01 - It’s not what you do, it’s who you are.

I often used to brainstorm all of the jobs I thought I would like. Would I like to own a store? Would I like to be a therapist? I would think of purpose in terms of ‘jobs’. But I had a hard time imagining myself doing any of them. It had me looking outward instead of inward. Your purpose is not a job that you do, it’s who you are doing that job. Your purpose is who you are. The job is it’s vehicle. It’s who you want to be and what’s important to you. Do you want to create? Be a leader? Be of service? Are you loving? Our jobs aren’t our purpose. Our purpose is to live from our hearts.

02 - Purpose is not found, it’s revealed.

‘Finding your purpose’ suggests that you are looking out into the world for it. I used to have a vision of being on a long winding path searching for a golden treasure chest that held my purpose inside of it with a shiny bow. Then I found out I was heading in the wrong direction. Finding your purpose is a journey, but it’s a journey of looking inwards. Purpose is not something that can be found, it’s something that is revealed within you. It’s already there. The search is to find it within yourself. It is waiting to be revealed. To know your purpose is to know yourself. You reveal your purpose by understanding who you are. As you grow, heal and learn, more of ‘you’ starts to show. And as more of you shows, more of your purpose will show too.

03 - You don’t have to choose.

I spent many days going back and forth between ideas. Partly because I love thinking of ideas, but also because I felt I had to choose one thing. Should I write a book? But there is more than one book I want to write. Should I start a business? Help others find their purpose? But I thought I was going to write a book? Well, which one am I doing? One day I decided that I was going to stop choosing. I wanted to do them all. They were all just ideas. Vehicles for me to live out my purpose. Why couldn’t I do them all? We are multifaceted. We are not just one thing, we are many. We can have more than one purpose and many ways to put our purpose out into the world.

04 - Your purpose can change.

What you feel is your purpose right now may not be your purpose in a few months or years. Just as we change and grow, our purpose does too. Purpose can change depending on the season of life you are in. When my children were born my purpose was loud and clear - to be a loving mother. To hold them, feed them, soothe them. There was no greater purpose than this during that time. And no room for any other purposes that’s for sure. They needed me to survive. There are different phases of life. You aren’t the same person you were years ago or even days ago. Nor will you be the same person years from now. Ask yourself what your purpose is in this season of life, not what it was or what it will be.

05 - Your inner purpose.

Eckart Tolle believes there are two types of purpose, your inner purpose and your outer purpose. Your inner purpose is you being aligned in the present moment. You being nowhere else but where you are right now. You being fully present in the moment. He says that if you are not fully present you won’t know who you truly are. Once you are in your thoughts and out of the moment you are no longer in your inner purpose….