Finding Purpose in Life: The More We Have It, The Brighter We Shine
You are a once in the history of ever magical miracle. You have and are a gift! Here’s a great way to open “it” further!
At yoga teacher training, I got blindsided by awesomeness. While I fully expected to learn how to teach and better practice yoga, what I didn’t anticipate, was being transformed into a better person. The biggest way Eoin Finn helped us do this, was by having each of us cultivate a mission statement for our life.
Have you ever thought of doing, or done that? You know, putting into words something clear and concise that illuminates, informs, and inspires your path. Much like how the need to destroy the One Ring guided the heroes in The Lord of The Rings; having a storyline you live into, influences and uplifts your life. All of it: Relationships, occupations, practices, hobbies, playtimes, purchases, and beyond. We each get this one, wild life, and the more purposeful we are with it, the more powerful it becomes. The question then is: How does one formulate—or, more accurately, discover—their life mission?
Your mission in life—if you choose to accept it—is discovered in the interplay of your participation, passion, purpose, and people.
Exploring your Four P’s—participation, passion, purpose, and people—helps you “step back” and get a big picture perspective, realize the masterpiece in the making you truly are, and better orient your life toward flourishing. With that in mind, let’s explore how that looks!
Your participation is nothing more, or less, than your lived experience. It’s the combination of the life events you chose, didn’t choose (or necessarily even want), habit patterns, routines, and practices. Imagining each of us starts life as a beautiful block of stone, “participation” is the ways you, others, circumstances, and life itself chiseled you. Here it is important to note that often, the carvings that leave the biggest marks on us—for good or ill—turn out to be vital pieces of our mission.
In my work as a spiritual director, I can tell a person is tapping into their passion when they get excited—animated and aglow from the inside-out. Realizing I had an eye for this in others, was also a big indicator that becoming a life coach was part of my path. It’s important to note, there is a special kinship between passion and purpose. The former is the fuel and engine, to the latter’s steering wheel and map. Your passion excites you, often making effort seem effortless. You know you are in a place of passion when it only takes a spark to ignite a fire within you. It’s your Why.
Where passion is your why, your purpose is the What. While there is an expansiveness to passion, purpose is focused. What is more, it connects directly to people. Life is a team sport—and your purpose is the way you help us all “win” together. Leia and Erick, my sister and brother-in-law, are amazing. They channel their expansive love for people (passion) to care for kids who likely would have been caught in the downward-spiral of life. In addition to my three natural born nephews, they are raising two nieces and two nephews—and still host one of the multiple kids they previously fostered a couple of times a month!
The final piece, the people, is the Who of your mission. I think here of deciding to get married. What I mean by that is: Not only is there a subject of your mission to marry (your spouse), there are also advisors, cheerleaders, supporters, encouragers, helpers, and beyond. Much the same is true when it comes to discovering, and living, your mission. First, there are the people it directly blesses and benefits—note, this includes YOU. What is more, we all have blind spots, miss things, etc. This means getting insights from those who know you is a key part of unpacking what it is you are here to do. Furthermore, it will inevitably be challenging and difficult to live into your mission. After all, we are meant to be a hero in our story—aka life—and hero’s always face “dragons”, traps, and challenges. That’s why we need people to encourage, support, and help us in our quests (like how Frodo needed Sam and the rest of the Fellowship of the Ring).
Now, it’s important to pause and note: Your mission statement is a fluid and ongoing process. So, give yourself grace. Try not to get stuck on making it perfect. Pick something, try it on for size, and then adjust/tweak from there. What is more, as “life” happens, your mission will quite possibly shift and change—sometimes in small and subtle ways, and other times more. The takeaway here is that once you settle on something, it is important to “take it out” and reevaluate it regularly—with a steadfast spirit and open heart.
For example, since 2017 my life mission has been: To awaken, open to, and be love together.
Now, while this still captures the essence of what I’m here for: In preparation for taking my yoga teaching online, as well as becoming certified as a spiritual director and life coach (which will also mostly be online), it’s time for me to reassess.
A key part of this—and in general—is listening. Listening to others, your True Self, and Spirit (aka “that voice” of wisdom that leads us well and is in each of us, when we get quiet enough to hear it). I bring that up because such “hearing” shows me: I am here to help people find and ride an upward spiral in life, via embodiment, union and communion, and hearing/honoring their True Self.
But, as much as that captures what I’m about, something in me knows this isn’t quite “it”. A phrase that came to me, when I went on a walk to listen for my mission statement was:
Use my experience and education to help people heal, rise, and love.
To which I say: Yes, and, that doesn’t let others know anything of my experience and education.
Side Note: Journaling, brainstorming, going on a contemplative walk, talking with those who know you, talking to a spiritual director or life coach, and other forms of “listening” are great tools for discovering your mission statement.
So, along those lines … I am a person wowed by and committed to Love (i.e., doing what brings wellness and flourishing to all). Christ—divine love in the flesh—revealed the awesomeness of this to me, so I follow him. Embodiment, which comes from a practice of paying attention, not only leads me closer to the Divine than I ever dreamed possible; embodiment makes me a better person than I ever dreamed possible. One could say, the practice of being in one’s body and in the moment—which I learned and teach through yoga—is the path to flourishing. And who doesn’t want to thrive?
I bring up the deep importance of union and communion to me for a variety of reasons. In its simplest form: I don’t think we need to look further than the news, and politics in the U.S., to see that division brings us a world of pain, violence, hurt, and beyond. That said, it’s opposite, union—unity with diversity and difference—manifests healing, peace, wholeness, and love.
This leads me to a final piece of the Lang-puzzle. While I only became disabled shortly before my 34th birthday in 2008 because of a freak hiking accident, I have always felt on the edges, or on the outside. So, I am passionate about the inclusion, approval, and valuation of everyone. I think it’s fair to say: My “people” are those who cannot be defined, who don’t want to be defined, who defy the categories society places on us, who don’t fit the “boxes” others put them in, whose proverbial arms stretch wider than Left and Right, who are left on the outside looking in, and so on.
Oh, and that’s not even mentioning how I unsuccessfully tried to become a pastor, got a doctorate about how to thrive as a human, before my disability I was a highly successful officer in the air force (who now practices nonviolence), or am twice divorced. LOL. So, where does my participation, passion, purpose, and people lead me?
I am here to help people ride the upward spiral of love. This not only heals, and makes us the best version of ourselves; it draws us closer together—one and all. My all-inclusive heart has a special place for my fellow outcasts and outsiders. I find, and share, flourishing through embodiment—aka paying attention. The more deeply we pay attention to ourselves, the moment, others, and something bigger than us; the more we heal, rise, and love together.
What are you here to do? I can’t wait to hear from you!
Hugs & Love,
Lang (aka “Dr. Love”)