The Purpose Exercise

[August]

This is written about in Steve's books and also in this blog
I remember doing the exercise a while back and I didn't find an answer that made me cry or that provoked a strong positive emotion.
I've tried it again and I'm on answer 231 and still nothing lol

Has anyone tried this and found their purpose?
If so, do you have any advice?

Thanks.

[Savage]

231 answers isn't much for many people. I know people who had to come up with over 1,000 answers just to clear all the clutter from their minds and start listening to their hearts. One person reported that it took him 10 hours across multiple sessions, and then the floodgates finally opened.

One suggestion that may help is to do this first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Have some water if you're thirsty. That way you won't have to deal with digestion while you're trying to tune in to your heart.

Generally speaking, the more left-brained you are, the longer it takes. Also, the worse your diet is (especially if it's filled with processed junk foods), the longer it tends to take.

[supertom]

where did you find this method, and i noticed your purpose has evolved since you first done the excercise, what method you use to change your purpose.

[Savage]

I developed this method with practice and then tested it on lots of people. It's really not that complicated.

[supertom]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I developed this method with practice and then tested it on lots of people. It's really not that complicated.

woah you developed a method for finding your life purpose, dont you think thats like the greatest discovery in human history

did you receive assistance via Channeling??

[Savage]

There are many ways to discover your life purpose. This one works pretty well. If you need more help in this area, read Brad Swift's wonderful book Life on Purpose.

[supertom]

I think whats helpped me most is changing my context, to creatve self-expression, and what meaning can i give to his(me) life.

[August]

The left brained and junk food thing definately applies to me
I'm sticking with it as fustrating as it is, (I'm on answer 624 now). I'm doing some of it (first thing) in the morning as well now.

[Savage]

It's also best to avoid stimulants when you do this. Caffeine in particular will stimulate your logical thinking and make it harder to perceive the messages coming from your heart.

The clearer and cleaner your body is, the easier it is to complete this exercise.

[supertom]

the book "is your genius at work" also as life purpose. Dont know where to start??
This is the order im gonna go with, does it help if i meditate before??

1.your article
2.life on purpose
3.genius at work

[freddy]

After trying this one time many months ago. At that time, I was trying to figure out if I was in the right job to aline with my purpose. I never really came to the point of knowing this answer. However after re-reading Steves blog about how he did this. I am left scrathing my head. My thoughts would be only a few words at a time. Example "Take care of animals" The one he gives as his example looks more like a business plan mission statement. My question would be should my answers be just one word type responses that come into my head or closer to what steve has listed. And should the list reframe from listing any types of subjects like jobs or locations to live?

[August]

Originally Posted by freddy

After trying this one time many months ago. At that time, I was trying to figure out if I was in the right job to aline with my purpose. I never really came to the point of knowing this answer. However after re-reading Steves blog about how he did this. I am left scrathing my head. My thoughts would be only a few words at a time. Example "Take care of animals" The one he gives as his example looks more like a business plan mission statement. My question would be should my answers be just one word type responses that come into my head or closer to what steve has listed. And should the list reframe from listing any types of subjects like jobs or locations to live?

Ditto.

As I understand it, the list should made up of the first thing that comes to your mind when you ask youself that question, so you shouldn't be omiting any answers (like jobs or locations to live).

As for me, I'm not getting any closer (ans 747). I don't drink much coffee and I'm vegetarian, maybe I need to work on my diet before I do this exercise, though I find that very hard to do

[freddy]

August, with 700 plus answers on your list don't you find you are relisting the same response? I think when I did this experiment I had about 250 answers but none of them made me cry., so I guess I did not hit the right one. I going to try a raw type diet to see if that might help me next time I try this. Good luck to you.

[August]

I am relisting the same response and also I'm not finding my latest answers anymore meaningful than my first answers, (a lot of them are stupid/random and make no sense).
Good luck to you to.

[Savage]

Here's another tip you may find helpful. I learned this from fellow author/speaker Andrew Harvey at the I Can Do It! conference.

Instead of asking "What is my life purpose?" try rephrasing the question. Ask yourself, "What breaks my heart?"

You'll find as I have that the source of your greatest sorrow is also your greatest joy.

For example, my life purpose is essentially to help people live consciously, to grow into greater alignment with truth, love, and power. The opposite of that is what breaks my heart -- seeing human beings reduced to living like unconscious drones, unaware of the truth about themselves, disconnected from each other, and disempowered to live as fragmented beings.

When you stand up and do something about your heartbreak (which Andrew Harvey calls Sacred Activism), you simultaneously embrace your bliss and live your purpose.

[Angela]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

When you stand up and do something about your heartbreak (which Andrew Harvey calls Sacred Activism), you simultaneously embrace your bliss and live your purpose.

Good heavens, this just triggered something for me, thank you. My stated purpose has been "To boldly generate and facilitate free-flowing love, connection and joy." But lately that's not inspiring me as much as Being a Joy Activist, and I see that it is the opposite of joy activism that breaks my heart -- resignation or blindness to the infinite joy that is who we are really breaks my heart. When I myself am resigned or deliberately unseeing.

Wow. I'm looking back on what I've been seeing these past few months, like how stopped I've felt when encountering people who are not interested in feeling good. How my most fun endeavor lately has been practicing expanding into my own infinite joy, abundance, and power in the face of resistance, and my recent Revolutionary stance. La Revolucion is a revolution of Joy, not war! I am having a revolution in my life purpose right now. Much as I love to generate and facilitate free-flowing, love, connection, and joy, I'm letting that go for now, and I am distinguishing my new life purpose, one that I can feel in my heart and my stomach and my head and in the tears in my eyes right now:

I am a Joy Activist!

No more pussyfootin' around! Viva la Revolucion!

Thanks, Steve!

[Pequod]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Ask yourself, "What breaks my heart?"

Wow Steve, this is very powerful. When I read it, the answer shot like an arrow through my heart: The sadness and sorrow in the world. Also a memory popped up of of being a little kid of 10 years old and I was standing at the side of the schoolyard wondering why there was hunger and war in the world. Makes sense now...

[supertom]

Originally Posted by Pequod

Wow Steve, this is very powerful. When I read it, the answer shot like an arrow through my heart: The sadness and sorrow in the world. Also a memory popped up of of being a little kid of 10 years old and I was standing at the side of the schoolyard wondering why there was hunger and war in the world. Makes sense now...

but thats like pure ego, trying to fix a broken world, and you should use past experiences to determine your purpose

[August]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Here's another tip you may find helpful. I learned this from fellow author/speaker Andrew Harvey at the I Can Do It! conference.

Instead of asking "What is my life purpose?" try rephrasing the question. Ask yourself, "What breaks my heart?"

Thats brilliant! Very helpful.
So for example, if someones heartbreak is people being tortured, and their purpose is stoping torture, doesn't that make torture stonger/more common; by resisting it. Or would their purpose be, being as free as possible in their own lives, (doing a job they love etc). If that makes sense.

eta: I'm reading Follow Your Heartbreak now, it might answer my question

[Bruce Achterberg]

I see the potential of this method since I've experience it working on a small scale and can imagine that would expand outwards until you get the result Steve talks about.

So I'm a believer.

For me, though, "purpose" is more intuitive. I can certainly find something that causes a surge of emotion, but it's a feeling, not something that can be expressed in words.

Whenever I do the exercise, eventually I empty out my mind and then I just go blank. Not as in "I have no purpose" sort of blank, but as in "I don't need to do an exercise to feel my purpose; I'm tuned into it right now."

Intuitive connection is well and good and it's served me all my life, but I desire something more consciously directed. Not a statement to serve as my master, but something to tap into the core of what I feel so I can more specifically direct my action, because right now, I lack direction. I'm doing lots of things, but without something for my intellect to be guided by, the feeling is too nebulous, and my actions and results reflect that. I just feel as if my life would be greatly transformed from commitment to something that I can really fixate on. I only ever operate close to my potential when I have something to focus on--some sort of purpose.

I expect Steve's book will help with that (I'm still reading it, and I'm also... well, doing what I do to things like Steve's model; suffice to say soon I'll be able to apply it as well as I can apply strengths-theory), but that only works if I don't get hung up on the exercises, heh. I feel there a degree of holistic commitment and direction that will come from a clear focus that intuitively resonates with me deeply with no questions as to its accuracy, while also allowing my intellect to more readily grasp the concept so I can extrapolate it outwardly more effectively.

It's a real case of "I've got everything I need; now I just need something to do with it." For the last year or so I've been experimenting and testing with the "something to do with it," applying myself in different ways, but without a clear focus, I can see I'll never reach the holistic degree of sheer commitment, focus, and influence people like Steve are--people who have a clear, conscious understanding of their cause and are able to wield that with great power.

Just yesterday I wrote this in my journal:

Embracing what you love will transform your life to a new level of synergy; a previously unavailable level of potential; of expansion. You must transform your life. It's not about what you do, but about what you are.

I see that I'm very much tollerating a lot of things in my life with many things not really resonating me. If I tune into what I know I'm capable of I can feel that it's holding me down, but I wonder: will purpose arise when I make space or transition to things that resonate with me more, or will those changes result from having purpose arise?

My challenge is that I kind of feel that I need purpose to arise for those changes to take place, since they're not going to happen in the conventional paradigm (job; employment; etc). I can only move forward, not back.

I'm super-keen to start working within the "deep" realm of personal development. Quick and easy, or at least, easy, has been helpful, but I feel ready for something more challenging; something more profound.

Advice, perspective, or clarity would be much appreciated. Is there something I'm not seeing? Some assumption I'm making? I'm willing to put in what's needed to remove those assumptions to see where that path will take me.

Steve once told me that whatever I must fear I must face. For me that definitely applies to my "light"--I tend to resist that more than anything. But without a clear sense of purpose that I really feel is right--not just one I say, "oh, I'll make this my focus" when really, I know intuitively that it's not the real deal--I kind of feel halted. Not frozen by fear, but just unable to pick a direction that really has a heart.

I know clearly what my potential is; now I want to use it. I don’t expect a purpose statement to give me all the answers, but I’ve a feeling that a consciously expressed statement linked with the intuitive feeling will be a powerful motivator for me to shred the trivialities of my life and move forward with something meaningful. I don’t want to just do stuff; I want to experience an unparalleled level of drive, focus, and... another quality I'm not quite sure what to call yet. You can see it in people like Steve Pavlina or Karen Knowler (Karen's videos on YouTube are more telling than her website); they just know what they should be doing and persue it with… purpose.

(Try not to get hung up on my specific wording and focus on the bigger picture I’ve tried to convey with these blocks of thought.)

[supertom]

What you are is God's gift to you;
What you become is your gift to God.

[Bruce Achterberg]

In regards to my above post, I have a feeling that the principles--what I'd prefer to start calling the universals--have the answer--I just can't see it yet. What I can see is sort of... well, it's hard to explain, but when I get enough information, I'm able to extrapolate out and see a sort of "cut out" of what should be there, so while an insight I'm looking for might not define the shape, the information surrounding it does and sort of gives it away.

It doesn't tell me what the insight is, but it does tell me what direction to head in. I use this ability a lot (it's a strength, something that mostly happens subconsciously, but at times I'm consciously aware of it operating), and it's usually accurate.

So this is me checking in saying, "I should be able to figure this one out." Steve recently made a post about people sometimes looking for methods and information to make improvements just to satisfy a need for information, and I think I was doing a bit of that, probably influenced by my Input talent theme which causes me to be satisfied when I input information. (The great thing about self-awareness is that you can use conscious awareness to operate and make decisions at a higher level than your strengths and talents--the basic operation of your human configuration--which lets you live more consciously and make conscious choices instead of being ruled by your biology.) It could also be one of those patterns you want to become aware of so you can avoid falling into it (personal development has many patterns like that).

I'm still kind of unsure where specific application methods fit in with truth, love, and power (i.e. the principles). I.e. Do you use them "within" the context of specific application, or do you apply them more generally, letting them point to the methods you should use in certain areas, or perhaps helping you grow so that you don't have to have such a strong reliance on methods any more and are more rooted in fundamental personal growth? Steve tends to experience his growth like this, I notice--growth that's very natural and "organic"; his path guides him, instead of him trying to force and guide his path--and he even spoke about this idea in the We Like It Raw interview he did recently (which is why I have the confidence to say that most of Steve's growth is "organic" based on my many observations of his blog; I matched up the figurative "dots" of the more recent confirmation by Steve with my past observations).

Phew, this post was a bit high level, heh. It has a bit of me "thinking publicly," but hopefully it benefits some people. It also serves as a nice update about my development status, and gives an idea of where I'm at and what I'm doing to people who I interact with more closely on the Pavlina forum and elsewhere.

Let's see where this path leads. (By the way, this is still on the topic of the purpose exercise, I'm just mainly talking about the context it fits into.)

[CroMagna]

Originally Posted by Pequod

Wow Steve, this is very powerful. When I read it, the answer shot like an arrow through my heart: The sadness and sorrow in the world. Also a memory popped up of of being a little kid of 10 years old and I was standing at the side of the schoolyard wondering why there was hunger and war in the world. Makes sense now...

Nothing breaks my heart. I'm very left-brained.

Edit: hmm...there is something that comes close to breaking my heart: fascism. People controlling me, forcing me to control my speech, forcing me to conform. Maybe my life purpose is complete self-mastery.

[CroMagna]

Update: changed my mind. I don't think anything breaks my heart...

[supertom]

im interest to know what peoples beliefs are about how and why this method works, especially those you succeed with finding thier purpose.

In doing so we will be able to find some empowering beliefs that will help people find thier purpose.