How Do You Live Your Purpose?
Susan Living
October 24, 2009
Picture this. You´re in a small room with 100 other people. You are all blindfolded, fumbling your way around in the dark, fingers and feet tentatively outstretched, bodies filled with electric tension. Some kneeling, some crawling, some colliding and treading on fingers and toes, all of you blind, all searching for your purpose. That purpose is written on a small card and could be anywhere in the room. You have to find it. You´re sweating, there´s a tingling fear in your belly and your senses are amplified, on edge. Every now and then you want to give up, rip the blind fold off and run out of the room screaming. You stop and take deep breaths. You slow down and reassess your direction.
Occasionally in my blind groping I hear the word "barrier". My purpose isn´t in that direction. When my searching fingers chance upon a card I peek. An excitement rushes through me and I hold it up proudly above my head only to be told "No, that´s not your purpose." I drop it, disappointed. So many hands reaching for the same pieces of card. So many body parts to bump into. I bang heads with someone. "Ouch!" I feel desperate. I find more purposes. None of them mine. My heart sinks. A distant voice intones "If what you are doing isn´t working, change it." I keep feeling with my feet. I find more purposes. I get frustrated.
The voice repeats "If what you are doing isn´t working, change it". I stop. I hear it. I flounder my way to the edge of the room and start feeling up the walls, windows and curtains. An eternity. No purpose here. People and bodies and body parts in my way - sometimes they melt away effortlessly, other times they don´t budge and sometimes I push gently and they move out of my way. The voice repeats again. I change my approach. I turn around. I raise my hands. I start gently waving them and feeling around in the air. "That´s it!" My searching fingers find an arm, a hand and yes, a card. I take the purpose out of someone´s hand and hold it up high awaiting confirmation. No joy.
I find other hands in the air, empty hands. What does this mean? That voice again, "If what you are doing isn´t working, change it". The next empty hand I find I bend and feel around their feet. "Yes!" I hear. I got it. I found my purpose. Exhilaration explodes through me as I rip off my blindfold wanting to dance and sing and dissolve into wild, relieved laughter. The tension´s gone. I walk outside, carefully avoiding all the still blind, seeking fingers and hands and breathe. I did it. I found my purpose. I feel high. It´s taken me my whole life and what felt like hours in the blackness. It was 15 minutes.
These are the things I learned from the game about my approach to life:
1. If I give up, I´ll never find my purpose.
2. Barriers and "no´s" are not a form of rejection, they always help me by being clear and impartial signposts that indicate I´m going in the wrong direction or away from my purpose.
3. I sometimes cheat a little, I look for the shortcuts in life.
4. Initial excitement can become disappointment, frustration, fear, annoyance and then return to excitement.
5. Pushing a little can help me get what I want.
6. I feel fearful and apprehensive when I don´t know where I am going.
7. Instructions are always clearly available. I just need to listen to them.
8. I often need to hear things twice before taking action. In fact, I often discount other´s advice immediately as irrelevant to my situation.
9. I don´t learn anything if I don´t make mistakes.
10. It´s inevitable that I´ll bump heads or clash personalities with other´s at times. This doesn´t mean I´m a failure, simply that I´m going to experience conflict in relationships no matter how hard I try to get along with everyone.
11. I steal other people´s purposes. I stop looking for mine and take on theirs.
12. By stopping, being still and breathing, I get a clearer sense of direction and a quiet mind.
13. I can change anything by simply making a decision and taking action and that there can be great merit in a systematic approach to life.
14. I´ve made a lot of assumptions about where to find my purpose in life.
15. If I persevere, I´ll eventually find my purpose.
16. This is life. We´re all fumbling around blindly looking for our reason to be alive. We are all looking for something until we find it.
17. and lastly, that I feel great peace, joy and certainty when I find my purpose and hold it up high for the whole world to see (until I fold it up, put it in my pocket, misplace it, forget about it, find it, dog-ear it, spill tea on it and then put it under a pile of papers on my desk of course...).
The discovery of my purpose is a new thing for me and my life has changed profoundly since I found it. Perhaps not in any external sense but in a way that´s more important; inner confidence, clarity and the knowledge that I can create anything I want to in my life. So, a question for you... what´s your purpose, what do you want in your life and what are you doing about it?
Occasionally in my blind groping I hear the word "barrier". My purpose isn´t in that direction. When my searching fingers chance upon a card I peek. An excitement rushes through me and I hold it up proudly above my head only to be told "No, that´s not your purpose." I drop it, disappointed. So many hands reaching for the same pieces of card. So many body parts to bump into. I bang heads with someone. "Ouch!" I feel desperate. I find more purposes. None of them mine. My heart sinks. A distant voice intones "If what you are doing isn´t working, change it." I keep feeling with my feet. I find more purposes. I get frustrated.
The voice repeats "If what you are doing isn´t working, change it". I stop. I hear it. I flounder my way to the edge of the room and start feeling up the walls, windows and curtains. An eternity. No purpose here. People and bodies and body parts in my way - sometimes they melt away effortlessly, other times they don´t budge and sometimes I push gently and they move out of my way. The voice repeats again. I change my approach. I turn around. I raise my hands. I start gently waving them and feeling around in the air. "That´s it!" My searching fingers find an arm, a hand and yes, a card. I take the purpose out of someone´s hand and hold it up high awaiting confirmation. No joy.
I find other hands in the air, empty hands. What does this mean? That voice again, "If what you are doing isn´t working, change it". The next empty hand I find I bend and feel around their feet. "Yes!" I hear. I got it. I found my purpose. Exhilaration explodes through me as I rip off my blindfold wanting to dance and sing and dissolve into wild, relieved laughter. The tension´s gone. I walk outside, carefully avoiding all the still blind, seeking fingers and hands and breathe. I did it. I found my purpose. I feel high. It´s taken me my whole life and what felt like hours in the blackness. It was 15 minutes.
These are the things I learned from the game about my approach to life:
1. If I give up, I´ll never find my purpose.
2. Barriers and "no´s" are not a form of rejection, they always help me by being clear and impartial signposts that indicate I´m going in the wrong direction or away from my purpose.
3. I sometimes cheat a little, I look for the shortcuts in life.
4. Initial excitement can become disappointment, frustration, fear, annoyance and then return to excitement.
5. Pushing a little can help me get what I want.
6. I feel fearful and apprehensive when I don´t know where I am going.
7. Instructions are always clearly available. I just need to listen to them.
8. I often need to hear things twice before taking action. In fact, I often discount other´s advice immediately as irrelevant to my situation.
9. I don´t learn anything if I don´t make mistakes.
10. It´s inevitable that I´ll bump heads or clash personalities with other´s at times. This doesn´t mean I´m a failure, simply that I´m going to experience conflict in relationships no matter how hard I try to get along with everyone.
11. I steal other people´s purposes. I stop looking for mine and take on theirs.
12. By stopping, being still and breathing, I get a clearer sense of direction and a quiet mind.
13. I can change anything by simply making a decision and taking action and that there can be great merit in a systematic approach to life.
14. I´ve made a lot of assumptions about where to find my purpose in life.
15. If I persevere, I´ll eventually find my purpose.
16. This is life. We´re all fumbling around blindly looking for our reason to be alive. We are all looking for something until we find it.
17. and lastly, that I feel great peace, joy and certainty when I find my purpose and hold it up high for the whole world to see (until I fold it up, put it in my pocket, misplace it, forget about it, find it, dog-ear it, spill tea on it and then put it under a pile of papers on my desk of course...).
The discovery of my purpose is a new thing for me and my life has changed profoundly since I found it. Perhaps not in any external sense but in a way that´s more important; inner confidence, clarity and the knowledge that I can create anything I want to in my life. So, a question for you... what´s your purpose, what do you want in your life and what are you doing about it?