HIGHER PURPOSE : THE PULL TOWARDS THE FUTURE
Image: Harper's Bazaar February 1994 by Peter Lindbergh
Over here at Benshen.co, we like to sit with the big questions. The questions that don’t have a single right answer, the kinds in which the questions AND the answers evolve as we evolve. With that in mind, we started to dive into a talk from one of our favorite motivational speakers, Jim Rohn— “The 10 Powers To Be Great”—and he hit us with one of the biggest questions there is: what is your higher purpose?
Jim posits that in order to get and be and do everything we want in this lifetime, we have to see beyond the roadblocks or even the mundane things we do in the day-to-day. To be able to see life's bigger picture and stay motivated/get excited/live in a state of awe and thrill and inspiration about where we’re headed (as opposed to feeling like what we’re working towards is a lunch break or a 3 day weekend), we must keep our higher purpose at the forefront of our minds. He says, “If you have a list of higher purposes in your life, it pulls you toward the future. The more powerful the purpose is, the stronger it pulls… If you don’t have this, it’s easy to get swallowed by a bad day, it’s easy to be annihilated by a poor month, easy to disappear beneath the waves of a year that goes backwards.”
It’s a deeply powerful thought—purpose can act like an accelerator, something to propel us to where we want to be, instead of getting stuck in the patterns and cycles of the Now. All that said…how does one figure out their purpose?
While a Vision is a personal compass and navigational tool, our Vision is really only the roadmap - our Purpose is the gasoline we put in the car to get the where we want to go. In this newsletter, we invite each other to add some tools to our repertoire and start to unpack some of these big questions about our higher purpose, in order to light the figure to fuel our trips towards exactly where we’re headed.
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations; your conscious expands in every direction; and you find yourself in a great, new and wonderful world.”
– PATANJALI,
AUTHOR OF THE YOGA SUTRAS
Image: Jazzmine Berger
RETRACE YOUR STEPS,
ACCELERATE YOUR PURPOSE
Deep down, we already KNOW what our purpose is. We came to Planet Earth with it already installed in the software program of who we are. However, sometimes we get confused or lost along the way after years of being told what to do and how to live and comparing ourselves and our lives to others.
Brené Brown once shared an exercise on the difference between a WANT LIST and JOY/MEANING LIST. When we take a look at the things we want in life, are we just trying to get them because we think they will bring us happiness on the other side? Or are the visions we are creating allowing us to feel joy and meaning in our lives, as we move forward into the future we desire.
Brené gave the example of having a summer home and a guest house on the want list shared between her and her husband. They thought, “isn't this what success is supposed to be? Doesn't everyone end up with the summer house and the guest house (that no one actually really ever uses)?” Over time, Brené and her husband realized that striving and reaching and hustling just to get that wasn't actually bringing them the JOY they were really looking for. What they did realize, is they really wanted to utilize their success to have more time to spend doing the what they actually loved, like traveling and spending quality time together, rather than using that money to buy a second house because that's what society has taught us is what success looks like.
Now it's your turn. Use these journal prompts as a starting place to explore what would give your life deeper meaning/joy as you get clearer about what you really, truly want.
1. When life is going best, it looks like…
2. What excites me most?
3. What are secret desires I want to live out but am too afraid to admit?
Wow what a great question and I know many people are wondering the same thing. I even have been diving more into the pursuit of courage in my own life because I know that anything worth having or experiencing in life that is part of our greater vision requires courage to get from where we are now to where we want to be. To start, I always like to look at what a word actually means because it helps give me a deeper understanding of what I am up against when it comes to emotional mastery.
COUR·AGE - mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty
I've been listening to A LOT of the ever-inspiring Brené Brown lately. She breaks down courage in a way that makes it not only less scary to take leaps but also inspiring as we understand what's really going on. “Courage,” Brené says, "starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” So really what we're up against is not just making the change but also what others may think of us in the process of doing so. It's about taking that risk or finally doing the things we've always wanted to do but were too afraid to because we're scared what people will think of us, if no one likes what we offer or who we are, or what will happen if we fail. We have to remember that everyone - EVERYONE - started someone. Everyone had their own Day 1. And then Day 2. And then Day 3. And suddenly they're 4 years into a successful business or they finally put themselves out their romantically and met the partner they have always been longing to be with. Often times we sabotage _____ (insert your situation here) because if we sabotage it / reject it first, then the world doesn't get a chance to reject us. But here's the thing - if we never take risks, if we never take chances, if we never put ourselves out there, people will never, ever know who us truly and what we're capable of and how incredible we really are. And even worse, WE will never know ourselves truly, what we're capable of, and just how incredible we are.
To be courageous and take risks to be vulnerable and be seen by the world is one of the scariest things in the world but in the end it's WORTH it because the people and experiences who are meant to be in our lives are going to be drawn right to us as we step into our most authentic selves. Now, I don't love that word “authentic self” because I feel like it has become so watered down over the years but the reality is just that. Think about the people you love and admire the most - you are probably drawn to them because of who they are deep down and not a fake facade of superficiality and pretending to be something they're not.
And just like that, others will be drawn to us as we leap into the fears and conquer them one by one, day-by-day. Brené also shares that THIS is how confidence is built - by showing ourselves that we can do scary things and that we are ready and willing to be seen by the world as ourselves, to share our talents and gifts, and to stop hiding behind our fears and doubts which keep us small.