Vision doesn't inspire for long
 

So I've been trying to hammer out an inspiring vision, life purpose, whatever. And consistently, I get a small little charge...and that's it. Re-reading it doesn't fuel me. I'm not a big fan of visualization, earnestly finding it a hassle that rarely works for me. And rewriting/editing it regularly doesn't seem to provide any kind of "charge" either. I just can't seem to find the right way to make a good vision and make it stick. And I'd definitely like to - I don't want to work entirely from a to-do system perspective, I want to be naturally drawn to my goals.

You're hammering out logic, not a vision. Logic will always fail you because to logically be thinking means you don't know something. If you knew, you wouldn't be thinking about it.

Visions are are like a quick flash of lightning that reveals what is hidden in the pitch black night.

I don't know...that kind of vision doesn't really seem to relate to what I was thinking of.

I was just trying to say that a vision is spontaneous where a goal is intentional. It sounds like you're more working on a plan for your life?

:)

I can set goals but there's nothing to pull me towards them. I've read and tried to implement stuff like future realities and life purposes, but they just don't give me that inspiration like it does with others. What I want to know is if my method while using them might be wrong, and how I can find a method that works for me.

It's head vs. heart...your logically trying to create a life, but without your heart behind it, it fizzles.

You have to find out what you would do for free, then find a way to make money at it. Like with my new website, I want to do it so much that I'm doing it for free. I don't know that I can make money at this stuff but that's not why I'm trying to help people.

That's the place to start....what do you love to do, then find a way to create a life from it. Try this link for an idea... Site Build It! - Passion

I know what I want with my heart and like doing it. It's just that it can be very difficult to get moving on it. And I legitimately feel it's how it's presented rather than the content. Maybe I just don't get charged when I read or write or visualize a life purpose, but there's another way of doing it that works for me. I want to investigate that and see if that's what it is.

I think that means that you need to keep searching for a life purpose that inspires you.

Mine is: To explore, to teach, to be my own voice.

And I still get as many goosebumps today typing that and thinking about it as I did over a year ago when I discovered it.

A few things about purpose that might help guide your thinking:

It is HIGHLY HIGHLY personal purpose. it is for YOU and YOU alone. The beauty of THAT is that it's personal nature is such that it inspires and moves YOU in a very personal and emotional way, and that movement and inspiration spirals OUT of you and touches others. But it's not FOR others. it's not to serve others. or any of that kind of thing that you commonly see in life purposes (especially in the self help arena).

The other big clue is that you don't create your life purpose...you DISCOVER IT. What does that mean? It means you are already radically fulfilling your life purpose and you have been doing so all your life. so the key to finding it is to look at your life and ask yourself what the positive, inspiring purpose of everything you've done and been up to this point has served.

And when you stumble upon it, you will have a HUGE emotional reaction...I had goosebumps...some people cry (like Steve mentioned in his article)...it will be a game-changing cathartic experience. And if you haven't had that yet, then keep searching until you do have it because it is so worth it.

What I've learned is that you just have to take the first step and adapt as you go.

It's like not leaving the driveway until you know all the traffic lights will be green. No, just leave the driveway and explore! :):)

Ditto, James...:):)

Hrm. The thing is that I thought I WAS writing it for myself. I mean, I read and agree with the advice of keeping such a thing away from what everyone expects you to do. Past attempts have involved the typical build a business and be successful stuff, branching out to a desire for freedom and passionate, joyful days of doing what I loved as I honed my opinion. What I have now is definitely more authentic...is there a way to be MORE authentic than that? It kind of boggles the mind to comprehend.

What IS your purpose? Do you mind sharing it here with us?

Another way to think about it is this...what you would like to achieve in life where you ALSO would enjoy each step along the way to getting there.

For example, my childhood dream was to become an airline pilot and I really enjoyed all my training to get there. And my daily work environment doesn't feel like work. I'm just getting paid what I love to do. The days can be long and fatiguing but the actual work is not work for me.

The basic one was "A Life on Purpose is a life of excitement. It is a life charged by inspiring service, passionate creativity, and blissful freedom." It's the last one I have on record - I often tried to revise this one to no avail. Lately I've been experimenting with a vision of a future reality I'd like to have. That one, to make it short, was to have a life of freedom, low resistance, and flow in my work and life. I know I want simplicity, and freedom and flow, and I know I want to do something writing and humor related. I just can't seem to phrase it all that well.


It's true I'm not the hugest fan of networking and marketing and such but I always figured I should put a creative spin on it to make it more appealling, with various degrees of success.

Ah! This is CLOSE, but it's lacking one key element...YOU!

You're not talking about you here. You are talking about "a life" (which is about as impersonal as it gets, buddy :p).

Try rewriting this, but phrasing it as something you ARE...something that you are being...something that is all about YOU and why you are here.

Hey, I did what that Life on Purpose book said, that's not entirely my fault :V Could you give me an idea on how a purpose that's something like that would look like?

Sure, my purpose is this:

To explore, to teach, to be my own voice.

(And like I said above, that gives me goosebumps everytime I think about it. :D

That is personal specifically to ME, and it's things that have been in my life and a part of my life all my life (except now that I am aware of it, I am consciously choosing it...which is way more fun :D).

It's also very deeply personal, tied intrinsically to my identity and who I believe myself to be (which I think also the key).

I really enjoy how you share about having your own voice. To me it means that I see what I'm trying to share, not just repeating out of habit what was told to me.

Thats really rich!

I think innately, our purpose in life is make living better, easier, all in a natural way. That in our efforts to make life easier, we are not destroying the planet, but working with nature.

Raping the planet is like spending on credit...one day the balance will come due and we won't have any way to repay it.

What I'm also seeing in my growth is that as I become more and more joyful for no particular reason in life, my lifestyle needs are getting more and more simple and basic. I'm seeing that with a healthy body and mind, not much more is needed except to keep both healthy. Then the spirit is free to grow in consciousness.

Being able to live a really simple and basic life makes it immediately clear that this planet spoils us with riches....look at all the combinations of food available for example!!

I wish the world would wake up to this...we don't need borders or armies or hundreds of religions creating "spiritual" borders either. We just need to be ourselves.

And you're saying you found this by looking over your whole life up until this point? I've been rather introspective and concious about choosing mine as well. I'm just surprised it hasn't unfolded like yours has. I mean, I geniunely enjoy telling jokes and making people laugh, yet when I included something akin to that, it didn't seem to carry across in writing.

My "voice" crystalized about 2-3 weeks ago. I've been "practicing" for 46 years but finally it came together what I was really trying to say all this time.

I would wager because telling jokes and making people laugh still isn't a personal, identity-level purpose. It's something you do that springs OUT OF that identity-level purpose.

A good way to get at it is to ask yourself who you are BEING when you make people laugh and tell jokes.

For example, when I came upon the "to explore" part of my purpose, what happened was that I noticed how I used to love to go into the woods and make paths as a kid, how I loved to go for drives as a teenager, and how I loved to explore people's mind as a young adult. And then it dawned on me, that I insanely inspired by exploring things.

So, initially, I came onto my purpose it was one word: Exploration. And on an identity level I WAS an explorer and I was powerfully living my life to that end.

From there it kind of grew as I realized that I like to share my explorations with other people. At that point it become "To explore and to teach." Being an explorer, and then sharing those explorations with other people ("teaching").

As I moved on some more, I discovered that to be a teacher, I had to find my voice. To be willing to SPEAK UP (and I"m still working on that even now). So, I added a new purpose to the mix....and it all came together.

And I highly doubt I'm done discovering my purpose. For now I am, but I'm willing to bet that in the future I will add more components to it as experiences draw me to new awareness's.

Hmmm. Other version of the purpose also tried to account for "being" over "doing", but I haven't looked at it from an entire life viewover to see where I was insanely inspired. Definitely worth another look over.

Awesome. Keep us posted on what you come up with.

I just came off an hour-long session of introspective dwelling. For my entire life, I've always wanted to immerse myself within fantastical worlds, from games of pretend to RPG campaigns and to the forms of comedy I really enjoy. It felt pretty powerful. Could almost feel a tear, but I am, ahem, too manly to shed them.

I'm still letting this emotional surge wash over me. I don't know how long it'll last. But it's strong. Really strong.

For now, the purpose is:

To live within new worlds.

I love that, that's great! It feels powerful from here :)

That's great, man. I can feel the power of that (and the emotion behind it) when I read it.

Now, the fun part begins. Now that you have a purpose, now you can think about all the different ways you can fulfill that purpose. What type of job does someone with your purpose do? How does a person entertain themselves? In what ways can you create (and continuously create) your purpose in ways that fulfill you to your core? Let the fun and games begin!

Also, what I do is I kinda keep my "ear to the ground" (so to speak), always in the back of my mind I have a watchful stance for new additions or revisions to my purpose. It's very well likely that that discovery is merely the beginning for you and that there are other avenues of your purpose there. No need to get too introspective with the add-ons, though (unless you want to). Just live the purpose that now inspires you and see if anything else springs out of it.

That's what I'm definitely wondering about. I'm wondering how far I should try to "fit" certain things into it. Because I am wondering if all the stuff I didn't want to do before, especially the non-creative stuff, would work better through this lens. I'm wondering, for example, how I'd apply the experience of immersing myself in an interesting world for something like pitching leads. I mean, sure, nobody can love doing everything, but I'm wondering if there's a new way I can approach it.

I'm also hoping it's not just a desire for escapism, which is making me want to "apply" it more. But it's less about becoming someone else than being myself within the context of a new place. I'll admit fantasy stuff was a big part of this as a kid, so I'm wondering to see if there's a way I can do that now with my other interests. I do know that there's a variety of things that can be done with a purpose but I don't want to jump ship off of what I already have entirely :V

I have to be honest with you when I do my intentions or motivation rituals.
I first drinks some very powerful energy herbs like Ginsing and Mate,.
I put on my powerful music. Light candles.. then mediatate and speaks what
I want into manifestation.

It's not like magick or summons spirits. I just really get into it.. and get energized and motivated.
After that I just get my goals done. and keep going on with the mission.
But every morning I do my little energy and motivation ritual. It's very power
and my own technique. I wrote it myself! and you can buy it now
for only $10.99 plus tax! lol just kidding. I will most likely add to my blog for free.

Matt,

What are you passionate about?