Is there really such a thing as a life’s purpose? Are we prioritizing our lives purposefully, or does life simply happen? Do we HAVE to be consciously aware of all things in order to be happy? Look at happy babies. Most babies before the age of becoming cognitively aware of life’s hardships, are pretty happy.
Babies live in the ‘now’. They are easily entertained. They don’t overthink anything. They find joy in the simplest of tasks. As they age … as we humans age, we develop awareness and conditions. Those conditions create a need for prioritizing and a need for purpose.
Babies and small children get lost in play time. They have endless summers and a school year of waiting excitedly for a big holiday to show up with its rewards. We lost ourselves in the flow of being alive.
Then, somewhere along the way we mucked it all up with doing what we thought we had to do, in order to fit in.
Prioritizing
In order to do what I love to do, I have to return to prioritizing myself first. Periodically, I have to pretend again. Go back to a time when there were pockets of joy. I prioritize my grown up responsibilities with the professional endeavor of being in that flow state where I can lose myself.
When I’m listening to music; creating the fiction worlds; write in my side gig job, I’m the happiest.
Without creating purpose for each of the characters, with a clear understanding of their need for their own identity. Writing fiction is easy. I’m the master of the journey. Becoming lost is where I am most found.
Coaching and educating are not as easy. It is honorably purposeful, but not easy. We can create an environment that is conducive to positive change, but we can’t convince our clients or students to develop the internal desire to find their purpose. We can only share to the point where someone wants to welcome that invitation.
Purposefully
Here’s the really interesting thing about living purposefully. We don’t actually have to do it. It just makes everything more meaningful when we have a sense of purpose. Like that impatient forced waiting time for the holiday to come. (Remember being excited about your birthday?)
We don’t always have to feel like we have this ultimate vision quest purpose driven life, when a modest personal goal fulfillment desire to find contentment is good enough for some, maybe most of us.
No matter the big or small accomplishments, when we prioritize and plan even just a little, we achieve more, build on those more often, then find satisfaction more than frustration with life as a whole.
I love to write and paint. I gave myself permission to do only that on Monday’s. Sunday is fun day. I prioritized myself first, which in turn, helps me to feel that I’m living my best life, purposefully.
Peace and Love,
Karen
Author: Karen Henry [Daly], MA CRM owns Henry Healing as a holistic well-being practitioner and writer. She’s a former university professor and current scholar practicing the infusion of holistic healing and positive psychology.