Purpose: recent publications

Humans are hardwired to avoid and escape pain.As such, we seek the fastest, most efficient route to avoid and escape. We seek short-term fixes in lieu of long-term solutions and inner peace.When our lives are unfulfilling, when we know we’re not filling our full potential, when we ask, “Is this all there is?” or “Aren’t I meant for more?”, we’re experiencing pain. Our soul’s deepest desire is to create meaning; it’s intrinsic to us. One of the ways we create meaning is to pursue our life’s calling, fueled by our mission. I delineate the two as:A Life’s Calling is the task (writing, speaking, teaching, composing, sculpting, etc.).The mission is the why (serving something more significant than ourselves).Combined, they are the energy that shoots us out of bed each morning and that we’re willing to put it all on the line for. The pain we experience, the angst, the frustration, the disillusionment, the sense of betrayal (I did all the things I was supposed to do, WTF?), and the emptiness are products of not having a calling and mission or having a calling and mission – but being paralyzed by fear and unable to take action. Because our life’s calling, the reason we’re here is terrifying. It flies in the face of how our brains are wired.

Setting goals is a crucial first step, whether you’re striving to reach personal or professional milestones. However, achieving those goals requires planning, determination, and focus. In this post, we’ll discuss five actionable strategies that can help you achieve your goals in 2023, and we’ll provide real-life examples to inspire and motivate you.

One of our most significant desires is to connect with and unleash our full potential.We crave to stand in our power. We harbor this desire because it’s innate to us; it’s who we are at our center.We long and desire to embody and live from this place, yet we’ve been conditioned to do the opposite. To shrink, to hide, to not stand out from the crowd.The first word most babies hear is “Shh.”As we grow, we understand fitting in is easier than standing out. If we step outside the norm of our group, we risk being ridiculed and judged. It’s better to follow the slice of lemmings than step outside the flow and forge our own path. Our families, friends, and society erode our potential with the slow drip of phrases like,“Don’t be cocky.”“You can’t do that.”“No one likes a show-off.”“Who do you think you are?”“Remember where you came from.”And many more.Each of these unto themselves is merely a drip; collectively, they create a river, carving beliefs around how we believe we must show up to be safe. Because that’s all fitting in and hiding are, a bastion of safety in the “unsafe” world outside of our beliefs. At around the midpoint of our lives, we often find ourselves lost, frustrated, disillusioned, and longing for more, even if we’ve reached the pinnacle of professional and materialistic success. We begin to grasp how far we’ve traveled from our true selves and our full potential. We feel it growing inside, but we have no idea how to let it out. It lives, breathes, and rattles the cage of the self-imposed cell we’ve imprisoned it in. “The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming.

Humans are hardwired to avoid and escape pain.As such, we seek the fastest, most efficient route to avoid and escape. We seek short-term fixes in lieu of long-term solutions and inner peace.When our lives are unfulfilling, when we know we’re not filling our full potential, when we ask, “Is this all there is?” or “Aren’t I meant for more?”, we’re experiencing pain. Our soul’s deepest desire is to create meaning; it’s intrinsic to us. One of the ways we create meaning is to pursue our life’s calling, fueled by our mission. I delineate the two as:A Life’s Calling is the task (writing, speaking, teaching, composing, sculpting, etc.).The mission is the why (serving something more significant than ourselves).Combined, they are the energy that shoots us out of bed each morning and that we’re willing to put it all on the line for. The pain we experience, the angst, the frustration, the disillusionment, the sense of betrayal (I did all the things I was supposed to do, WTF?), and the emptiness are products of not having a calling and mission or having a calling and mission – but being paralyzed by fear and unable to take action. Because our life’s calling, the reason we’re here is terrifying. It flies in the face of how our brains are wired.

Our deepest human desire is to cultivate meaning in our lives. Our deepest human need is to survive.This is the source of our deepest conflict. Our brains are survival machines and nothing more.

Your purpose. It’s time to detach from the idea that it’s too much of a floaty concept and that it will magically show up, because, every moment waited is a moment wasted, and each wasted moment degrades your clarity of purpose.

I woke up and groaned. It was a Monday, again. My calendar was choc-a-bloc with meetings and presentations.

You manifested your vision, and now you’re living your deepest calling. Or, at least, that’s what you tell yourself.

Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a writer. But my quintessential Indian father thought that was a terrible idea, and well, so did everybody else I knew.

Despite being committed to living a life of success and accomplishing your goals, things don’t always work out as planned. Our minds have the ability to spiral to a dark place quicker than we’d care to admit.

Knowing the purpose of one’s existence in the world is a lingering thought for everyone. Some people may interpret it as a quest, as they try out new adventures and learn new skills.

For many years in my life, I fell into the trap of thinking that if I search externally, my purpose would come to me. It began during my junior year of college, when I saw most of my peers preparing themselves for interviews with consulting firms with the hopes of landing a summer internship, which would then convert into a full-time offer before senior year.I thought that consulting was a good option based on its popularity on campus, in addition to how the consulting firms marketed themselves, “Consulting is like a continuation of your liberal arts degree.

“If you want to be happy, be happy on purpose. When you wake up in the morning, you can’t just wait and see what kind of day you’ll have. You have to decide what kind of day you’ll have. Higher thoughts. Higher energy. Higher vibrations. Higher frequencies. Higher experience.”

It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful. I’m not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me. – Warsan Shire