What is the difference between your life purpose and work that is purposeful?
Most of the people who come to me for life purpose coaching are wanting to find work that is both meaningful and enjoyable for them. Being in a work situation that is in alignment with your values, talents and interests is a wonderful goal. I believe everyone should have the opportunity to do what they love and that makes a difference in the world. I know that was what I was looking for myself!
As delightful and necessary as meaningful work is, however, it is not your life purpose. It can be called your “Life’s work.”
Your life purpose is about your spiritual growth.
Spiritual growth is about increasing your ability to love yourself and others. As you grow you’ll be able to hold more light and raise your vibration. It involves connecting with your Higher Self and with the higher powers to help grow your compassion and to create the reality you want. And it includes loving yourself as you are right now.
Your life’s work and your life purpose will affect each other.
If you are doing your life’s work, it will affect your life purpose. If you are focused on your spiritual growth, it will affect your life’s work. They weave together.
For example, the challenges you may have in carrying out your life’s work may cause you to face fears that need to be overcome for your growth.
Say you need to learn to become more confident. Maybe you need to learn how to speak up in groups for your spiritual growth. You find it’s a necessary skill at your job. You begin to take the risks of speaking up and your ideas not being accepted. Then, when you contribute to the group, you discover people do accept your ideas! Even on the occasions when your ideas aren’t used, you discover that you are still respected, and your confidence grows. You can’t help but grow spiritually when you are doing work you love and work that serves others in some way.
On the other hand, as you start doing practices that would help your spiritual growth, such as meditation or yoga, you find inner calm. That calm allows you to be more productive at your work. As you reach upward to connect with your Higher Self, more ideas occur to you that help not only your life, but also your work.
Does your purpose change?
I’ve often gotten the question, “Does your life purpose change as you go through life?” Another common question is “Can we have more than one purpose?” Those questions actually refer to your life’s work. The answer is yes.
As we continue to grow and expand into new levels of awareness we may discover what we love to do has changed. It doesn’t mean what we were doing before was less than what we feel called to do now. It’s simply different.
It is also very possible to have more than one purpose at a time. You may enjoy doing one thing for your life’s work and another as a volunteer or as a hobby.
As you can see, doing work that matters to you is part of creating your life purpose. We all share the purpose of spiritual growth. One one of the ways we evolve ourselves is through our purposeful work.
