Are You Living On Purpose?

This week in my Life Alchemy Workshop we’re focusing on the part of our lives dealing with career and life path/life mission. This section deals with the way we bring our talents and gifts to the world. When things are going well in this section, you’ll feel like your natural talents and gifts are fully being made use of and in a way that perfectly complements your values. You'll feel like you're living on purpose. When you have this type of alignment in your career, anything you do for work will be a joy. Your life path, however, is not just about what you do in your career.

When you look at the feng shui bagua map, you’ll notice that the career/life path section (bottom center) is different from the section dealing with wealth and prosperity (top left). They’re definitely related, but they’re not one and the same.

When you think about this distinction, it makes sense. For many people, including myself, parenting is part of their life path/life mission. It is not generally a way of bringing in income. Quite the reverse actually. Conversely, you can have a job that is rather lucrative, but does not make good use of your gifts and talents. I felt this way about law practice. I was very well remunerated, but I felt like the job was sucking my soul. It made use of a few of my gifts and talents, but not enough of them and not enough of the time. The rest of the time, I had to do tasks that were not a comfortable fit. I felt like a fish out of water. Now, in comparison, I feel like virtually every thing I do is in line with my talents, gifts, and values. My current work feels like the perfect pool for me.

Transitioning to this line of work did not magically happen for me. I spent a lot of time exploring my gifts, talents, and values. I created a personal mission statement, and made a commitment to live by that statement. I invested in coaching and classes to help me stay the course. It took faith in myself and a higher power, a lot of baby steps, and some patience. But it did happened. Some aspects of my mission statement are still aspirational, but I continue to take daily steps in the direction.

If you are feeling like you are not quite living your purpose and you may not be on the right path, I suggest that you first put together a personal mission statement. A personal mission is a statement of your core values and highest goals. A useful mission statement should include two pieces: what you wish to accomplish and contribute, and who you want to be - the character strengths and qualities you wish to develop. If you’d like some guidance, check out this website for a free personal mission statement wizard.

[30 Day Blogging Challenge - Day 4]

Monick P. Halm, Esq. is the founder of Equilawbrium Career & Life Coaching. As a coach, law of attraction student, Reiki Master, and former lawyer, Monick inspires and supports lawyers and other professionals in crafting their careers and lives so that they are ones of balance, passion, and joy.