My work helps you:

• Make sure your work is compatible with your true nature; your life purpose, your unique strengths and your blind spots; your values and your loves; your pet peeves and your deepest wishes. Why? Because then you have a much higher chance of succeeding financially, and of liking your life.
• Get in touch with your deep guidance and source of strength. Why? Because you have a much easier time knowing what to do and much more confidence doing it
• Create a work environment that is genuine and respectful
• De-program past failures and beliefs that get in the way of succeeding now
• Translate your yearnings to “make a difference” into profitable business practices
• Bring quality and meaning to a hard-driving professional life

How to tell if you would benefit from working with me:

• The easiest way is to join me on my free teleseminars, where you can ask any question you’d like and/or listen to the recordings. Sign up in the top right corner and you will get all the information you need to access them.
• You can also read a free report from my “Dealing with fear” page, which gives you novel ideas and techniques you can use right away.
• Scroll down this page and read my posts. I welcome your comments by the way.
• Just ask me; feel free to send me an e-mail at the address shown at the bottom of this page

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• Knowing your purpose is something that is nice, but not essential.
• Instead of navel gazing, we would be better off picking a vision and a goal and just do it!
• Purpose talk often sounds like splitting hairs, especially when it talks about improving various aspects of our character (e.g. being more compassionate, or more loving)
• A lot of it feels rather vague (I’m meant to integrate the masculine and the feminine)
• And self-absorbed

Doesn’t sound like world-changing stuff, does it?

Well, it is, and here’s why.

When you are on purpose, everything makes more sense. You see how your past story contributes to your growth.

And contrary to the accusation that purpose work makes you self absorbed, you are more forgiving and generous because you don’t want to sweat the small stuff. You also know that others have a different purpose than you which may create a different point of view…and that’s ok; you can live and let live.

One of my mentors, Tim Kelley is the CEO of True Purpose Coaching and he’s been working with heads of corporations and heads of state, helping them find their personal and their organizational purpose, knowing that doing so will help create a better world.

Why?

The live and let live attitude of someone on purpose applies to organizations as well. Not only that, the process he uses to find your purpose puts you in touch with your deepest Divine guidance, and that guidance will not direct you to act in a way that will harm others.

Sound impossible or too idealistic; what do you think?

If you’re not reading this blog post at a later date, you might be interested in hearing Tim talk about the state of the world and what can be done. He is giving a free talk March 1st at 3PM ET. Here is the link to get the telephone number.

I obviously believe in the power of finding our purpose since I do that kind of work in several ways.

In this video, you’ll hear the Dalai Lama’s belief about the purpose of life.

I agree with him fully…and feel that in addition to that general purpose, we can narrow down our purpose to something more unique to our own spirit.

• My love of animals
• The fact that we need to be who we are rather than try to mold ourselves into what we “should” be, and that’s for our own happiness and because we’ll be much more successful that way.

It’s not possible to put the video on my site but you’ll see it if you click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGODurRfVv4 .

You won’t regret taking the time! Actually you should do it especially if you feel overwhelmed right now.

You’ll take a breath, sink into yourself and reduce your overwhelm either by changing what you do or what you think.

Let me know what you think of it!

In the middle of our conversation, I realized that other people might want to hear our thoughts on this so I’m interviewing Paula Harvey Monday night at 8:30PM ET. (For access to the free teleseminar, provide your name and e-mail address on the top right corner).

That train of thought made me realize that it might be a good idea to add a few more thoughts on the importance of knowing your life purpose even when you’re in survival mode.

Of course, covering your basic needs takes priority, that’s common sense and consistent with our biological imperative.

But here’s the thing, when you remember your life purpose, even a crummy job you take just to make money can become more meaningful.

Let’s say that your purpose involves being on the cutting edge as an innovator, and that you’re taking “temp” office jobs to make some emergency cash. Those jobs will feel a lot less dreary if you put on your innovative hat and are on the lookout for a better way to do things. That might even lead to a better suited job or a business idea.

Here’s another example: what if someone takes the night shift as a security guard in order to be home for the kids during the day when his wife goes to a day job. And what if his purpose involves being the one that connects people together; how can he possibly do that in solitude?

Let’s see…he might be the person who is God’s gift to the cleaning crew; he also has some time to think of various people and send them good thoughts, healing vibes or prayers (depending on his beliefs and gifts); he might find it easier to get through the night by remembering that he’s doing it to be his family’s glue, the loving presence to his children.

He might also cheerfully greet tired workers putting in extra overtime, one of which might be the owner of the joint.

The point is that your purpose is bigger than your job; it’s a way of life and it comes with a predictable outcome:

• Follow your purpose and you’ll feel more satisfied
• Ignore your purpose and you’ll feel more empty
• Follow your purpose and life has a tendency to re-arrange itself to support you
• Ignore your purpose and things start going wrong.

What kind of things? Stay tuned…

• Too self-absorbed and even self-indulgent
• Not a high priority, especially in difficult times
• A personal growth topic to be pursued at best in your spare time

And I can understand that point of view; I probably would have said something similar in the past. What changed my opinion is that I have personally paid a heavy price for not realizing earlier in my life what my purpose was (see my last post ). If I had known it, I would have been able to:

• Choose work (or a business) that was more consistent with my purpose. Now let me explain something; your life purpose is bigger than your career or your business. That makes sense when you think about it; don’t we all know that there’s more to life than your job? The trick though is to make sure that the work you do for so many hours a day expresses your purpose in some way. If your life purpose involves being a healer, you wouldn’t be very happy doing a technical job with few human interactions.
• Be more successful in my work, whatever it is. Going back to the healer example, let’s say that Jane studied engineering before she got to know her deeper self better, and now she doesn’t want to toss her training, experience and security out the window to start again in another field. She could still live her daily life more on purpose by:
  • Being the one who uplifts morale, negotiates differences of opinion, or increases the level of trust between various sub-groups
  • Choosing positions in her company that involve these kinds of activities; not only will she enjoy them, she is likely to excel at them.
  • Doing volunteer work that allows her to be a healing presence
  • Taking self-development courses that interest her in alternative healing, counseling, coaching, mediation, or wellness
  • Making time for listening deeply to friends and family members

• Be happier and less stressed. Doing work that contradicts your purpose is exhausting because your heart isn’t in it and you’re not playing with a full deck since your subconscious knows that you’re off course. You’re missing on that feeling of deep satisfaction, and constantly “making yourself” do things to earn money, rather than doing good work that expresses who you are. And you feel empty, tired, and disconnected.

This is even more important as an entrepreneur because you don’t have the same ability to leave the job behind when you go home, or console yourself that at least, you’re enjoying social interactions at work. Not only that, having strong positive energy is essential to sales success, and we know that being in business for yourself means selling what you have to offer.

I still remember the very first day at work after having graduated with an MBA; I had a sinking feeling that went: “Oh no; this is not where I belong!” Now even in those days of long-term careers with one employer, it wasn’t unusual for recent graduates to bounce around a few times until they settled down. But my “oh no” was deeper than a reaction to the particular company I’d chosen; I was in the wrong field entirely! I didn’t know what else I should have chosen though. And I couldn’t toss out all those years of school down the drain, could I; my parents would freak out and it would be so…irresponsible!

So what did I do? I found a way to do something I loved, learning, while still making some money; I joined an accounting firm. Fast forward a couple years and as soon as I ran out of exams to pass, I got that sinking feeling again.

I resolved it by becoming an advisor (banker or consultant) to entrepreneurs and service professionals. I loved my clients…but not the last environment I worked in for many years. But I stayed, thinking that I was wise enough to know that the grass isn’t always greener elsewhere.

Basically, I thought that work was supposed to feel this way. It wasn’t that bad, logically; I was well respected and paid, what did I have to complain about?

Nothing…other than a complete disconnection of my soul and deepest wants; other than being exhausted from trying to protect my staff and clients from the de-personalization of a large organization; other than feeling like the only purpose of this was to make a living.

God if I could get those years back; what I could do with them!!

Now it sounds like this whole post is about me, but my intent is to illustrate through my story, how important it is to get in touch with your life purpose. It serves as both a motivator and a map to know whether your life in on course and how to correct it. Actually, I need to explain more about this and this post is so long already, let me continue on another day.

Most of us get carried away with our schedules, our action plans, our to-do lists. You can even get carried away by your intentions if you haven’t re-visited them lately.

How can that be; isn’t setting your intentions the way to keep yourself conscious of what you’re doing?

Absolutely, but even intentions can get stale; you might simply repeat what you’ve been stating for the last few days, weeks or months. If you don’t consciously re-commit to your intentions, they lose their power to keep you present.

So let me ask you; what are you doing here, now? Why are you in business, and how does it tie into your life purpose? What is your life purpose?

The answers don’t have to reveal a grandiose plan to save the earth or dominate your industry, but it’s highly advisable that they reflect what you really want.

Advisable both for your happiness and for your success because if you go through your days without inspiration, life is a lot flatter and so is your ability to attract business, especially in the long term.

Have you ever had the experience of being really busy all day and at the end of it, wondering what the heck you accomplished?

Or of getting the job done by being really focused for days/weeks/months or even years, then taking a step back at the end of it all and realizing that you would have been better off devoting your time to something else?

That last one is particularly poignant when decades have gone down the tubes working hard in a career or environment that doesn’t really suit you. I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen retirees’ eyes reflect deep regret.

All of these are examples of what can happen when you’re too short-term oriented in your goals.

Sometimes being “too short-term oriented” can mean that you’re hopping from one urgency to another, or spend weeks on a project without giving sufficient thought to how it fits in with your ultimate goals.

But sometimes, it can be disguised as an apparently well-thought out career or business plan, as illustrated by retired executives who have deep regrets about their work life.

What was missing in that case was a larger picture of what they wanted their life to be about.

Too long

Do you know anyone who can’t figure out what he/she wants to do with his life and never gets started with anything?

Or someone who only wants to focus on the big picture and long term vision, never stopping to figure out the steps to get there and how to get them done?

Or someone who does the daily/weekly tasks but you can really feel how he/she resents doing them?

Those are symptoms of being too long-term oriented. These people are often accused of being “dreamers”, or in the last case, bitter dreamers.

On which side of the short-long continuum do you usually live?

Just right

Since just about everything in life is about getting the right balance, it comes as no surprise that the answer is to have a long-term vision for your life and your work, and keep it in mind when you decide on your shorter-term projects and tasks.

The trick is, how do you do that in real life?

The first step is to get a life vision and that’s not easy for many of us. To find it, you need to ask yourself what you value and get a sense of what you’re here to do (and in my experience, that’s always bigger than a specific career but often isn’t about saving the world).

There are many books and workshops on the subject. In my case, I found that, before my thoughts could become clear, I needed to process them with other people and my breakthrough happened when I found my life purpose with the help of a mentor (Baeth Davis).

Ironically, my purpose involves helping others to find theirs, which is now part of what I do. And another mentor, Connie Ragen Green, was the one to identify my business essence and website name.

Finding your purpose is just step one though. You then need to know how to reflect it in your work and in your life so that you make money doing something meaningful to you, taking action while keeping the stress low and the joy level high. That’s when the shorter-term goals come in.

So if you have a tendency to focus on the immediate priorities, you’re able to decide on which short-term project or task to do that will help fulfill your overall purpose.

And if you tend to be on the “dreamer” end, you can plant your vision into a conscious purpose-driven action plan. Then you won’t mind doing the short-term or mundane work so much since it becomes so much more meaningful, and you’ll have a much higher likelihood of success.

I’ll say it again, if you’re like most people, you can’t do this by yourself. You need some structure and someone who can bring out your vision and has the business sense to help you make concrete plans.

Then maybe you’re a better self-study than I was and reading books or internet material will work for you. Just make sure you don’t let too much of your life slip away trying it on your own before realizing it won’t do the trick. You won’t get that time back.

Sure, we needed to do some tweaking and planning, but their desires were pointing them in the right direction.

So why did they feel the need for my input?

• For some of them, their desires meant a fairly radical life change and they knew that it was unwise to proceed without getting an opinion outside of their usual circles from a person that could objectively advise both on business and personal issues
• Others, interestingly enough, just didn’t know that they knew what they wanted to do. Until they were asked the right kinds of questions that is. Then it all came spurting out ready to be shaped into a workable plan.
• Still some others had an inkling that their proposed direction was right for them but needed to bounce it off a competent third party and especially needed help in sorting out the implications of their choices, as well as in making a plan (is there a theme forming here ?)

As I said in a recent post about using human mirrors to help with decision-making, our thoughts seem to become concrete only when they are externalized. Writing helps because of the alchemy that happens when thought energy turns into written words. Brainstorming with another human being brings another level of transformation to our ideas.

Given the impact that life direction decisions have on our finances, our time, our energy and our life, it’s amazing that we would even consider making them on our own or with the help of just our immediate circle of friends and family.

If you don’t want to or feel you can’t afford the services of a coach or advisor, find other ways to get a new perspective such as:

• Brainstorming with mastermind group buddies
• Reading books and doing exercises that come from a different angle than you’ve previously tried
• Listening to free or low-cost teleseminars on the topic and joining their group programs.

Whatever you do, make sure you’re not being penny-wise and pound foolish. You know how costly it would be to choose an unwise direction. That’s one of the reasons why you might have been stuck in the first place.