Chapter Twenty-One
Since time began, people have asked the question, “Why am I here and what am I meant to do with my life?” They’ve wondered and wandered and searched for the answer, trying to solve the mystery of life and looking for the meaning in their life.
They’ve traveled through their experiences in the pursuit of their purpose, gaining knowledge with every step. The more they looked for answers, the more they awakened their awareness and found that true answers were within themselves, waiting only for their recognition.
The path you follow to find your purpose leads you on a true course toward your destiny and the fulfillment of goals you’ve chosen to accomplish in this lifetime. Your destiny is composed of the lessons you chose to learn and the karma you need to balance, and includes the main purpose your soul strives for in every lifetime.
As you travel through the journey of life, your destiny unfolds, step by step, revealing your purpose within your experiences. As you pursue your purpose, you understand why you’re here. As you discover the meaning in your life, you understand your purpose. As you reach your soul’s purpose, you become in tune with your divine spiritual nature.
Through your destiny, you evolve your soul and gain knowledge. Through your purpose, you acquire spiritual wisdom and attain levels of enlightenment.
Your purpose differs from lifetime to lifetime, depending on what your soul chooses to experience and perfect. You chose the path to follow in this life that would enable you to reach your destiny.
You created the events and experiences that would allow you to accomplish your purpose. Your purpose is determined, in part, from your soul’s purpose in previous lives and from your actions and reactions to events and experiences that occurred in past lives.
Your destiny may be a continuation of previous goals, and of working through karma you’ve incurred that interfered with your purpose in past lives. Your purpose is directed by the wisdom of your soul in creating your current experiences, and by the choices and decisions you make in this lifetime.
While your purpose may relate to karma you need to balance, it’s usually a culmination of efforts and achievements. Your purpose may be one central purpose that is woven together with other achievements, and can range anywhere from being a good person, to learning a lesson or achieving something, to saving the world.
Your purpose doesn’t have to be an idealistic, or noble, or spiritual goal. It can be something that is physically oriented. The value of your soul’s purpose this time begins with how you feel about yourself and your experiences, and what you want to accomplish. Your purpose is special to you and evolves your soul by allowing you to experience and develop higher aspects of yourself.
No matter what path you take, all roads lead you toward your destiny. You can discover the path you chose to follow to reach your purpose in two different ways. Some people insist on doing things the hard way and going against their destiny, rather than going with the flow.
Look at the way your life is going and how you feel about the goals in your life. Look at your reasons for wanting them, your motives for achieving them, and how you feel when you reach your goals.
If you have to struggle for everything you want, and if everything you want has been determined or directed by other people, you’re not closely tuned into your spiritual nature, and you’re not following the path that connects you with your true destiny and purpose.
If you find that you’re achieving unhappiness and despair, instead of happiness, inner peace, and fulfillment, then you’re pursuing a purpose that goes against your destiny, one that is not meant for you this time.
Every choice you’ve made in the past and every choice you make in the present affects and alters your destiny, leading you closer to your purpose with every twist and turn of fate.
If you’re following a path that is contrary to what your soul desires to accomplish, you’ll experience problems which escalate and become more serious until you get back on the right path. At first you might mistake this as karma but if you look closely, you’ll see that you’re stuck in a negative pattern and following the wrong path.
Events in your life that appear to be out of your control show you how you’re honoring commitments and covenants you made before your birth. When you realize why these events are happening, and recognize your feelings about them, you’ll see the wisdom within your experiences by how they guide you toward the path you’ve chosen to follow. When you change direction, through the course of your experiences, you’ll find the way back to your path.
To know what your purpose is, and the path that your soul chose for this lifetime, simply do what makes you happy and brings you joy. Just follow your bliss.
Discovering your destiny is finding the right path to follow. To know if your path is right for you, listen to your feelings and trust your inner knowing. You intuitively know the direction of your destiny by following your feelings that guide you toward your true purpose.
When you’re on the path that’s right for you, you sense it and feel it on a deep, spiritual level within yourself. You know that what you want to achieve and what you’re doing are the right things for you, no matter what anyone else says or thinks. You’re guided by an innate sense of direction and by your spiritual wisdom.
You can discover your purpose by noticing what comes to you easily and by what you enjoy doing; the things you want or need flow to you without any effort. While these things may be the rewards of past life achievements, they’re also a good indication of the path you chose to help you achieve your purpose.
When you go with the flow of what you’re meant to be doing in this lifetime, you experience a natural awareness of your purpose.
The difference between pursuing your purpose and past life rewards are how you feel about them in the present, and the importance you place upon them. Past life achievements that are carried over into the present bring you pleasure and happiness, and you enjoy them.
Your purpose may be something that builds upon your past life achievements and present accomplishments, but it’s more of a dedication within your purpose that leads you forward. It’s an experience of searching for and finding the treasures of your soul. It’s a joyful and completely fulfilling pursuit of what you want to accomplish.
Finding your purpose is finding your niche in the world. When you’re pursuing your purpose, you’re tuned into your spiritual nature and in harmony with it. In the process, you learn about yourself and grow spiritually.
Your purpose is always something positive, even if you have to work hard to achieve it. You feel an inner satisfaction when you’re directing your efforts toward reaching your purpose. You enjoy what you’re doing in every moment, and it brings you happiness and fulfillment on every level. When you achieve your purpose, you evolve into higher levels of awareness and enlightenment.
Opening-Up Exercises
1. The answer to what your purpose is can be found in the present. Your purpose is either what you’re doing now with your life or what you want to do with it. What you’ve already accomplished may be a stepping stone to your purpose. Your experiences, feelings, interests, and work or career, all point to your purpose.
2. The key issues in your life and their past life influences that you identified in Paying the IOU’s From the Past will show you how you’re following the path you’ve chosen to reach your goals.
There are many other clues in your life that reveal your destiny and your purpose. The lessons you chose to learn and the karma you chose to balance give you valuable insights. If you’re dealing with negative issues, look at the positive side of them and you’ll have a big clue as to part of your purpose.
Most important is how you feel about your experiences and the value of them. In learning your lessons, especially the painful ones, perhaps you’ve recognized them as being positive experiences that turned your life around and steered you in the direction of your destiny.
3. To know what your purpose is in this lifetime, look at what you really want to do and what makes you happy. In your journal, make a list of all your hopes, desires, dreams, plans, and goals.
Get in touch with your feelings about them; write down why you want to achieve them, and why they’re important to you. Notice how some of them are related and build upon one another. This offers you many insights into yourself and into why you chose the earth experience to fulfill your purpose.
Notice what you’d like to do more than anything else. If you feel it’s unattainable or impossible, then let go of your limits and free yourself to achieve it.
Enter a meditative frame of mind and let your thoughts and feelings flow with what you want to do. In your mind, experience it and know what it’s like to pursue and achieve what you really want. See yourself achieving it, and notice how you feel about it.
If you’re already doing what you want, then expand on it. Write down what you experienced in your reverie. Your desires will reflect your purpose, and you may be closer to achieving it than you think.
If you feel it’s really unattainable in this lifetime, then look at the experiences in your life that relate to it and help to form it. Note the events that lead up to, or are similar to, what you want to do and connect them with your desires. The way your experiences relate to what you really want to accomplish, and how you feel about them, will give you clues and show you what your purpose is.
You may be forming the foundation for your purpose in a future life, or you may be only a step away from recognizing it in this life. You may only need to look at it from a different perspective in order to see it clearly. The similarities show you what your purpose is, and the connections you become aware of show you that you may have already begun to accomplish your purpose.
If you feel it’s just out of your reach, refer to your list from #3 as a background and write down the things that flow naturally into your life. Include experiences you have which follow the direction of your hopes, desires, dreams, plans, and goals.
Note the events and experiences that make you feel as if you’re on the right path, the ones that lead you toward what you want to accomplish. Note the situations that make you feel happy, comfortable, and natural, and the ones that bring you inner joy and fulfillment.
This list expands on your previous lists and shows that you already know what your purpose is. Notice how some of your experiences have influenced and affected other experiences.
Notice how your emotions, and the way you feel about things, have formed your decisions and created your experiences. This list reveals the steps you’ve taken on your path, and the things you’ve already accomplished that have led you closer to achieving your purpose.
4. You may have several purposes to accomplish in this lifetime, but there is generally one very specific goal or one high attainment of your soul’s desire. Look over your previous lists and answers. As you go through your notes, you may discover that several items surfaced on every list and became more clearly defined as you added more information and became aware of more insights.
5. Write down eleven items that are very important to you. Include the ones you value most, the ones in progress, the ones you’ve already accomplished, and the ones you feel special about.
These items can be physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. They can show experiences, lessons, karma, or reflect your dreams and desires, or the things you’d like to improve on.
From this list, choose seven items that you feel might be your purpose this time. Write down why you feel destined to achieve them, and what motivates you. Note all the steps you’ve already taken toward achieving them. This gives you a lot more information as it reveals important clues and insights into your destiny and your purpose.
Look at your list of seven items very carefully and thoughtfully. Circle the one goal you feel most drawn to accomplish. The goal you’ve circled is your primary soul goal, which is your purpose this time around.
The other six are your secondary soul goals, which are your destiny. They show the lessons you chose to learn and the karma you chose to balance that are most important in helping you to gain knowledge and evolve on those levels.
The other four items on your list show your past life rewards and what you came back to enjoy on a physical level.