Why should you Find Your Life’s Purpose? by Ineke Van Lint.
Many spiritual traditions revolve around one central question: “Who am I ?”
Even the business world ponders this crucial matter. According to business gurus, the first step on the road to success is asking yourself this very question:“What’s my mission? What on Earth am I doing? Am I in the right place?”
If you can’t answer these questions, then you are wasting 90% of your time and energy doing things that are neither your mission nor your business!
You will feel an inner anxiety, urging you to search for the deeper meaning of your life.
If you consider living to be painful, if you feel dissatisfied, if you feel “there must be more than this”, if you feel out of place in this world, then you have not yet found the purpose of your life.
If you are questioning the meaning of life, if you can’t find inner peace, if you are not satisfied with choices you’ve made in life, if you don’t know which way to turn, if you feel your life is stuffed with things that aren’t of your choosing and that don’t satisfy you, if you often feel burdened and bad-tempered, if you “have everything to feel happy” but don’t, then it is time for you to discover your true self!
Human beings want to feel useful. We long to give our lives some deeper meaning. As long as you have not discovered this deeper meaning, you feel frustrated and on the wrong track.
We want our lives to be worthwhile. This does not mean we need to achieve ‘great feats’ or become world famous. We just need to feel in place and do the right thing surrounded by the right people. It’s about finding out our mission. It’s about finding ‘inner peace’.
Our mission on Earth is twofold. The general aspect is that we are here to learn to bring more love into the world. The personal aspect is that everyone has its own peculiar, unique way of doing this.
Your mission represents the central piece of your life.
The surrounding pieces represent your family, your relationship, your kids, your job, your home, your health, your friend, and so on. The centerpiece holds all of this together.
That centerpiece, that’s you. You are the most important person in your life, and you came to this world to do something important. Otherwise you simply would not be here!
As long as you haven’t identified the centerpiece, you’ll be wrestling with dissatisfaction, powerlessness, frustrations and fatigue.
Some people solve jigsaw puzzles by first fitting all the pieces on the borders, and then squeeze in the piece in the middle. That’s putting the cart before the horse.
These people reason: “When I find the right partner, find the right job, get paid a good salary, have some kids, have my own house, meet some friends, stay healthy, then I will be happy!” But that’s not the way things work.
As long as the centerpiece is missing from the puzzle, you too will feel empty inside. It is your responsibility to discover your mission and get things under way.
Even the cells of your body react to this lack of purpose, this feeling of emptiness. They suffer from spiritual malnutrition, feel useless and bored, resulting in a physical state of sluggishness and lethargy. This physical state will eventually cause several physical discomforts and complaints.
Occupying yourself with “your disease” and “feeding” yourself with medication or other such products is just another attempt at filling the void inside. This is because the status of “being ill” allows you to identify: “I am allergic to this or that, I am a cancer patient, I am an Alzheimer, I am…” Once you have started identifying yourself by your disease, it will certainly be on your mind day and night.
If you are not in touch with your own desires, you will easily fall prey to expectations projected upon you by your environment. If you are not following your own path, then you must be following someone else’s! If you are not clear on your own life mission, you will find it hard to say “no” to what other people want you to do. This undecidedness makes you available for all who cross your path and want a piece of you, draining your energy.
As long as you are not clear on the shape of that centerpiece, you are submitted to others who may not care about what’s best for you. Just like disease, these kinds of negative relationships are a manifestation of low-level energy, showing that you have lost focus and have strayed from your own golden brick road.
Your self-esteem is probably pretty low and you suffer from serious doubts and fears.
The longer you put off the search, the more the feeling that something is missing will devour you. Your self-esteem will only decrease.
The best way to rebuild your fragile self and re-establish an inner sense of security is to make the search for your life mission your number one priority, and subsequently fully dedicate yourself to it.
Why is this so important? Because you can only find real joy in life by discovering and living according to the unique way of your personal evolution.
But, maybe you think, can’t I just continue living life the way I have been all along? My life may not be all that exciting and rosy, but it’s still doable. Can’t I just try to hang in there and keep the status quo?
The answer is “yes”. You can keep living your life in a monotonic, sad, senseless way. But don’t expect any real satisfaction. The need to feel useful is so fundamental that you cannot feel happy as long as you have no clue what you are here for.
That’s exactly the difference between humans and animals. For an animal it may suffice to just sleep, hunt and eat, but humans look for the deeper meaning of life. Humans “know” that we are here on Earth for something more important than just eating, sleeping and working.
Your mission gives meaning to your life. Your mission IS your very reason for existence.
You are not alone in this search. This mission is also looking for you. It wants to be fulfilled by you and by nobody else. It is your personal mission. Nobody else is equipped to do it for you. Your mission will keep haunting you until you take it seriously and start implementing it.
Going against your mission is going against yourself. This is the same as ignoring the call of your soul, as ignoring your strongest desires, as signing a contract for eternal discontent…
You can’t escape your mission. One day you will have to start dedicating yourself to it.
Has this day come for you now? After all, you are reading these lines which shows your honest desire to start looking for the deeper meaning of your being.
The above article was written by Ineke Van Lint. Her main goal is to get your energy and excitement flowing again and to make you create a life filled with enthusiasm, by passing you her energy, experience and tools so you can find your passion and your reason for living and realize your dreams and yourself.
Ineke Van Lint is a practicing psychologist and workshop leader.
She holds a degree in psychology, is an International Facilitator in Kinesiology, an International Instructor in Brain Gym (which is sometimes called Educational Kinesiology), and is a member of Mensa International. She lives in Luxembourg.
HI Mathew, I stopped in to visit again after a real long time away and WOW! your BLOG has grown and grown with wonderful questions and heartfelt mystic answers.
I just finished the book EAT PRAY LOVE the other day which spoke to me on many levels and left me inspired. Ha too funny! At one point in the book the author is speaking with and Italian friend who says that every city has one word that can describe it. Also on the same note, every person has one word that describes them. We all just need to think about it and listen to the wind to find it.
After I read that I put a call out to the universe asking…what was MY word? Days went by and I kept choosing and one and then throwing it away because it didn’t fit. I was sad.
A few days later I got a package from Ottawa from my sister Karen. In it was a bunch of ordinary things, but at the bottome was a little package with a bracelet in it. The bracelet was hand made with beads and a small metal plaque in the centre. On the small plaque there was an imprinted word…one word. It said INSPIRE! I knew immediately that it was MY word! It was a gift from the universe. The word fit and felt comfortable.
It is my life’s Purpose to inspire others in whatever way I can. Now I just need to find a way to inspire happiness and success in my own life. Ahhah! THe hardest part. In the book it also said something like god drew a circle around the spot where I am standing now. He knew along time ago that I would be exactly right here. Hmmmm…I can take this in and comprehend it, but then I also want to ask…WHY?
My two cents for this message. Glad things are going well.
Heather G.
Hi Heather,
I think it’s really great that you found your “word” and that your word is “inspire”. I sense there is a lot about your life experience — your struggles and your successes — that has provided you with a great foundation of inspirational material to draw upon. The trick now is to share your experience(s) in ways that inspire you! Once you do that, undoubtedly, you will inspire others too!
Thanks for dropping by!
Love,
Mathew