4 Myths about Purpose - BUSTED!

There are a couple of Myths out there about what it is and means to find your soul purpose.

Here are three that I’d like to bust for you. Because when they busted for me, ‘shift happened’. (Thanks to Derek Rydall for that great pun!)

Myth #1 - your purpose has to be your job/career/vocation

Your purpose is to be you. In fact, Derek Rydall would say that it is everyone’s purpose in life to become the highest version of themselves.

I know that is going to baffle some of you in the throws and pain of wanting to find your purpose, your ‘one thing’. Like your friend who is a painter and all she  does (and wants to do) is paint. Like that other friend who is a Doctor and leaves and breathes medicine. Like your idols on social media who fell into travel blogging and now make money online.

Your purpose is not in a job/career or vocation (note: there’s a difference between the three and I’ll address that in another post) -  your purpose is to unfold, to peel back the layers of conditioning and roles you have played and to become you. To follow your heart’s content. To listen to the voice of discernment and heed it’s call.

That is when your vocation, your calling, your work in the world will become apparent.

Myth #2 - there is one job that will be your  purpose and this is what you must find

I remember trying on different career ‘hats’ and titles. Like Doctor or Teacher , Lawyer even. Here’s the thing about soul purpose work - the physical job or title could vary yet the core raison d’etre the root of the work that sustains and fulfils us might be the same. All the roles above, for example, are in service of others. If working with people is a value of yours you might choose any of these career paths.

So take the NOUNS OUT OF IT. Take the titles out. Focus on your nature, what speaks to you, the story your life has been telling you.

Myth #3 - finding your purpose is something external - outside of you

Your purpose is more like a way of being than a goal to achieve. Less of a striving doing thing and more of a peeling back the layers, being who you are kind of thing.

“I don't think of purpose as something we "find," I think of it as something we "are." Language is a limitation here, tempting us to think that our purpose is something separate from, somehow outside our being. As I see it, a human being is both a particle and a wave, both a noun and a verb.” - Marianne Williamson

So, how  can you go about being more of you?

Daunting question? Let’s get back to basics then, what do you like to do? What makes you happy? What brings you pleasure, no matter how small.. Do that. Be that.

Dr. Abraham Maslow argued:

“Recovering the self must, as a sine qua non, include the recovery of the ability to have and to cognize these inner signals, to know what and whom one likes and dislikes, what is enjoyable and what is not, when to eat and when not to, when to sleep, when to urinate, when to rest. The experientially empty person, lacking these directive from within, these voices of the real self, must turn to outer cues for guidance, for instance eating when the clock tells him to, rather than obeying his appetite…He guides himself by clocks, rules, calendars, schedules, agendas, and by hints and cues from other people.”

As Palmer insightfully put it:

“The soul is like a wild animal-tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient, and yet exceedingly shy. If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out. But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of the tree, the creature we are waiting for may well emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a glimpse of the precious wildness we seek.”

One bonus myth that I recently learned is this:

MYTH #4 You have to continue seeking

If you have been on this search for a while now. You will be familiar with the need to seek. Seeking answers, seeking truth, seeking, seeking, seeking.

‘Seek and you shall find..’ the biblical phrase does go.

However, I invite you to become a FINDER. For if you continue to seek, perhaps you will never become someone who creates. Someone who assimilates information and turns it into knowledge and wisdom.

So truly learn. Truly listen. Truly integrate what you have learned from audio’s, classes, courses, books.

BE A FINDER.

I urge you.

With heart, always,

Katrina