The Start: Moving Towards Purpose

Here is to the start of something new. A journey inward. A quest outward. I feel compelled to write my thoughts. I have been thinking… thinking… thinking… thinking for some time now. As a counselor, instructor, manager of career counseling, and doctoral candidate, thinking comes with the territory. What does not always come with the roles listed previously is the questioning. I have never been able to stop questioning. Why am I a counselor? Why do I care to teach? What is the point of career counseling? What should be the point of career counseling? What do I care about so much that I will dedicate a significant portion of my time and life to studying for my doctorate? And then comes the larger questioning. What do I need in life? Where is my place in the world? What will be my significant offering to the world? Do I only have one offering for the world? What matters to me? What is my life work? How can I be there for my family and friends while also making time for my life’s work? Could I say that I lived fully if I were to die today? What am I being called to do and be? Who or what is the caller?

I hope these questions reverberate within others as well. I believe there is a larger pull towards a life of meaning for everyone. The pull may not even be conscious yet, but it’s there. There is more to life than comfort. There is more to life than things. There is more to life than economic advantage. There is a purpose that awaits to be absorbed into every aspect of life.

Purpose in life is often addressed by many religious and spiritual traditions around the globe. These groups and organizations often speak to the overarching purpose for mankind. I think this pursuit is noble and I am a part of a faith community, but this blog speaks to the individual journey of each human and not the whole human family. I want to speak to you. I want you to find your own unique pursuit in life that seeps meaning into your work, relationships, family, and soul. I believe that this pursuit is referred to in passing too much. The canvas of individual purpose awaits, but will you paint? Will you etch yourself into the world in a way that matters to you? There is only so much time in life, will you give your life to and for something that means something? This blog addresses this purpose.

I do not give answers... before you quit reading because I don’t give answers, give me a few more lines. I trust in you. I trust that you have more answers than you are aware of. I believe that if we can connect on some important concepts and principles that I explore in this blog that they can spark a flicker of meaning that will move you towards a larger flame of purpose. In physics we learn that there is potential and kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is energy that is in motion. It is moving. It is exerting. It is moving with the intention with which it was compelled. There is also potential energy. This is energy that is latent. It is unmoving. It is waiting for some sort of stimulus that moves the potential energy into the moving, exerting, kinetic energy. You likely have some sources of kinetic energy that are moving in your life right now. Some things are good. Some things really matter to you. Keep that up. But I also believe there are vast untapped sources of potential energy inside you and inside me. If nothing stimulates our potential, will it ever get moving?

This brings me back to this blog. I hope this blog is a stimulus. I hope it gets you moving towards a life of meaning and purpose. Like I said before, I will not give you how to answers because the potential energy is already inside you, not in cheerleadery statements on a blog page, not in abstract theories written by some supposedly smart person inside a rich house or in the ivory tower of academia. You have answers inside of you that want to burst forth. You have purpose and meaning that is waiting to be unchained.

As a counselor, instructor, and researcher, I have developed a model of life purpose. It is the life purpose conceptual model. In this blog, I will examine and explore each piece of this model. I will give examples of how the general concepts can be applied specifically. Overall, the model helps you in two ways. First, it helps you find a new way of interacting with others and with yourself. This is done as you reconsider assumptions about what it means to be free and responsible in life, what it means to experience empathy towards others and yourself, what it means to open yourself up to new possibilities, and what it means to be your true and authentic self. Second, it leads you towards concepts, that I refer to as existential themes, that are important to examine if you want to move towards your unique and individual sense of purpose in life. These include the themes of values, energy (which I already touched on here on kinetic and potential energy), beginnings and endings in life, suffering, inheritance (whether that is biological, social, cultural, and/or spiritual), and holism. My next blog post will introduce the model in more depth. Each blog after that will consider each piece of the model.

Here is to a beginning. Here is to a journey. The journey will not be easy. It will not be comfortable. It should terrify you at times. That is part of the process. But the journey has the potential to transform you. It can unleash a power within you that has been crying to come to the front of your consciousness. It can enliven your life. It can help you live a life of purpose. It can change you forever. I hope this journey is a journey of no return. Once you find purpose, it can transform you then, you can’t return back to who you once were. If you dare, I invite you to join in this journey.