Foundations Of Wisdom - Finding Your Purpose - Exercise 3

Purpose defines who we are and what gift we bring to the planet. Understanding why you should invest the effort in this quest is the objective of this recording. In this exercise, you will continue your journey by exploring your present life.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this Foundations of Wisdom series of exercises in helping you to find your purpose.

This is exercise 3.

My name is Martin Crees-Morris.

I'm your guide.

I'm working with you to answer questions and to ask questions about your life.

These are questions I constantly use for myself.

I see purpose as a constant work in progress.

So in the first two exercises we've done a little bit of sense-taking,

A little bit of where am I now,

With the well-being assessment,

Looking at the practical elements of your life.

And in the second exercise we looked at what I referred to as the pillars of meaning,

Belonging,

Purpose,

Competence and so on.

Again,

To allow you to evaluate where you are quite clearly.

Because in the busyness of life it's very easy to overlook things which may be critical but we're not currently focusing on.

And so I'd like to continue that theme of defining where we are at the moment with a series of questions to answer a simple question,

Where are you now?

Looking at your life with a series of questions more focused on purpose.

So as usual,

If you have a pen and some paper to hand,

Get a series of questions and obviously you can stop this recording and reflect whenever you need to.

And you can revisit these questions if you like in many ways.

They're designed to start a process of thinking and reflection within you.

It may take a while for the answers to these questions to become clear.

But that's all part of the contemplative,

Meditative process of the self-reflection,

The introversion that we need to do.

Because life is lived as much inside us as outside us.

So the first question is,

Ask yourself,

What are the most engaging aspects of your life?

Those things that you do,

Where time flies,

Those things that you do that you look forward to,

And those things that you do that you come out feeling maybe a lot more energized,

A lot more peaceful,

Maybe re-centered.

And this can be from any part of your life,

Internal,

External,

Creative,

Painting,

Playing an instrument,

Working with people,

Teaching people,

Whatever it is,

Whatever engagement means to you,

Just reflect on what are the most engaging aspects of your life.

And then ask yourself the simple question,

Why are they so engaging?

Why in terms of physical well-being,

Emotional well-being,

Spiritual well-being,

Just asking yourself why,

Reflecting,

And this may be in fact quite a difficult question if you've ever asked yourself this before.

So take your time to reflect on the most engaging aspects of your life.

And then the next question is,

What are the least engaging aspects of your life?

Things that you do not look forward to,

Things that you do not like to be doing,

And I think we all have these necessary,

Or maybe they're unnecessary,

Things that we do.

So reflect on what are the least engaging aspects of your life.

And you can ask yourself,

Why am I doing this?

Do I have to do this?

Do I feel obliged to do this?

Is it part of my work?

Is it a part of my obligation to people?

Is it something that I've burdened myself with?

And again,

Ask yourself,

Why are they the least engaging parts of your life?

As I say,

Is it something that you have to do for survival?

Is it something you do because you've took on an obligation?

Is it something that maybe you should have let go of a long time ago?

Whatever these aspects are,

And whatever reason,

Just take your time to reflect on what they are and why you are doing them.

And the next question,

Just a snapshot question if you like.

Overall,

Are you happy with your life?

And again,

Interrogate the reasons for the answer that you've given.

Analyse the answer that you give.

Then take a step back from yourself and just ask,

What are my natural talents and capabilities?

And make a list of them.

Maybe you're a great organiser or a great researcher.

Maybe you're physically very competent,

You enjoy dance or athletics or sport.

Maybe you're a great musician or an artist or a writer.

Maybe you inspire people.

So again,

What are your natural talents and capabilities?

Again,

These can be activities that you engage in that make time fly,

That you come away with.

They can overlap with the most engaging aspects of your life,

Meaning that these are areas of your life you apply your natural talents and capabilities.

But it also prompts the question,

Do you actually use your natural talents and capabilities?

Do you have the opportunity to use them?

Have you created the opportunity?

And if the answer is,

You don't currently use your natural talents and capabilities,

Ask yourself,

Why not?

Why don't you use them?

Be quite honest with yourself.

This is a bit like a secret between you and a piece of paper.

This is a process of reflection.

And the answers may evolve over time.

You may not know the answers.

As with anything,

If you gently reflect on the question,

Hopefully the answer will come to you.

And it may take several sessions of you revisiting these questions.

And then about your life in terms of your life more broadly.

Do you have anything that you feel is holding you back?

Just generally across anything that we've touched on so far,

Maybe in your areas that we looked at with well-being,

Or the pillars of meaning.

Is there anything holding you back?

And then ask yourself,

Why are these things holding you back?

Is it circumstances?

Is it people?

Maybe it's some echo from the past.

But just reflect on the why.

Why am I being held back?

And again,

Try and understand whether the blockage,

If you like,

Is real,

If it's under your control.

Is it something,

As I've said,

That comes from your past?

And then,

Looking at the people side of your life.

If you look at the people that are in your life,

Can you ask,

Who are you naturally attracted to?

And this is broadly,

In general,

We're not necessarily talking about personal relationships,

But at work and socially.

Can you understand who you are naturally attracted to?

Do you understand why?

Is it a type of personality,

A type of energy?

Do these people need something from you?

Or do you need something from them?

Or is it a collaboration of complementary character types?

Complementary worldviews,

Outlooks on life,

Energy,

Dynamism?

Is it complementary talents?

But who is in your life,

Basically?

And why have you been attracted to them?

And I suppose the follow-on question from that is,

Is there a particular type of person that you encounter?

A particular character type?

Maybe it's kind,

Maybe they're creative,

Maybe they're controlling.

Say,

Maybe you can't,

Maybe there's a broad spread of people,

But there may be a particular type of person that you encounter,

Maybe they're dependent.

Then again,

Ask yourself,

Clearly and honestly,

Why?

So that is a simple reflection on where you stand now.

And that combined with exercises one and two,

Maybe allows you to gain a little more clarity into your life as it currently is.

And then,

In your next exercise,

We will touch on your past.

Just a brief exercise on your journey to this point in time.

So I will leave you to reflect and synthesize that list of questions and your responses.

And I look forward to meeting you at the next exercise,

Exercise four,

When we will look at your journey,

Which is bringing you up to today.

So thank you.