Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Life purpose

On my yoga retreat I took a seminar called What is Your Life's Purpose? It was very yoga-ish and touchy feely, but helpful none the less. Before starting on the exercises, we defined "life's purpose" as anything that, when you do it, you feel completely satisfied on a grand scale. Eating ice cream is satisfying, but on a grand scale? Probably not so much. Your purpose might be something you enjoy so much that you lose track of time when you're doing it and/or it makes you feel really proud when you are done with it.

The most useful part was when we had to write for a few minutes to answer the question posed in the course title: What is Your Life's Purpose? Try it. You may be surprised.

I wrote a lot about teaching writing, about showing people how amazing your life can be if you find a way to express all those deep down thoughts. I wrote nothing about getting published in women's magazines, which may be why every time I try to set that as a goal for myself, I don't go after it with as much gusto as I'd expect.

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5 comments:

GoGo said...

Life purpose, huh. hmm. Perhaps a moment thought on this one. Some days I still think I am struggling with this one and other days I know as sure as I know how to breathe.

Life purpose...good question.

Becca said...

Thanks for sharing this definition of life's purpose as doing what makes us feel satisfied "on a grand scale." It was the perfect question for me to consider, and I immediatly had a very illuminating answer about some of the things I'm doing with my life right now.

I also found your own answer to the question very interesting. The "grand scale" in the writing life isn't always what we think, is it?

Great post! I will definitely be writing more about this!

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea. I feel like my life's purpose changes every couple of years -- I think when I finally accomplish something, I'm like, "Hmm, now what?"

Though, I might wait until after April 28 because up until then my life's purpose is getting through this wedding without exploding from stress. :)

TI said...

I'm definitely going to try this exercise as soon as I get a break from all the things that I am doing that are definitely not satisfying on a grand scale (or even any f*#@%&g scale for that matter). Thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this suggestion, Bug! I, too, am going to try it (perhaps on Sunday?), but am afraid of what it will reveal.

I guess that's part of being a writer, though--exploring those deep things that we're not always aware of.