What is my Purpose in Life? Seeking Purpose in Life Through Extraordinary Encounters

Article by Sharon Hooper

Yield right of way, bump, right turn, left turn, no turns, park here, no parking, stop, resume speed, go, open trench, slow down, turn right, turn left, be prepared to stop, eat here, shop here, galleries, one way, keep left, keep right—directions—more than 67 signs total, all in the short space of a quarter mile!

Perhaps, on the way back home from town, I was just now noticing these signposts because they were a reflection of my own chattering mind for the past several weeks, i.e. the question:

What the heck am I supposed to be doing with my life anyway? Where am I going?

Groan! How is it that I ask myself this question every year? Maybe it’s a seasonal cyclic thing where our mind rotates through a crop of ideas and actions, and then needs to reset and begin the seeding process again…until we “get it”!

One of my favorite cards in The Wisdom of Mary Magdalene card deck, “The Seeker”, contemplates a theme of searching and finding “the way.” The opening quote comes from The Sophia of Jesus Christ and asks, “Where have we come from, where are we going? What is the meaning of life, and what should we do here? If we’re disciples of God, what’s our purpose? “

Mary said to him: ‘Holy Lord, where did your disciples come from and where are they going and what should they do here?” Mary is asking that if we are true seekers, and our purpose is more than material existence and achieving things, then why are we here? And how will we even know when we’ve found what we’re searching for? Yes, there is a lot to read and interpret in this quote, and I wish there were an easy answer! I, for one, am still on the journey; however, I do receive glimpses of enlightenment now and then. And, on a practical level, I could really use some illumination right now—about writing this column!

For instance, I started this article four times, and each time I thought, this is really bogus writing, Sharon! You’re stuck! Admit it! You’re looking for several nimble fingers to type something brilliant that readers will respond to with oooh’s and ahhh’s. Oh ego, get thou away! So I sit here thinking about all the amazing men and women who come into my life to take part in a vision mapping process that I’ve created through the years. Their visions inspire me continually. I have promised them that their work with me will create clarity and focus—not that they will suddenly discover all their deepest passions and rush off to make fame and fortune. But, I have to admit, there is an incredible synergy that is generated and clients always leave rejuvenated, with motivation, clearness, hope and a renewed “plan of action”!

As a personal motivation coach, it seems so easy to ask clients all the right probing questions to help them move forward. But when I feel stuck, I revisit the same tired request that I’ve been deliberating for decades—what is my purpose in life?

One of the most significant teachers in my life recently showed up as a client. Vernon, a sweet man of service in his early 40’s, literally cried through the pain of his emptiness recently, as we sat before large sheets of blank paper, looking for a beginning to a vision map—hunting for some elusive passion that always felt just slightly out of his grasp. I asked him to have faith in the process that we were about to embark on, that I didn’t know exactly what would emerge, but did guarantee that there was some magic at work and extraordinary revelations would emerge.

I explained that, in our seeking, there is often indefinable anguish. Maybe there’s only one true yearning for all of us—the longing to connect with God, or our higher source. This craving seems to drive us in the direction that we’re searching, even though we might not know it…

…However, there is always a guiding light that will show glimpses of what is yet to come. Even in the darkest side of our soul, there’s still light.

By the time we were through talking for a while, I suggested to Vernon that he spend time rambling on some canyon trails before we actually began the vision mapping process. I asked him to bring a journal and answer some questions, like:

• What has led you to this place in time?
• If you gave it a name, what would you call this passage through life?
• Who has been with you?
• What has been the most challenging leg of your journey, and why?
• What are you doing when your heart is dancing with happiness?
• When you’re occupied with something and the hours blissfully slip by, what are you engaged in?

I didn’t expect Vernon to write responses to all these inquiries. I simply wanted him to gain some renewed perspective about his life’s passage before we delved into the “process.” But a funny thing happened. I never heard from him again. I received a check in the mail with a heartfelt thank you. And I knew that he had discovered exactly what he was seeking, in the shadows of these mysterious red rocks in Sedona.

Maybe, I’ve queried, our entire meeting really didn’t happen on a physical plane. Maybe I dreamed the whole encounter. Perhaps his lesson was to remind me that we are not alone on our quest. Possibly he was repeating that the answers are within me and that listening mindfully, more often, will provide me with the illumination I seek—one step at a time.

I do have faith that, eventually, my treks will lead me to my own celestial reason for being. And I will also be on the lookout for more “Vernons”, extraordinary people who act as my personal spiritual life coaches, and who remind me that the journey itself is the perfect answer to the question I seek.

For more about Vision Mapping Strategies and Vision Journeys Personal Vision Mapping sessions, please contact us for further details.

Spirituality in the Work Place – Integrating Spirit into Your Work Environment

Article by Sharon Hooper

Something has to give in our workplaces! The ordinary person has proclaimed “enough!” Corporations have folded, swallowing retirement funds and savings. More and more jobs are being sent off-shore. Many so-called “leaders” have lied and cheated their way to the top at the expense of employees. Look at all the retiring executives who are leaving companies with two hundred million dollars in severance or retirement pay, while their company has declined 7% or more in value!

What is missing here?!? Have American leaders lost their souls on the way to creating profit? How can lagging non-spiritually related companies redeem themselves—and quickly? Why are 3.2 million readers buying Fast Company magazines? Could it be that they are seeking purposeful and visionary work (i.e. sacred or divine) that will transform their lives and business as we know it? And what can ordinary people do to find their purpose through right livelihood? Would a personal motivation coach be helpful in the search?

Apple, Google, Yahoo! and Hughes Aircraft are among large corporations that sponsor meditation courses for their employees.

3M produces solvent-free sandpaper, adhesives and tapes—at a cost of two billion dollars in research and experimentation!

Hewlett Packard has co-founded an initiative to bring technology and infrastructure to the world’s poorest countries.

Former World Disc Productions (a small company owned by yours truly and husband, Richard) donated more than $80,000 to The Rainforest Action Network to buy land in the Amazon, contributing to a program teaching indigenous tribes sustainable living.

Fast Company magazine’s mission states, “…work isn’t simply a paycheck; it is the ultimate expression of a fully realized self…” and they have over three million readers to show that people are seeking more meaning in their work.

Spirituality in business has been thriving for a long time… It’s just that we may not have seen the enterprises mentioned above as “spiritual.”

The book Megatrends 2010 by Patricia Aburdene states, “From a spiritual perspective, corporate social responsibility is love, justice and truth in action…When a corporate activist…increases transparency or exposes a company’s poor environmental record, he or she is expanding consciousness as surely as if he or she had built a meditation center.”

Conscious companies activate their brand of divinity or social responsibility through alternative methods that we might not recognize as spirit in action, like Wild Oats, a natural grocery chain, whose employees get profit sharing if they work there more than 25 hours a week. People like Timberland’s CEO, Jeffrey Swartz, are changing patterns of a self-centered philosophy by involving himself in community service that gives all his employees paid time off to volunteer at their favorite charity. Several of my friends in Sedona donate 20% or more of their professional time to local organizations in need of help. Even the University of New Haven has introduced the Center for Spirituality at Work.

As a personal spiritual life coach, many people talk with me about entering into a more divine working situation, to bring more meaning to the work they embrace. Perhaps you simply wish to be more at peace while you earn your salary, or maybe there is a desire to start a grassroots effort to effect huge change at the company where you work. Possibly you already work in the perfect environment with a conscious company. It doesn’t make any difference if you are a power of one, or megalithic corporation of 23,000!

If you do need a starting point to integrate soulful yearnings with realistic work assignments or are seeking more meaning in business, the following uncomplicated suggestions might help:

• Place pictures in your workspace that bring you serenity.
• Use break time for meditation. There may be other staffers who would like to join you.
• Place a small water feature in a corner of your workplace. Water = tranquility.
• Practice being mindful about the work in front of you. Close your eyes and vision the perfect outcome.
• Be aware of how much your spirit has, and will, create this piece of business.
• When you think the time is ready, ask your manager to be part of your meditation group, or some other spiritually-oriented gathering.
• Create a mantra that brings you a sense of fulfillment—about anything! If you are sitting with your fingers poised over your keyboard with eyes closed for a couple of minutes, no one will know that you are giving yourself positive feedback.

In other words, when you fully realize that you are spirit contained in a physical body, having a humanly physical experience, you will shift how you view life inside and outside of work. It is possible to live a seamless existence when we cultivate our authenticity and incorporate it into the spiritual mode that works for us 24/7, and I am convinced that the sublime actions we take—no matter how simple—will eventually ripple outward, touching countless hearts.

We have been given opportunities to re-create heightened awareness to bring contentment into all part of our lives. Spirituality in business has hit critical mass and has been presented to us as a gift, teaching us to seek even more meaning in our life as we sometimes grapple with the dissonance between money and personal soulful worth. Our contemporary lives are complex and often challenged.

Sometimes it helps to remember the simple words of a man who became one of the world’s greatest teachers:

“Among these transitory things which are not yours, seek for the things of your own—those things that will not pass away.” (Agrapha—An isolated saying of Jesus)

For more about Vision Mapping Strategies and Vision Journeys Personal Vision Mapping sessions, please contact us for further details.