Responding To Query From A Reader

Hi Brad,

I would like to know how you reconcile the seemingly paradoxical set up that goes with this ... being resilient and flexible means being open to any and all change having a life purpose means holding to your purpose come what may. In this context, how can I know for sure that something I see as my life purpose today might not be my life purpose tomorrow? (... 'then it's not your life purpose' I hear you say, but what if I was wrong or not seeing the big picture maybe when I discovered my life purpose 'yesterday'? Is there truly no room for doubt for those who arrive at their life purpose thru your methodology?

MY RESPONSE Great question. You've given me the opportunity to ponder on this for a day or so and here's what came to me.

Short answer: You just know. But then, I realize that's too short an answer. I don't know that I would accept it by itself, so to take it a bit further.

This is what I perceive happens. In the Life On Purpose Process, we first work to uncover the person's inherited purpose. This is the fear, lack, struggling to survive based life shaping force that can keep us from ever really getting around to clarifying our true purpose.

By uncovering this, the person can move beyond it -- set it aside, at least long enough to gain access to their true purpose. I'd say when I look at my own life experience and from working with many of my clients, doubt stems mostly if not entirely from the inherited purpose. When I'm clear I'm not operated from fear, lack or struggle, there's clarity not doubt.

The second part of the equation is from experiencing my life purpose. When I'm living true to my life purpose -- when I'm experiencing a life of purposeful, passionate and playful service, when I'm in touch mindfully with the abundant universe in which I live and I balance that with simplicity, and when I'm truly experiencing spiritual serenity -- then I'm 'in the zone' I'm experiencing a level of joy, satisfaction and fulfillment that is unmistakable, and there is no doubt. I JUST KNOW that I'm living true to my divinely inspired life purpose. And the more I live it and the more I experience that level of joy and satisfaction, the more affirmed I am.

Ok, that's my take on your great question.

2005 Brad Swift of Life On Purpose Institute, Inc. This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the entire article and this resource box are included.

Brad Swift

As a writer, I've written well over 300 magazine articles for a diverse assortment of magazines including Omni, Entrepreneur, New Age Journal, Yoga Journal, Utne Reader, Unity Magazine, Better Homes and Garden, Modern Maturity, and many others. I'm also a regular contributor to Veterinary Economics. (Yes, I still have a special place in my heart for animals.) My books include, WINNING THROUGH COACHING: Building Your Business Through Building Your Team and TRAVELING THE PURPOSEFUL PATH ? 6 Passages to an Inspired Life on Purpose.

As a public speaker, I lead programs on life purpose that are customized to fit such diverse groups as churches, spiritual centers, civic and professional organizations. The principles of these programs are also available in the 12-week teleclass, Living the Fulfilled Life. From these programs participants bring more focus to their life, experience a renewed sense of fulfillment, and lighten up and have more fun. Out of this focus, fulfillment, and fun emerges an ability to maintain balance in their life and a deeper appreciation for living.

One of my all time favorite ways of expressing my purpose is as a life purpose coach. I find the intimacy and creativity of one-on-one coaching to be a breathtaking experience. The select group of people who are my clients are very special to me, and with them I am constantly creating new facets of life purpose coaching that are then incorpoated into the other programs.

In short, the focus of my life is life purpose. From living on purpose, I've been blessed with an extraordinary life in which I am satisfied and fulfilled. My wife, Ann, and I share our redwood chalet home in the "Paradise Found" of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with our daughter, Amber, and a menagerie of purposeful and playful pets.