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Examining the role of life purpose in personal development March 18, 2012

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Purpose.
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As each of us works on our personal growth or personal development efforts and programs, we will frequently come across the concept of life purpose in our search for information. This is a subject which on examination can raise more questions answers.

The following is an introductory article exploring some of the questions and issues involved in the concept of life purpose with additional posts planned for the future to review specific ideas and strategies in more detail.

Authorities in the field of self-development will often urge us to discover our life purpose or emphasize the need for creating a statement or guideline concerning our life purpose as a logical and necessary part of our personal development efforts.

But what is “life purpose”? Is it something we construct and design, or is it something we are destined to fulfill in some predetermined scenario? Following are a couple of definitions* of “purpose”:

(1) The reasons for which something exists, or is done, made, used

(2) An intended or desired result, end, aim, goal

Using the first definition we could say that the purpose of a pen is to write or draw; and using the second definition we could say that the purpose of writing an article on a particular subject is to convey information on the subject and help people understand it better. An example might be an article written by a psychologist or a famous philosopher providing guidance on how to find true meaning, a mission, or purpose in our life.

But the concept of life purpose and trying to define it is not so straightforward. Is life purpose  a mission that we formulate in our mind to accomplish specific objectives and to follow a certain code of conduct throughout our lives, or is life purpose something we look back on and determine in retrospect? Or is it something that we simply discover as we move through life?

If we look at the life of British politician Winston S. Churchill, for example, we will see that he was a writer of significant talent and substantial literary output during his life; and he was also Prime Minister of Great Britain during a critical time in the country’s history, the period of the Second World War. Which of these areas of endeavour was his life purpose, or was it both? Perhaps it was neither and the purpose of his life was to serve as an inspirational example. But here, we are, in our minds, imposing on Churchill’s life a purpose based on what he excelled at. Yet, what would Churchill have considered his life purpose if we had been able to ask him that question?

Towards the end of the Forrest Gump movie, Gump says, “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.”  And, to add to the dilemma of determining what we should focus on in our lives, Gump’s mother says, “Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.”

And, which component or components of our life as a whole could be considered our life purpose? Is it something which we decide on early in our lives, like a life mission, or is it the sum of our accomplishments in one or more areas as we near the end of our lives? Do we create our life purpose or do we discover it?

There are numerous methods within self-development literature in books and the Internet about discovering and/or creating our life purpose. Many of these focus on identifying concepts or activities that we feel very passionate about and cannot do without in our lives.

In addition to these considerations there are a number of ways we can look at our life purpose, such as from a spiritual perspective, from the standpoint of practical achievements, or, perhaps, how we conduct ourselves from an ethical code of personal conduct.

If we are not careful, however, we can get into deep philosophical waters on this topic and starting looking at the question “What is the purpose of life” instead of the question “What is (our) life purpose?” There is a big difference between these two questions.

This article, in raising a number of questions, is one of what I hope will be a series of posts, exploring various ideas in involved in the subject of “life purpose” and hopefully providing some answers from various resources.

How would you define life purpose?

*Definitions Source: Dictionary.com

Moving beyond the ego is critical to discovering our higher consciousness, and true life purpose March 4, 2007

Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management.
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The ego and its constant invasion of our real consciousness can present a roadblock that we need to overcome for an effective personal development program to manifest.

On the subject of personal development, and self-improvement generally, I recently got into a discussion as to whether a person can change their basic emotional make-up, or whether changes are possible largely only to a person’s behavior. The conclusion the discussion came to was that it is easier to change our behaviors than it is to change our basic character traits.

For example, as someone who does many things at the last minute, I could work hard at doing things ahead of time, of “doing it now” of not putting things off, but it would be a behavioral change, not a true underlying character change, because my preference would likely be to still want to procrastinate. However, on the other hand, perhaps if a person who normally procrastinates constantly did things ahead of time, it could become firmly engrained in their character trait make-up.

This discussion was prompted by my talking about the personal growth possibilities inherent in Eckhart Tolle’s book,  “A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.”  In A New Earth, which I am about halfway through reading, Tolle has devoted a considerable portion of the book to the ego.

For Tolle, the ego, and I am simplifying and interpreting, is that portion of our awareness that is constantly evaluating and making judgments on events, circumstances and things. The ego constantly judges external “reality” or everything going on outside ourselves.

Among other attributes, the ego is that never-ending chattering in our heads which often reviews over and over events or circumstances from the past and projects evaluations into the future – often negatively. For Tolle, however, our ego is not our true identity, and to have peace within, our purpose is to discover who we really are.

Tolle Says, “Every ego confuses opinions and viewpoints with facts. Furthermore, it cannot tell the difference between an event and its reaction to that event. Every ego is a master of selective impression and distorted interpretation. Only through awareness – not through thinking – can you differentiate between fact and opinion.”

Tolle is of the view that who we really are is well hidden beneath the constant stream of thinking from the ego: “Most people are so completely identified with the voice in the head – the incessant stream of involuntary and compulsive thinking and the emotions that accompany it – that we may describe them as being possessed by their mind. As long as you are completely unaware of this, you take the thinker to be who you are.”

Another major aspect of the book is the importance to all of us of living in the “now”, instead of in the past and future. One of the ways we can do this according to Tolle is to recognize the ego for what it is, to make effort to move beyond it, and thereby the fully appreciate the present moment.

I am finding A New Earth a deep philosophical work, which is not only going to require re-reading and noting of particular passages, but also a work that will need study and comparative readings to get its whole benefit. One of the aspects I like about the book is Tolle’s tendency to name spiritual leaders, especially those in the past, who have been the great wisdom teachers and providing examples of their teachings. I’m looking forward to finishing my reading of this book and then trying to put its principles into practice.

The edition of the book that I am reading is in hardcover. The pages discussing the publishing information, says that it is “published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. It also says, “This is a Namaste Publishing Book.” First printing October 2005. Eckhart Tolle has also written the following books: The Power of Now; Practicing the Power of Now; and Stillness Speaks.