Whats your SPECIFIC life purpose?

[dice]

Everyone has the same purpose it seems: "Grow, inspire, please, end hate, love forever, be the best, provide value, entertain you with music, be a dancer, sell stuff" yada yada yada.

THOSE ARE NOT PURPOSES.

From Think and Grow Rich, Hill said that a purpose like 'grow and inspire and be the best' is about as specific as a frog's ability to compare of the size and capacity of the entire universe to itself.

I don't think that "Inspire" or "be the best" or "end war" is a purpose. It can't be. It's too easy to rationalize anything into the category of "inspiring". Eating a salad today 'inspired' my mom to throw away the potato chips. Purpose fufilled, I can die now. No!

I'm not driven by generalities like that for some reason, and neither are you -> we're still on a forum kids, any 'purpose' is clearly not working, unless your purpose is "post on stevepavlina.com forum". Generalities are comforting to think about, not much else.

What was Micheal Phelps purpose? I don't know if such a broad scope of thinking could've pushed him to win 8 gold medals. "To inspire?" or "To swim 24 laps in 8 minutes and 34 seconds and 6 milliseconds." Do you see? They are synonyms (breaking a record is inspiring) but one is a purpose, the other is just a feeling.

Henry Ford? To change the world? "Do the impossible? No m'dears: To "build the first automobile, with a V8 engine, in 4 years, and watch everyone in America drive the exact same car: The Model T."

Correct me if i'm wrong - You guys need to do your homework and get your purpose down to the millisecond.

Finding a true purpose that will work for you takes a lot of bravery, self-knowledge, and perhaps a touch of arrogance.

What'll it be?

[dice]

so to answer that hardassnastyassnessass

I don't believe that any more contemplation about my 'purpose' is going to help at this point. I've been around for a couple of decades, that's enough to work with right now. So I'll just fire away (remember: ready fire aim?) and risk sounding arrogant and brave and ambitious etc etc: (remember: fear vs. courage?)

my specific purpose, as of now:

In 8-10 years, I want to be 120K in debt after going to graduate film school at NYU, USC, or UCLA. From there, I'll climb the latter until I'm trusted enough to visualize and direct a lot of expensive mediocre 100 million dollar budgeted films. I'll save up my earnings from providing the world with forgettable movies with a lot of explosions. Then I will use all of my knowledge from about 25-30 of that to create something that the human eye has never seen/imagined before - yet we've always felt it somehow existed. I already know what that 'something' is, but I'm incapable of expressing it exactly - and thank god because we'd all be freaked out right now if I did. (think of it like a newborn baby speaking an entire coherant sentence - a newborn can instantly recognize phonemes and sounds, but just can't peice them together right away)
That is section "inspire".

In the meantime while I do undergrad work, I intend to become weathered, interesting, homeless, and experience as many facets of human life around the world as I can through vagabonding, living on approximately 11$ a day. If I do this properly, there should be times when I seriously fear for my life and question my motives.

next section, "love": forget judgement (done!) and have a thousand children with someone who fits with me like a puzzle piece (fills in the gaps ).

remember purposes are always subject to change. but you have to keep defining them and taking an honest stab at it

the feeling we're going for - love - stays the same. You can totally fail at your life's true purpose and still have love. Thats the great part of being on spaceship Earth.

[Andrew Gubb]

I replied to this on the other thread... reply here, ok, because I think we might get into a discussion

I've been thinking that. I wrote a couple of posts here but they still didn't quite feel right; I kept on thinking, "how is this different from other people?"

When I did my reading with Erin, though, she mentioned a part of my purpose (I think it was implicit that I'd find out the rest of my purpose for myself. I didn't ask further because I had other things to worry about) and it was like, "oh yeah, that's obvious". It was something I had always known, that I had already been living. I was just being reminded of it.

Well those are more like goals. I think the Life Purpose is more like a message or energy you're here to embody and express. Something you are which comes before what you do. Like your message is like to show people that things are more than they appear on the surface, right?

[Andrew Gubb]

Originally Posted by dice

In 8-10 years, I want to be 120K in debt

No you don't.

after going to graduate film school at NYU, USC, or UCLA.

That's a bit more like it.

From there, I'll climb the latter until I'm trusted enough to visualize and direct a lot of expensive mediocre 100 million dollar budgeted films.

Getting colder.

I'll save up my earnings from providing the world with forgettable movies with a lot of explosions.

You don't want to earn money!

Then I will use all of my knowledge

You don't want knowledge!
You want to...

to create something that the human eye has never seen/imagined before - yet we've always felt it somehow existed.

I already know what that 'something' is, but I'm incapable of expressing it exactly

You want to learn how to express it. But even then you're getting colder.

The means are not the end. You don't need to know how to get there to know where you're going.

In the meantime while I do undergrad work, I intend to become weathered, interesting, homeless, and experience as many facets of human life around the world as I can through vagabonding, living on approximately 11$ a day. If I do this properly, there should be times when I seriously fear for my life and question my motives.

Why? Not that I think it's bad, but is this the end, or the means to your true dream?

the feeling we're going for - love - stays the same. You can totally fail at your life's true purpose and still have love. Thats the great part of being on spaceship Earth.

I don't think you can fail at your life purpose as I see the concept. You can fail at goals, but your purpose is simply what you embody. You can express it or not express it, and you can be frustrated or enjoying the flow, but in any of these cases, you inner purpose is the same.

I think of it as the colour filter to the light of your love.

[Andrew Gubb]

PS:

[Angela]

Originally Posted by dice

Correct me if i'm wrong - You guys need to do your homework and get your purpose down to the millisecond.

Okay, you're wrong.

I think you are confused about purpose vs. goals. You may want to re-read Steve's articles on finding your purpose, which go far in explaining what is meant by a declared life purpose, out of which goals arise. Two different things, but you are collapsing them together.

[sbdiane]

We have a purpose and then we have the means to carry it out. It sounds like you want to know the means.

I have written that my purpose is to love nature.

The means that I have carried it out have included walking 1500 miles through nature during 3 months of this year. While I was doing that I felt so sure I was living as god intended me to live I knew I was living my purpose. I felt like the richest woman in the world. Wealth to me is time and nature and time in nature.

Now I have to figure out how else to continue carrying out my purpose. I have to make time to continue walking in nature. If I don't, I will end up feeling empty inside.

That does not mean that every waking minute of my life will be about walking around in nature. I like many things. I like to make music. I like to program computers. But I would drop those things in a millisecond to go for another long walk in the woods. It is where I belong and what gives me a voice and the way I'm able to express my truest self.

[CroMagna]

Originally Posted by Angela

Okay, you're wrong.

I think you are confused about purpose vs. goals. You may want to re-read Steve's articles on finding your purpose, which go far in explaining what is meant by a declared life purpose, out of which goals arise. Two different things, but you are collapsing them together.

I agree. If Michael Phelp's goal was to swim X number of meters in X number of minutes/seconds, then after he did that...his life was over??

A purpose can't just end abruptly in the middle of someone's life. It has to be something that continues. A purpose is a way of life, it's spiritual/psychological/intellectual air.

Also, general purposes are not necessarily easy. To "inspire" does sound vague enough to be justified through talking in this forum, but what about "survival of the fittest"? How can that possibly be justified here? That's an extremely tall order.

[Parthon]

Participating on a forum might be an expression of people's purpose. Someone could definately have the goal of "Inspire and solve problems for 50 people on a forum in 10 days."

There is a major difference between purpose and goals though. A purpose is a direction to pursue, and also the fuel to get there. It's what gives your life meaning and makes you want to achieve. You use your purpose to create your goals, which are specific and measurable. You should be able to say with 100% clarity whether or not you have achieved a goal.

Look at Steve's Purpose:

Steve's purpose in life is:
to live consciously and courageously;
to enjoy, increase, and share peace, energy, passion, and abundance;
to resonate with love and compassion;
to awaken the great spirits within others;
and to fully embrace this present moment.

That's a pretty good purpose, full of inspiration and direction. I can see how that gives him the fuel to keep going day after day. But it's not measurable, and it will never end.

As for what's my purpose? I have no idea. I know it revolves around playing and having fun, as well as learning new things, expressing oneself and experiencing the world. I get closer every week I work on it, but there hasn't been a total "Aha!" moment for me yet.

[Michael Chui]

Listening to this made me think of this thread.

For Now lyrics Avenue Q OST

PRINCETON:
Why does everything have to be so hard?

GARY COLEMAN:
Maybe you'll never find your purpose.

CHRISTMAS EVE:
Lots of people don't.

PRINCETON:
But then- I don't know why I'm even alive!

KATE MONSTER:
Well, who does, really?
Everyone's a little bit unsatisfied.

BRIAN:
Everyone goes 'round a little empty inside.

GARY COLEMAN:
Take a breath,
Look around,

BRIAN:
Swallow your pride,

KATE MONSTER:
For now...

BRIAN, KATE, GARY, CHRISTMAS EVE:
For now...

NICKY:
Nothing lasts,

ROD:
Life goes on,

NICKY:
Full of surprises.

ROD:
You'll be faced with problems of all shapes and sizes.

CHRISTMAS EVE:
You're going to have to make a few compromises...
For now...

It seems a lot wiser than dickering over whether or not people's purposes are specific enough.

[Smiley]

The following is my guidepost for my understanding of the roles that I play in my life and the qualities I seek to improve. I call it my mission, but I suppose others might call it a purpose. Others still might call it bunk. In my ideal world, every choice I made, every action I undertook, every feeling I gave attention to, would be measured against this guidepost to ensure that I am living true to what it is that I say I want. I fall short of that ideal. Frequently.

My mission is to curiously and creatively explore life and enlightenment with zest, making my choices from self-worth and self-esteem. I dedicate my life to learning and teaching the joy of BEing.