A state of purposeful living

We talk a lot about purpose these days. The search for purpose and meaning has always been embedded in our design as human beings, but now it appears to be rising as a heightened need in our culture and a main theme in our society. 

We’re learning through science and felt experience that a sense of purpose contributes greatly to our physical health, our mental and emotional wellbeing, and deepens our connection to the world and other human beings. It gives us direction in life, brings coherence to our decisions and builds in us integrity and resilience. 

As a result, we’re searching for our purpose more and more in our work, in our personal world, and in our communities. 

We’re yearning for a state of purposeful living. 

The challenge with this, however, is that we can feel pressured to force purpose into our lives, instead of allowing it to surface naturally. Or to overcomplicate purpose and get overwhelmed by the weight of it. 

But living with purpose might be simpler and more straightforward than we think. It’s living in a way that makes us truly feel alive, where we’re in service of both the world, and our soul. 

We don’t need a big mission in order to live purposefully. Not that we can’t have one, but the key to purposeful living may be more about balancing and aligning our purposeful doing in the world with our purposeful being. 

Connecting what we can do for the world to what naturally comes through us, and what keeps us nourished. 

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What are we naturally gifted at? 

What do we genuinely love doing? 

What sparks joy in us?

And what at the same time keeps us fueled?

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These questions point to our zone of genius, our purposeful being. And then from that place, we can move to our purposeful doing more effortlessly. 

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What difference could it make to others when we engage in this activity? 

And what else could we be impacting by doing this activity?

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It can be this simple. 

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The purpose of life, after all, is to be lived. And being in a state of purposeful living means living ourselves in the world fully.