Positive Steps

Looking for Your Life Purpose?

Do you ever wonder why you’re here? After all, you were created with a unique set of passions and talents that no one else in the world can duplicate! Discovering your purpose in life lets you use your unique assortment of feelings and abilities to bring you greater self-fulfillment.

When you’re doing what you feel like you must have been born to do, you can create a life you enjoy through and through. Your goals will have more meaning to you and challenges will be naturally easier to overcome as you joyfully move toward achieving those goals.

This process for finding your life purpose enables you to tune in to your inner self and figure out what makes you tick. Take the time to find your purpose – your life will certainly change for the better!

Prepare Yourself

For this process, an open mind is optional, but helpful. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think this will work – it just means it might take a little longer. All you really must have are a piece of paper, something to write with, and approximately an hour of peace and quiet.

As you’re doing this exercise, try to empty your mind as much as possible. The clearer your mind is, the quicker and easier the process will be. Also, do this while you’re relaxed, alone, and unlikely to be disturbed.

The Process

1. Focus on your intention. Write at the top of your paper: “This is my life purpose.” This simple act sets your intention in your mind for the next hour.

2. Begin listing your thoughts – even doubts about this process. As you clear your mind and focus on this process, write whatever comes to mind, no matter what it is. If you think to yourself, “This isn’t going to work,” then you would write, “This isn’t going to work.”

3. Brainstorm. Answering these questions will get you started. Then keep writing your thoughts until you find your life purpose.

* What are your talents and abilities?
* Which talents would you like to develop further? Why?
* What are your passions?
* Do you get joy from helping others? Who?
* Have you always wanted to be a philanthropist?
* What activities do you enjoy?
* What have you always wanted to do, but you haven’t done it yet?
* Who do you most enjoy being around? Adults? Children? Why?
* Do you love animals?
* Do you like to travel?
* Do you want more excitement in your life?
* What are your favorite books or movies? Why?
* How do you feel about your relationships?
* Do you take an interest in politics or world matters?
* What is your most important priority in your life? Family? Work? Something else?

4. How will you know? You’ll just know. It will be the answer that fills you with the most emotion. You may even cry. The idea will resonate with you completely, and there won’t be any doubt. Just continue writing whatever comes into your mind until you reach that point.

* Commonly, answers will repeat themselves. A lot of unrelated nonsense is also likely to come out. Our brains can be a little cluttered, and this exercise will expose that fact. Don’t let anything you write distract you from your intentions; odd things quite frequently end up on the paper.

* There will be several answers along the path that feel pretty good to you, but remember, you’re looking for the big one. When you see the ones that are good, but not “it,” this means you’re close, but not quite on target yet.

* You’re looking for that one idea that feels overwhelming to you. In this exercise, it’s common for your life purpose to reveal itself in less than 100 ideas, but it can take as many as 400. Keep writing.

How Can I Apply My Life Purpose to Benefit Me?

Now that you’ve discovered your purpose, always try to honor it. To do so, keep it in mind consistently. Ask yourself, “Is this in alignment with my ultimate purpose?” A life lived like this, with direction and intentionality, is a life you can truly enjoy.

So don’t wait any longer; schedule a time to do this when you know you’ll have some peace and quiet. Knowing the core reason you’re here is one of the greatest gifts you could ever give yourself.

Don’t Be Afraid to Pursue Your Dreams

Have you ever awakened one day and realized that, although your life is going pretty well, there’s just one thing tugging at you? Something inside is telling you that something isn’t quite “right” in your life. Or maybe it feels more like something’s missing.

Perhaps those feelings are trying to let you know you haven’t been pursuing your dreams. For many, dreams about the future started when they were youngsters.

You might’ve grown to admire your uncle who’s a great golfer and wanted to try golfing to emulate him. Or maybe you do golf but there’s that one golf course in Europe that you really want to play.

It could be that your 7th grade English teacher, whom you loved, always told you what a great writer you were. But after high school, you’ve hardly written even a short story. You always thought you’d get back to writing, but just haven’t taken the time or effort.

It’s time to pursue your dreams!

Review these tips about following your bliss. You might realize that – YES! – you can go after your special goals while living your life and “taking care of business.”

1. Ask yourself, “Is there something I’ve wanted to do for a long time?” If so, what is it?

2. Write down your goals for the future. Obtain a spiral notebook and devote it to your dreams.

* Take your Dream Notebook and pen to the park or front porch. Then, ponder your dream. Write everything that comes to mind. Record your dreams on a small bit of paper and affix them to your bathroom mirror.

* Each day, when you see that message to yourself about what you want to do, it will inspire you.

3. Pledge to do just one thing each day or week to chase after your dream goal. Maintain your momentum toward following your bliss.

* Make your dreams a priority in life.
* Avoid allowing anyone or anything to get in the way of pursuing your dreams.
* Who knows what can happen when you “keep your eyes on the prize?”

4. It’s rare to accomplish dreams in a short period of time. Accept that you’ll be following your most cherished wishes for the long haul.

5. Think about ways to divide your path to your dreams into “chunks.” For example, if you’ve always wanted to travel to France to see the Eiffel Tower, you could separate your dreams into sections like:

* Read everything you can about France and the Eiffel Tower.
* Explore the subjects on the web.
* Become an “expert” about the topics of your dreams.
* Even though you might struggle financially to make ends meet, set up a separate bank account for your “dream” trip to Europe and make regular deposits (at least monthly), no matter how small.
* Regardless of what your dreams are, think of a way to move toward them somehow.
* Vow to keep your momentum going so you can achieve your dreams.

6. It’s okay to re-vamp or even totally overhaul your dreams. You can let go of a dream you had for a while if you discover you really aren’t interested in that goal anymore.

* As you grow and mature, it’s not unusual to develop new interests and dreams.
* You can feel comfortable transitioning into a new goal to pursue.
* Give yourself permission to let go of an old dream, alter it, or even add a new goal.

7. Avoid thinking of your dreams as impossible for you to accomplish. Dreams keep you moving forward in life.

* Tell yourself it’s entirely within the realm of your life to pursue and fulfill your dreams.
* You truly deserve to have goals and dreams, no matter what your situation.

Following your bliss will enrich your life in so many ways. Allow yourself the opportunity to fulfill your special goals in life. Pursue your dreams because you’re worth it.

Self-Talk Can Improve Your Life

Self-talk is an integral constant in your life. You start talking to yourself when you wake up in the morning and don’t stop until you fall asleep at night. Who would’ve thought you had so much to say? Right? But you do!

When self-talk is positive and helpful, amazing things can happen. When self-talk is negative, life can be much more challenging than it has to be.

Like much of who you are, your style of self-talk is a habit that has been molded by your experiences and environment. Imagine how your life could change for the better if you were able to alter your self-talk into something more supporting and encouraging.

You can start living that life today! Just follow these simple steps to get started:

1. Make a list of your negative self-talk phrases and attitudes. For 24 hours, record everything you say to yourself that isn’t supportive, regardless of whether or not you think it’s true. Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

* “He would never want to talk to me.”
* “I’m not good enough for that.”
* “I could never do that.”
* “Things will never get better.”

2. Prioritize your list. Which items have the greatest negative impact on your life and your sense of happiness? Put the list in order, from greatest negative impact to least.

* Prioritizing is important because it will naturally force you to spend your time on the most important items.

3. Create a new list. Now that you’ve made your list, you’re going to improve it. Convert at least the first 10 items on your list into positive thoughts. If you’re feeling motivated, you can rewrite as many more as you like.

* Even if you don’t believe the new, positive idea, just change it into a positive version. For example, “I could never do that” changes to, “I can do anything I set my mind to.”

4. Change your thinking. Now, for the challenging part. Each time you catch yourself engaging in self-talk matching an item from your list, substitute the new self-talk expression.

* Be diligent at all times. Considering how many times you may have said the negative item to yourself, this new practice will require a lot of attention. The good news is that over time, the positive things you say to yourself will become a habit, too!

5. Move further down the list. After you’ve conquered the 10 most negative items, look at the list and consider how it would improve your life to change those remaining negative self-talk items. You may have formed such positive habits with your first 10 items that the rest of them might not really be applicable anymore!

Self-talk will always be there, so it will benefit you to exercise some control over it. Anything you hear over and over again, you start to believe. That’s the way our minds work.

The first step to gaining that control is to monitor your thoughts and feelings. Then the necessary steps can be taken to change it for the better. As with all habits, these self-talk patterns can be challenging to change, but doing so will really boost your happiness. Get started today!