Top 10 Benefits to Knowing and Living Your Purpose

Brad Swift has kindly provided a second article for us!  In the unlikely event you don't already know of him, he is a foremost expert on personal life purpose and co-founded Life On Purpose Institute in 1996 so people like you could have more fulfilling and satisfying lives through clarifying their life purpose.  NOTE: I will be interviewing Brad for you this Wednesday night, September 21, at 8pm Eastern.

          The Top 10 Benefits to Knowing &  Living Your Purpose

                                        by W. Bradford Swift

As the founder and director of an organization with a name like Life On
Purpose Institute, I guess it's not surprising to hear me say that I feel
that one of the most important matters that anyone can do for themselves and
the world is to become clear what their true purpose in life is and to then
live true to it. So, I'd like to point out some of the many benefits to
knowing and living your life purpose.

These are some of the benefits most commonly shared by the clients of Life
On Purpose Institute as well as ones that I have personally experienced by
clarifying and living my own life on purpose.


1. Focus

When you clearly know your life purpose, it becomes a truing mechanism
allowing you to focus more clearly on what matters most to you. Many people
report that this has been one of the most valuable benefits to going through
the Purpose Process (TM), especially once they begin to use their life
purpose to make their decisions and choices in where and how they are going
to invest their time, energy, money and talents.

2. Passion

For many people clarifying their life purpose becomes the key to unlocking
their passion for life. The passion becomes the fuel that propels them
forward in expressing their life purpose, often in extraordinary ways beyond
anything they would have considered before they clarified their purpose.


3. Being Unstoppable

People living on purpose become unstoppable, particularly the longer they
live true to their purpose and the more they allow their purpose to shape
their life. People without clarity of purpose often finds themselves stopped
or stuck in life, which isn't surprising because they haven‚t tapped into
their passion so they're like a high powered automobile without any fuel in
their tank.


4. Fulfillment

Living a life in which you are regularly expressing your life purpose and
allowing it to shape your decisions, your thoughts, feelings and actions is
simply a whole lot more fulfilling. A life on purpose is filled with
meaning, and people on purpose realize they are making a difference in the
world simply by being in the world.


5. Living a Value-based Life

You will learn as you delve more deeply into the Purpose Process (TM) that
an integral component of a person's life purpose are their "core values" --
those intangibles of life that mean the most to them. Our core values are at
the heart of all the values we've been taught we "should value." Think of it
like 3 concentric circles. The largest circle is composed of our "should
values," the next circle inside that one is our "chosen values"  -- the
should values that we actually choose to hold onto and live from. The last
circle is our "core values" -- those chosen values that truly matter most to
us. Since these core values are an integral part of your life purpose, when
you are living a life on purpose, you are living a "value-based" life,
rather than a "lifestyle" based life.


6. Fun

Let‚s face it, living on purpose is simply a lot more fun than living a life
based in fear and shoulds. People who know their life purpose and are living
it have a renewed zest for life. They can bring purposeful play to almost
any situation and find or create ways to have each day be a reflection of
their true joy and purpose.


7. Integrity

For me, a life on purpose is a life of ultimate integrity. It's a life that
is whole and complete. People who know their purpose and are living it, know
who they are and why they are here. They live true to their core values as
they serve themselves and others through the expression of their life
purpose.


8. Trust / Faith

As people clarify their life purpose and begin to live true to it,  many of
them report a surprising increase in synchronicity and serendipity in their
lives. It's as though the Universe is rewarding them for the courage to live
true to their purpose. With this comes a deepening in trust and faith for
most of these people, as they realize that indeed there is a greater force
in the Universe than themselves and they are an integral part of that force.


9. Grace

According to the dictionary, grace is "the unmerited divine assistance given
man..." and people living on purpose often report living a grace-filled
life. When you commit to living true to your purpose, something amazing
begins to happen. The Universe lines up with your intention and commitment.
Perhaps this quote says it best:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always
ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creativity there is
one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and
splendid plans:that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then
providence moves too."

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have
occurred.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising ones
favor all manner of assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have
come his way.  I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:
"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power
and magic in it." W. H. Murray


10. Flow

And perhaps we can summarize the other 9 benefits under this last one.
People living on purpose live in the flow of the Universal stream of
consciousness. Rather than fighting against the current, they allow the
current of what's wanting to happen to happen. They allow what's wanting to
flow to flow. They know that while they may never completely understand or
comprehend God's divine design and plan for this Universe, they can still be
an integral part in its realization. 

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Mark Your Calendar!

I'll be interviewing Brad on Wednesday September 21 at 8pm Eastern :-)
See you there!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

Is YOUR Life On Purpose?

This week's guest author is none other than Brad Swift.  In the unlikely event you don't already know of him, he is a foremost expert on personal life purpose and co-founded Life On Purpose Institute in 1996 so people like you could have more fulfilling and satisfying lives through clarifying their life purpose.  NOTE: I will be interviewing Brad for you next Wednesday night, September 21, at 8pm Eastern.

IS YOUR LIFE ON PURPOSE? by W. Bradford Swift

Until thought is linked with purpose, there is no intelligent
accomplishment.  With the majority, the bark of thought is allowed to drift
upon the ocean of life.  A man or woman should conceive of a legitimate
purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. James Allen


Is you life on purpose?  Does just the question stop you in your tracks as it
does many people?  Have you been so caught up in the frenetic pace of
today’s consumeristic culture that you’ve not dared wonder if your life is
going in the right direction?

Perhaps you feel a little like Alice in Wonderland when she was taken on a
wild ride through the countryside by the Red Queen?  No matter how fast
Alice ran she couldn’t seem to get anywhere.  Finally, breathless from her
efforts, the Queen allowed her to rest long enough for Alice to comment that
"Everything is just as it was!" to which the Queen replied, "...here, you
see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.  If you
want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

If this sounds like one of your typical days or weeks, or your whole life
for that matter, then it’s times to jump from the not so merry-go-round and
re-evaluate a few of your priorities.  Responding to the following
statements will give you a good starting point.  Grade yourself on a scale
from 1 to 10.

1. I am crystal clear what my life purpose is.

Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree

Of course, to live a life on purpose starts with knowing what your purpose
is.  If you aren’t sure, then that’s where to start.  Don’t feel bad if you
aren’t clear.  According to Cynthia Kersey in her book, Unstoppable
(http://www.unstoppable.net), when psychologist, William Marsten, asked
3,000 people the question, “What have you to live for?” 94 percent said they
had no definite purpose for their lives -- 94 percent! That leaves only 6
percent of us who know why we’re here. No wonder we’re not a particularly
happy society.

2. The life I lead is a full expression of my life purpose.

Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree

Knowing your purpose is really only the start.  About a quarter of the
people who request my services as a life purpose coach feel they know their
purpose but also realize that their life doesn’t reflect it.  In other
words, they aren’t living true to it.

3. I live a values-based life rather than a materialistic-based life.
Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree

Many Americans have sold out their values for the Great American Dream
forced down our throats by Madison Avenue advertising.  Luckily, we’re
starting to realize the dream is actually a nightmare, but with hundreds of
exposures to advertising every week, living a value-based life can make you
feel like a salmon swimming up stream.

4. My life is free of unnecessary clutter and complexities and I seldom feel
overwhelmed, rushed or cluttered.

Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree

More people give themselves a lower rating with this statement than anywhere
else.  It appears many of other or choking on our own clutter.  If you don’t
believe it, look around your own neighborhood.  How many new self-storage
businesses have opened up in the last five years.  In the small mountain
community where I live there’s been at least two new ones, and their
businesses are flourishing.

5. I regularly take time to nurture myself in ways that feed my soul.

Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree

A big issue for many people.  Some of my clients are so driven that the
concept of taking even 15 minutes for themselves to just sit and do nothing
but breath and relax is almost inconceivable.  Taking an entire evening to
just nurture oneself is beyond comprehension for most.

How did you do on the sample test?  Or did you feel you didn’t have the time
to take it right now because you need to get on to more important stuff.
Wake up Alice!  Nothing is more important than identifying your purpose and
living true to it.  It’s just so easy to drift through life like a cork
thrown by the currents of circumstances, back and forth, living what Thoreau
describes as “lives of quiet desperation.”

The good news is that it’s not too late.  It is possible to start living on
purpose immediately, even before you clearly know your purpose.  Because
even asking the questions, “who am I and what is my life for?” begins to
shape your life into a new direction.  It all starts when you ask the
questions.  “Seek and you will find.  Ask and it will be given unto you.”

Start asking today. For a more in depth, FREE evaluation of how on purpose
your life is, take the Life On Purpose Self Test at
http://www.lifeonpurpose.com and earn a complimentary life purpose coaching
session.

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Again, remember to join us Wednesday Sept. 21, 2011 as Brad helps you personally get a handle on your own life purpose and how to live it.  The call-in information will follow shortly.

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger