Psychological researchers know that people with a purpose driven life are happier than those without life purpose. Living with purpose brings meaning and fulfillment to life. However, finding life purpose can be difficult due to the beliefs we pick up in our early years.
Inherited Life Purpose
Dr. Brad Swift, in his book Life on Purpose, Six Passages to an Inspired Life, develops the concept of an inherited life purpose. Inherited life purpose is the cumulative array of beliefs about life and about ourselves that quietly shapes how we live our lives. Before we can get clarity on our unique purpose in life, Swift indicates that we must bring inherited purpose to the forefront of awareness.
Just as our true life purpose is unique, our inherited life purpose is also unique. Yet all inherited life purpose has common characteristics.
Inherited life purpose is:
- Fear based; it's our survival mechanism, how we learned to get along in the world.
- Unfulfilling; living exclusively in alignment with inherited purpose leaves us feeling that something grand is missing.
- A background phenomenon; it shapes our lives through the subconscious.
- A default mechanism; it's our automatic pilot, the actions we take automatically in reaction to life events.
- The storyline of our lives.
Swift suggests the following method for bringing inherited purpose to the forefront:
- Mentally play a movie of your life, beginning with the earliest memory you have of your life events and continuing to the present. Summarize your life as a movie reviewer would do, providing highlights and perspective from a detached distance.
- Develop a storyline for your life. Divide a sheet of paper in half vertically. Beginning at the bottom, list the significant events of your life, events that shaped your thinking. Put the positive events on the right side of the page and the negative events on the left side.
- Review the results of the previous two steps and combine them into a life theme. Summarize your life thus far in just a few sentences.
- Referring to the common characteristics of inherited purpose (fear, background, unfulfilling, default), finish this sentence: My inherited life purpose is that I must...
Focus on finishing this sentence over and over until you get a very strong emotional reaction from the sentence you just completed. This is your indication that you've penetrated the deep and nearly invisible force that has been shaping your life.
Reflection and Awareness
Reflect for several days on what you've just discovered. Notice how it shapes your choices and your decisions. Is this inherited purpose serving your greatest good? Does it bring fulfillment and meaning?
If not, you'll now be able to discard any or all components of your inherited purpose in favor of the purpose that ignites your energy and enthusiasm. For several methods of life purpose discovery and creation, see the following articles:
Life Purpose Begins With a Eulogy
Reflecting on your Life Purpose
Jerry Lopper - IPPA member, business and engineering degrees. Jerry's passion for personal development shows in 5 books, hundreds of articles & ...
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