As we enter this exciting new year, it's an excellent time to set clear intentions for our lives and to develop and refine our life purpose. Especially in these challenging times, finding and clarifying your overall life purpose and your core life intentions can help you to move with greater focus and clarity every day of your life.
There are many ways to both find and develop your life purpose and intentions. Below are a number of useful resources to help you on this path of discovery. This information is provided to inspire you to be all that you can be and to lead an ever richer, fuller life.
A great way to start exploring your life purpose and intentions is to stop for a moment and ask yourself these two key questions:
What is most important to me in my life?
What are my deepest values and beliefs?
Give yourself time to explore these important questions and notice what touches and inspires you most deeply. Write down any answers or thoughts that come to you as you ponder these questions. Then use what you've written as a basis upon which to craft your life purpose and intentions. Consider also inviting divine guidance and your own inner wisdom to help you with this.
Below are some inspiring examples of life purpose, intentions, and mission statements. Consider using one or more of these examples as templates or models for developing your own.
- My Reason for Being by Nancy Smeltzer
- My Life Purpose & Intentions by Toni
- My Mission Statement by Russell Cameron Thomas
- Arabella's Life Intentions by Arabella Droullard
- My Life Intentions and Life Purpose by website founder Fred Burks
Though both can be valuable, there is a difference between life purpose and life intentions. Your life purpose is generally a single statement related to why you feel you are here. What is the greater purpose behind your being alive? Why are you here in the world?
Life intentions are any number of profound statements about the way you want to live your life. How do you want to be and act in the world right now and in each moment. When you are confronted with major challenges, on what core principles do you want to base your decisions and actions?
Both life purpose and life intentions can be rich and valuable in helping you to navigate through the sometimes stormy waters of life, though some will prefer focusing on one over the other. If you find this process somewhat challenging, you might do best to focus on one first. Choose whichever feels right and best to you. Later you can always come back and work on the other.
For two short, inspirational essays which give further ideas you might consider:
- Simple Keys to a Fuller Life (two pages)
- Principles of Transformation (two pages)
You may find yourself hitting a mental or emotional block in this process. Whether or not this is the case for you, by exploring the core beliefs and challenges in your life, you can find useful ideas for moving through any resistance that might come up. Once you've identified your own deepest challenges, you can develop meaningful life intentions or even a life purpose to deal with them. The link below will guide you.
- Transform Fear Through Core Belief Work (two pages)
Once you find and develop your life purpose and intentions, consider finding a good place to post them. Review them each day upon awakening in the morning to help you move more effectively and powerfully through the day. In difficult situations, check to see if your life purpose or one of your intentions can give you direction to navigate through the stormy waters. By frequently reminding yourself of your purpose and intentions, you become more focused and effective in building a brighter future for yourself and for all around you.
Remember that this key piece in your path to self-discovery is an evolving process. Nothing needs to be set in stone. One day while reviewing what you've written, you may find new wording that better expresses what it is you really want deep down. Or one of your intentions may no longer feel so important, while another surfaces to take its place. Unlike goals, which are future oriented, life intentions are for the present. They can change in accordance with changes and new realizations inside of you. When you live life to its fullest, you are a constantly developing work of art.
Many excellent books and guides on developing life purpose and intentions are available. Eckhart Tolle's highly empowering masterpiece A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose is chock full of incisive insights into the human character and refreshing suggestions on how to find deeper joy and purpose in your life. Dr. Wayne Dyer's The Power of Intention is another deeply inspiring book designed to awaken you to your full potential.
- A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose - Eckhart Tolle
- For other tools on developing life purpose by Eckhart Tolle, click here
- The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way - Dr. Wayne Dyer
- For other tools on developing intentions by Dr. Dyer, click here
- For over a dozen other excellent books on finding life purpose and intentions:
http://www.soulfulliving.com/bookspurpose.htm
Opening to spiritual guidance is highly recommended as you explore this important topic. You might consider opening to divine guidance as one of your life intentions. We also highly recommend adopting some form of doing what's best for all as one of your primary intentions. By aligning yourself with what's best for all who share our world, you open to feeling more connected with everyone around you and may find your life becoming filled with ever more joy and meaning.
Thanks for taking the time to explore these important matters. As your life purpose and intentions become clearer, your life is bound to move more powerfully in the direction you want it to go. May your life become ever richer and fuller as you move with greater purpose, focus, and intention through each day.
For other resources on finding and developing your life purpose and intentions, conduct a search on your favorite search engine or Internet bookstore using the words "purpose" and "intention" in combination with other words like "develop" or "developing" and "find" or "finding." Or search for phrases such as "life purpose" or "life intentions."
For a concise guide to exploring and transforming your core challenges in life, click here
For a short essay on how we can work together to build a brighter future, click here
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