How We’re Making Mistakes On Purpose (1 of 3)

It’s in the paper, it’s on Oprah, it’s in thousands of books, it’s all over the internet…living with purpose is one hot topic.
 
When you live your purpose you live in passion, motivation or resonance for what you are doing. Yes, we want to feel like this! But if there is one thing I’ve learned from my coaching and mentoring work, there are three major mistakes people make on their path to a purpose filled life. 

In today’s post, I am going to tackle the 1st mistake.
 
How to get clarity about purpose
 
In order to explain what being clear in purpose looks like, let’s look at what it doesn’t look like…
 
So many people struggle with a void that they can’t seem to be filled.  You know that feeling of emptiness when it’s quiet for a moment and you wonder, “What’s that weird feeling?” or “Why can’t I sleep?” and “Where’s my energy gone?”
 
These feelings usually happen when we are missing something in our lives that we truly resonate with.
 
What does resonance sound like?

• Like listening to a die-hard sports fan talk about their team winning,
• or a parent sharing about their child’s success
• or an advocate giving a speech about the purpose of their organization. 
• Still to hard to imagine? Think of a child talking about their trip to Disney.

Identifying what you resonate with and when is a big clue to getting clear about your purpose. Remember last week when I asked you:
 
What is at the heart of what you truly want?
What is the essence of it?
And what makes that important?
 
I was guiding you to think and feel into what you resonate with.
 
This Week’s Challenge:
Live this week as you normally would and just be looking for resonance.  When you are going to do something see if you’re excited or dreading the task. In the middle of the action check in with how you’re feeling: energized or tired and slow.

Writing this down would be helpful.  You can even score yourself from 0 (no energy/excitement) to 10 (lots of energy/excitement). You might start to see patterns of when you’re in resonance and when you’re not.
 
Stay tuned for next week when I’ll cover mistake no.2 and share how people assume purpose and career mean the same thing.
 
xo
Diane