathematics at UT Austin, and being biasedly of a scientific mind, couldn't find a clear answer that I was satisfied with. You see, I feel it is easy to watch movies and hear stories and listen to people tell you what's truly right and what's truly wrong, and give you feelings inside that make you say "Yea, this is so right, I can feel it.", and stop questioning whether it really is. However, we all know that different feelings can be created in people by different effects, and people can be heavily persuaded by appealing to emotions and creating those very same effects. Hence the selling power of lawyers, marketers, politicians, comic books, and astrology charts.

Anyway, I will get to my point. In mathematics modeling problems, as professional researchers we start with two things: a general description of the physical problem, and the objective. For example, we may have a well-theorized decsription of fluid flow in the ocean, and our objective is to better predict weather patterns. Or we know how strong titanium and other materials are and how materials break different stresses and our objective is to make sure the space shuttle stays in one piece. Once you get used to this process at the professional level, it really helps clarify your thinking in other areas. So when confronting the question "What is my purpose in life?", I thought my highest priority should be "Well I want to do what is most good for the world. Period." Ok, so then what? I asked the tougher question ,"What is the most good for the world?". What can we define as good? I'm sure there's probably several of Steve's articles on the subject that I will be quickly referred to after this, but nevertheless, I ask. Now of course, there are quick and simple answers , most of which are slightly less fuzzy in nature, such as peace for everyone, happiness for everyone, consciousness for everyone, etc.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm definitely into personal improvement and will take any step I feel in my heart is in the right direction. For now, I try to bring happriness to all of the people I know and am becoming stronger and creating research which I think will have a massive impact on the world, but in the back of my mind I still stray from absolute satisfaction and clarity with this fuzzy notion of just helping others and making them feel good as a permanent life's goal.

For example, although it may seem ridiculous, why do we choose to help other humans rather than making, say, ants and flies be happy? Well, of course, they're just flies and ants, right. This is classical evoolutionary psychology(of which I am a biasedly huge fan) but all of this help other people stuff and basically all drives and motives and morals we have seem to all just come down to life's self-programmed "objective" of continuing life, and for us ,more specifically, continuing the species of humans. Even wanting to help others seems like an evolutionary mandate because if you help other people, they will usually help you. Agian, I'm not suggested this is bad or stupid, but rather that there is some internal drive telling us it's a good thing becuase it's beneficial for us and the whole species rather than some absolute good that exists within it.

I know this was a long jumbled writing, and I should organize my thoughts better in the future, but please let me know what you think. For now, I use those same "purposes" that many of you have, primarily happiness for others, but I'm also searching for more. If I found something I could truly believe in all the way, then I could commit my heart and sould to it.

Thoughts? Questions? Criticisms?

[Love]

I think my purpose is to create joy, and to nurture. I have a fondness for seeing people grow up well.