Personal Mission Development


	Spend time in Personal Mission Development Live Your Life On Purpose Click here if you'd like to commence the exercises now Leaders who live fulfilled lives spend time in personal mission development. Men and women who have a strong sense of purpose shape the world, both at a local and a global level. People such as Richard Branson , Arnold Schwarzenegger , Tony Robbins , Ghandi , Sorrel Wilby , Anita Roddick , Christopher Reeve , Janine Shepherd and many more are all people who developed a clear sense of who they were and used their natural skills and talents to make a difference in the world. Whilst these well known people shape our world, so too do people at the local level. For example from my local community, Gail Mooney (Riding for Disabled instructor) and Valerie Campbell-Hogg (one of the founders of our local Steiner School) have had very strong impact on their local community, yet are probably not known by more than 1,000 people each. The point is that living purposefully doesn't necessarily mean you do a different job to the one you are doing now! It means you have taken the time to ensure that you live with deliberate intent, using values and principles that give your life context and meaning. Living Purposefully may simply mean that in each moment you are present enough to be a kind and loving parent, or to be a fair and just leader or to give hope to another by saying a kind word to a person in trouble. When discussing personal mission development it would be remiss of me to not recommend this book. Eckhart Tolle's book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose is an exceptionally powerful book on living a conscious life. Highly recommend it. Some Things to Keep In Mind Your Purposeful Living Statement provides the direction in which you are heading - it is not the destination. Many of the questions that you are answer whilst undertaking the personal mission development exercise can lead to the development of something that is grand and huge. But your Purposeful Living Creed doesn't have to be about changing the world. It just has to be big enough to change YOUR world. Be true to yourself and your desires - this is about living a life that is significant and satisfies YOU. There is no need to be influenced by what you think society, your partner, your parents or anyone else would think is appropriate. It should excite you and elicit a focus on consciously using your talents, enabling you to be the person you can be - so that in your twilight years you will feel that your life was well-lived. It may take some months (if not years) to capture exactly the essence of how you want your life to be lived. This is a living document, life is work in progress! There are three hungers that you will attempt to feed throughout your life. The first is to understand what it is that your soul is here to learn about itself and to connect deeply with your higher source. The second is to know and express your unique gifts and talents. Each and every person seems to know/feel they have something to contribute to the greater good of humanity. When you discover how to use your unique gifts and talents on a daily basis you will live a much happier and more fulfilled life. The third is to know that your life matters. Everyone wants to leave behind some kind of legacy; to know that the time that you have spent on this planet meant something. Let's take a look at each of these hungers. Step One:What Is The Legacy You Would Like To Leave? Let's start with the third hunger. If you die tomorrow then the purpose of your life has been realized. The reality is your time here is limited! Sadly for many, life is spent in a haze with little deliberate intent and no sense of purpose: drifting from one set of life conditions and circumstances to another. When you decide the legacy you want to leave behind, then you can determine the appropriateness of your daily actions. Richard Leider from the Inventure Group, interviewed more than 1,000 people who'd had distinguished careers in high profile companies. He asked them to look back over their lives and talk about what they learned. He found (almost without exception): The real point of spending time in peronal mission development isn't to end up with some lofty ideals written on a piece of paper. The real point of the exercise is to consider how you want to live your life, the choices you are making, the goals you set, and the legacy you leave behind How you live today, tomorrow and the day after has generational impact. (Haven't your parents had a huge impact on the sort of person you are today?). If they could live their life over they would be more reflective. They got so caught up in doing that they often lost sight of the meaning. Usually it took a crisis for them to look at their lives in perspective and try to re-establish the context. Looking back they wish they had stopped at regular intervals to look at the big picture. They sounded a warning: Life picks up speed. Time is the most precious currency in life and as they got older having time for reflection became even more important. If they could live their lives over they would take more risks. In relationships, they would have been more courageous. And in expressing their creative side, they would have taken more chances. I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, "Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us." Many of these people felt that, despite their successes, their music was still inside them. Almost all of them said that they felt most alive when they took risks. Just being busy from business made them numb. Aliveness came with learning, growing, stretching, exploring. If they could live their lives over again, they would understand what really gave them fulfilment. This is what Richard calls "The Power of Purpose": doing something that contributes to life, adding value to life beyond yourself, beyond your ego or your financial self-interest. So that you don't get to the end of your life and ask "Is this all there is?", you need to pay attention to the impact of your decisions and actions on the men and women coming after you. You cannot expect to get away with doing things that don't genuinely matter or that are expedient but not meaningful. Take into account the good of the whole, beyond the moment. If you want begin now to decide the legacy you want to leave. You may have already done similar exercises before. If so, it's okay to re-do them, you may find that you now have some new thinking. Step Two: What's Your Talents/Passions/Strengths/Values? Let's move on to the second hunger, discovering your unique talents and gifts. We are each born with a set of innate talents. For example, my daughter is innately good at gymnastics. Within 7 weeks of starting gymnastics she had won the state title for her level. The key to a talent is that you have it regardless of whether you ever choose to use it or not (week 12 she decided she didn't enjoy gymnastics and refused to go any more). Ready to begin identifying your talent/passions? Completing this step will enable you to re-craft your life and your job to make the most possible use of your strengths. For example, when I was working at Colgate-Palmolive I was able to re-design my job so that it focused primarily on the development of the people in the organization. Something I loved to do and it is a true strength for me. When you use this information you will find that your days will be filled with much more flow That experience of when time stands still and you suddenly realise how absorbed and happy you were during the time that you were utilising that strength/value. Read more about the latest research on identifying and using strengths in the workplace. Step Three: Soul Lessons Finally, to the first hunger - to understand your soul's lessons for this lifetime and to connect with your spiritual self. For some of you this section may be a bit out there and on the woohoo side. My request to you is that you set aside any judgements you have for the moment and read the entire section and complete the exercises prior to discarding it as mumbo jumbo. My hope is that it opens you to taking a more symbolic view of your life, rather than a literal view. Carolyn Myss is one of this century's greatest minds and spiritual teachers. She teaches in one of her books Sacred Contracts: that each of us come into this lifetime with an agreement as to what it is our soul is here to learn. (This presupposes that you believe that we have a soul that does not die when our physical body expires.) Now you may or may not believe in angels or heavenly beings. I invite you to remain open to the possibility that there is something or someone who is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent in this Universe. Someone who has a master plan that has not been completely revealed to you and I. Caroline says that our souls are on an ever expanding growth path of knowledge. In each lifetime we come here to discover, heal or grow a part of our soul. We attract to ourselves people, circumstances and events that show us how to release the potential of our soul. At a physical level it seems like all we are faced with are problems and hardship. Yet at the soul level you are being presented with great gifts. Let me give you an example: A young 10 year-old I know has attracted to herself, on several different occasions, people who bully her and pick on her. One of her soul lessons is probably to learn courage and to stand up for herself. Until she learns this lesson, like a magnet, she will continue to attract to her people that will bully her. Here's the interesting thing. As souls we understand our spiritual mission. But as you slide down that birth canal, you go through the river of forgetfulness and arrive here plonk, as a physical being with no clear, sharp memory of your spiritual mission. You have a lingering feeling I'm here for some reason, I'm here to do something, but it is hard to put your finger on exactly what that something is. When you live your life on a literal level with no awareness of soul lessons all you know is that person or circumstance is creating a struggle in my life! "I am being bullied and I don't like it." Or like Christopher Reeve ... "I am at the peak of my career and bam I'm a quadriplegic". Here's the clincher. Our soul is always given the gift of choice. In each and every circumstance, that we face in life, we can choose to learn (or not) our soul lesson. We can choose, rather than to find the courage to say no to a bully to remain a victim. We can choose to find ourselves a quadriplegic with a machine breathing for us and roll over and give up on life. We can choose rather than to forgive to allow anger, resentment and hatred to fester within us. When you spend time reflecting and discovering what is it that this person or circumstance could be teaching you, you avoid allowing your soul's life lessons to go unheeded. Shifting to a more symbolic view of life means you will start to ask questions such as: Why is this happening? What is this circumstance teaching me? How am I going to be stronger/wiser by coming through this? How will the choices I make in handling this situation impact me and others? Look for the recurring themes in your life If there has been a situation or circumstance that has recurred throughout your life - it may have shown up in slightly different ways each time - then be alert that this may be a significant life/soul lesson for you. Until you get your soul's lesson, the universe will keep sending the circumstances and people that will help you get it! (Trust me I know this to be true from my own hard-learned experience!). Whilst so far I've focused on tough situations/people, know too that the great gifts, joys and circumstances that come into your life can equally be soul lessons. Not everything needs to be learnt the hard way! To give you an example of how this work helped me. It became very obvious that throughout my life I have often been bossy, controlling and dominating. With this awareness it prompted me to incorporate into my Purposeful Living Statement the words listening and love. Draft your Purposeful Living Statement At this point you may want to write your first draft Purposeful Living Creed. This certainly won't be your final draft - as I said before life is work in progress and you will find it will constantly evolves. A couple of simple guidelines: Try to keep to a single sentence with less than 30 words, so that if your life depends upon it you can remember it A 12-year-old should understand your Purposeful Living Statement As an example here is my current Purposeful Living Statement: "I transform, inspire and guide people to heal their souls and step into more of their potential through love, listening, role-modeling, writing, coaching and speaking in truth." Ready to begin identifying your Soul Lessons? Once you understand your purpose in life the key is to align it with all parts of your life -- your personal life, your work life, your community. Acting with clear purpose means you no longer feel tired and out of whack. Living a life of congruence and alignment, expressing who you truly are as fully as possible is true success. That makes for a life worth living. Have any questions/comments? Feel free to ask/have your say! Leave Personal Mission Development and go to Personal Growth Articles Index	Keep At The Top Of Your Game Subscribe To Hark (Rest Assured - your e-mail address is totally secure and never shared with 3rd parties) First Name: Email: Related Pages Improve Relationships Quizzes Grow Yourself Quizzes Leadership Style Quizzes Ready To Fast-Track Your Career? Control Your Career and SuccessJoin my premium site where you can download audios, e-book, elearning courses, interviews, ebooks, participate in monthly mentoring webinars and much, much more ... all the resources that Breakthrough Leaders need to shine ... at your fingertips for less than $27 per month. Here is your career builder resource ... Fast-track your business career training today ... 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