Living with Purpose: How Purpose Reveals Itself
When we look at the legacy of someone famous, it is easy to misinterpret the journey of their life. One of my favourite authors, whose book, “The Alchemist”, is one of those I recommend most often to coaching clients, friends, and anyone looking for an inspiration read often is an excellent example of seeing the legacy of a person withoout knowing the journey.
If you search for his biography you may find something like this:
Paulo Coehlo (born August 24, 1947) is a Brazilian writer and lyricist from Rio de Janeiro. He achieved fame with his second novel, “The Alchemist,” which has sold at least 65 million copies and holds the Guinness World Record for being the most translated book in the world by a living author.
— Rebecca Bodenhamer, ThoughtCo.com
If this is all you read, it is easy to admire the man, maybe even feel a little envious of his success, and even have the fleeting thought of how lucky some people are. But if you stop there, there is a lot you will miss.
“The Alchemist”, first published in 1988, tells the story of a young shepherd, Santiago, who has a recurring dream in which a child tells him about a treasure at the foot of the Egyptian pyramids. Believing the vision to be prophetic, he asks a gipsy woman to interpret the dream for him. He then meets an old man, Melchizedek, who convinces him to sell his flock of sheep and set off on his adventure. Unfortunately, on arrival in Africa, Santiago is robbed, and to sustain himself, he finds work with a wine merchant and postpones his adventure until he makes a fortune with the wine merchant.
He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert, falls in love, and meets people who teach him secrets about the mystical arts and how to realise his inner power and potential. However, when he reaches the pyramids and start digging for treasure, he is assaulted and left alive only after telling the story of his dream of the treasure. He eventually travels home and finds the prize at the place where his journey began.
The story of Santiago holds strong parallels for us with regards to our own journeys to purpose.
Sometimes, we treat our purpose like some companies define a vision — a one-time designed flowery(and sometimes floury) statement. Then, it is inscribed on a plaque hanging in the boardroom, is printed in the marketing and education literature, but never revisited. And over time, the original meaning is lost until it becomes meaningless.
Other times, a purpose is this magical thing that we believe will reveal itself, like some miracle of enlightenment. But then, it becomes something unreachable, something magical in a world that does not believe in magic.
Or a purpose is ignored or postponed, seen as something impractical in a practical world which we can spend time with one day.
The first requirement to a purpose is the burning desire to find it. It may be intellectual curiosity, a deep need for meaning, or, as it was in my case, the culmination of events, unsatisfying relationships and the desire to find a new way of being. To find meaning and the answer to why I am here.
It took me three years before I could say my purpose statement in a way that satisfied my soul and resonated with who I felt myself to be. Along the way, I created purpose statements that were complicated, impressive while devoid of meaning and ones that focused too specifically on parts of my life. There were many lessons on how not to do it.
On my journey to my purpose, I learned:
- Purpose statements should be simple — we often make purpose statements too complicated. When they become too complex, it becomes challenging to live it, and easy to drift away from.
- Be at the centre of your purpose statement. It is easy to leave yourself out of your purpose statement. We sometimes grow up in communities, religions and cultures which often prioritise serving others. In the process, parents, teachers and mentors often tell us that focusing on ourselves first is selfish. As this indoctrination lives on, it becomes easy to make your purpose about others and forget about yourself. On my journey, I learned that focusing on myself first allows me to build the strength to be strong for myself, which gaves me the capacity to be strong for the ones close to me and ultimately to be strong for the world.
- Purpose is only meaningful if we live by it fully. Having a purpose will not help you find joy, fulfilment and happiness if you don’t live it daily through practices and habits.
- Purpose will reveal itself over time. As I live and breathe my purpose daily, it reveals itself to me more and more, and over time increases my capacity to experience it deeply and fully.
My journey to my purpose started with a journal entry that was a wish list for my life. It covered several pages. As I paid attention to my purpose and how it showed up in my life, many pages shrunk to a single page. And as I learned more, read more, reflected more, it became clearer and simpler.
“Where attention goes energy flows; Where intention goes energy flows!”
― James Redfield
When we consciously focus on something, it reveals more and more details about itself. And curiosity unpeels the layers upon layers of conditioning and other’s expectations until you get the glorious core of your own aspirations and dreams.
It is difficult. It is intimidating. And sometimes it is against everything that we were taught to believe.
And that is the treasure: To find and embrace that precious insight about what you truly want for a life of meaning — your purpose.
The more I spent time with self-discovery, learning and exploring my purpose, the clearer it became. It changed often as I understood it better and as I embraced my capacity for authenticity.
Until it ended up here:
It is my true life purpose to be happy and share that happiness with the world!
Purpose should be simple!
I live my purpose every day through my daily practices of a morning meditation, an evening reflection, and a conscious and purposeful decision habit of pursuing those things that bring me closer to purpose and avoiding those things that will take me away from, or postpone, my purpose.
Living my purpose is as simple as breathing. And it is as essential.
When the words written on paper stopped changing, my experience of purpose did not. Instead my understanding of what it meant, started deepening. I discovered layers upon layers of meaning within those simple words and how it manifests in my life daily.
Quick exercise:
Step one: For this exercise: Think of your own purpose. And if you don’t have one, use my purpose I shared above as if it belongs to you. Close your eyes and breathe in your purpose — let it settle in your body, mind and soul.
Step two: Reflect on the following:
A general reflection -
It is my true life purpose to be happy and share that happiness with the world! (or replace with your own purpose)
What if you brought your purpose to your life?
How would you be?
How would you interact with the world?
What would you be doing? For yourself and others?
What would be different?
How will you grow?
Or more specific — If you brought your purpose to your relationships?
It is my true life purpose to be happy and share that happiness with the world! (or replace with your own purpose)
What would you be like in your relationships?
How would your relationships be?
How would you be different in your relationships?
What can you let go of?
Or if you brought it to your career, or business?
What would you do different in your career, or business?
What would you do more of?
What would you stop doing?
And you can reflect on other aspects of your life like spirituality, health, wealth, and much more.
Step three: Journal about your reflections. Journalling gives you a process of thinking, a record of your growth and a history of your development from where you started.
Coming back to the story of “The Alchemist”: Santiago found the treasure he embarked on an eventful adventure for, at the point where his journey started from.
This story is a beautiful metaphor for purpose. The treasure was always where he started from. He left on an epic journey to learn that the treasure had always been where he was. And it is the same for purpose and who we are. We may go on long and fruitless explorations to return to where purpose always had been: Inside the authenticity of who we are.
Paulo Coelho started his writing life with his own struggles. A year after the book, “The Alchemist”, was published the publisher informed him that they were dropping the book. This could have easily been the end of his career. But he resisted this temporary setback.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on her “Super Soul Sunday” television show, he revealed that in the book there is a sentence that says: “When you want something, the whole universe conspires to help you” .
And he said, “I wrote this. I have to live by these words.”
So, he decided that he will take his book to other publishers. He went to one of the most important publishing houses in Brazil. And someone who would not usually talk to new authors opened the door, and Paulo Coelho said to him, “I have a book that was published and did not sell. But I trust this book is going to sell.”
And the publisher took a chance on him.
“The Alchemist” has sold more than 80 million copies and stayed on The New York Times bestseller list for more than 400 weeks. It’s been translated into more than 80 different languages, setting a Guinness World Record for the most translated book by a living author.
And yet, that Brazilian publisher still cannot explain what made him take a chance on Coelho and the book. Coelho believes it was the universe conspiring to help him.
“Three years later when the book was already a half a million copies in Brazil, I asked him, ‘Why did you accept a book that was already published and it was a flop?’” Coelho says.
“And he said, ‘I don’t know.’ You understand?”
— From Huffington Post
In Conclusion
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for a newer and richer experience.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt
Purpose reveals itself. At first, it is an adventure to allow it to appear in many guises until you find the one that resonates. And then it changes into a considered, patient, loving and ever-increasing deepening of understanding of who you are becoming as the manifestation of your purpose.
If you delay your quest for meaning or postpone it, you are robbing yourself of the richness of a journey that expands and magnifies the best version of who you can be in the best possible world you want to be a part of.
And taking inspiration from the resolve of Paulho Coelho when he said, “I wrote this. I have to live by these words”, what will you do about your purpose?
What are the words you will write?
And once written, will you live by them?
