“Here is a test to find out whether your mission in
life is complete. If you’re alive, it isn’t.”
― Lauren Bacall

In 2007 I received my first psychic reading. At the time I was stagnant and miserable. I felt an extreme urgency to be doing something more with my massage work, but had no idea what it was or how to go about it. The reading said: “You came to Earth with your own form of bodywork. Don’t take any more classes, focus on your intuition.”

It makes a great deal of sense now, but you can imagine at the time it only spiraled me into more confusion. I went through an intensive struggle to understand the nature of my bodywork and intuition.

Interestingly, once I awakened to it two years later, helping others name and awaken to theirs become a core part of it.

This is because I found life purpose very easy to read as a new psychic – it was almost the first thing I saw about someone, like noticing their hair or the color of their eyes.

In my experience reading someone’s purpose is nearly unavoidable, because it’s such an intrinsic part of who they are it’s hard not to see it. Regardless of the focus of their questions, what they were born to do will come through. What I noticed in doing these readings though is that often people’s reactions are the same as mine was back in 2007: “that makes sense, what do I do with it?”

Having encountered this question with enough clients – and worked through it multiple times in my own life – I offer the following truths about the real nature life purpose for anyone seeking to know and live theirs. How to save yourself the time and struggle I went through is covered in my upcoming class, “Life Purpose Activation”, which provides both a reading of what your life purpose is, and what to do with it.

1. You are already living it.
Your purpose is the energy that comes through you. It’s your “shine”, and can show up in anything you do, as a dishwasher or the CEO of a major company. It’s so intrinsically part of you, it’s not possible to be separated from it. It’s an essence of you, and when named you’ll most likely see it as, “that’s just what I do.”

The confusion and sense of lack of purpose comes from a lack of connection with yourself, not your “purpose”. Once you clearly identify it, you’ll see there was never a time you weren’t living it. Any time you’ve noticeably helped someone, the energy of your purpose was coming through.

2. Life Purpose is a state of mind
The feeling of “rightness” that is aspired to in finding one’s purpose comes from recognizing a part of yourself, not from your purpose.

In 2002 I reached a turning point in my life when I could do anything and live anywhere. Having no idea what I wanted, and deeply confused about my life purpose, I decided to go to massage school and follow that with a degree in counseling. I was still 7 years from consciously recognizing my “purpose”, but I chose the direction of bodywork and therapy with the thought that it would get me through until I found what I really wanted to do.

It was my purpose, but it didn’t feel “right” until I acknowledged my innate ability to do it. It was the acknowledgment of a part of me I’d suppressed that brought the feeling of “rightness”, not changing what I was doing. I was already doing it, and several “massage” client sessions didn’t change at all, as I discovered I’d been doing readings with bodywork for them all along.

3. Passion exists independent of Purpose
You are in a relationship with your purpose, the same way you are with every other aspect of your life. Meaning it cannot make you excited about the day, eager to go to work, or enthusiastic about your to-do list.

In my experience working with clients, the excitement phase about doing what you love usually lasts about 1 – 2 years, after which it starts to be “routine”. Being routine often means it’s boring, and one might get a wandering eye and start looking for something else that’s new and exciting, only to become bored again and think they still haven’t found “the thing”.

I can’t tell you how many professional, successful musicians I’ve met, or writers, or actors, who are bored by their work.

People get “burned out”, which means they lose their passion. The same as in a marriage, keeping the passion alive is your responsibility. You cannot depend on finding the right person or job to do it for you.

Don’t focus on finding your purpose, which only confuses the mind. Focus on cultivating enthusiasm and passion in your daily life, this will make whatever you are doing inspire you and feel “right”.

4. No one has “one thing”
As part of writing my book, “The Dreamer’s Guide to Success”, I interviewed numerous successful people who are living their dreams doing what they love. The one thing they all said without exception was, “if I wake up tomorrow and realize there’s something else I need to be doing, I will.”

They’d poured their lives into building businesses, playing music, dance, and art, but all of them held it lightly. This is not giving up out of boredom or being burned out, it’s the gentle awareness that purpose has it’s own direction, and exists independent of the vessels it is expressed through. In my life I’ve been a house cleaner, a caregiver, an actress, a massage therapist, and an intuitive counselor. In every one of those positions, my purpose was fully expressed.

5. It helps the world more effectively than activism
This point is perhaps best demonstrated in a quote by Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

When you focus on what makes you shine, you become a light for others to follow. When you focus on trying to fix or save the world, you lose alignment with your center, your light fades, and with it the ability to effectively serve.

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If something sounds fun or interesting to you, most likely it aligns with your purpose. You don’t have to be excited by it or feel a resonant “aha”, just explore. Anything that interests you aligns naturally with your greater call and will pull a deep part of yourself into focus. When it does, you’ll discover as I did that you’ve been living your purpose all along.