iss100

Let’s say that I decide that my life purpose would be to invent new product/s that will enhance people’s lives and change the world. Sounds lofty and idealistic. Well, I do not have any physics or engeneering background nor any advanced knowledge in computer science. (Assuming that the product would be software). I am also at a stage of my life where returning back to school for another degree would be the very least impractical. I am at age 33, have a kid and a wife that doesn’t work. Pursuing life purpose when you are single is quite different from pursuing it while married and have kids. You simply can’t do whatever you want, quit work, etc. Wanted it or not, you have responsibilities to your family, which come first and above all. I understand that these simply might be limiting beliefs. Still, I can’t believe that I can get up and float across the room when my evidence and experience from this world tell me otherwise. After I do each exercise, I look down at what I have written and it all seems like empty daydreaming. I keep hearing the same voice over and over again in my head - I can’t possibly do this because I do not have X, Y and Z. I can’t get X, Y and Z because of A, B and C. Any words of courage and wisdom will help me here. Thanks.

@aurum Thank you very much! This is a very good start. I also watched Leo’s video about commonplace book/journal. I believe that this will be very helpful in my case. What I was doing so far is to use regular notebooks, which I would later lose on regular basis. Leo’s life purpose course - I started doing excercises and writing things down in a regular notebook. Than I lose the notebook and start all over again. This cycle repeated couple of times already.

No matter what endeavors and goals I pursue, each and every time I hit the same roadblock. This is the chaotic and disorganized way I approach everything. I am insentiently curious and love learning most of all. This however easily becomes a disadvantage when I find myself impatient to go to step 2 of project X, before I have properly completed step 1. On top of that I start thinking about projects Y, Z and W. My attention and focus are all over the place and not on the step immediately in front of me. I want to accomplish everything at once, but at the end I end up accomplishing very little, but create lots of emotional drama along the way. I feel that I have no discipline, can't set priorities right, can't properly plan, have no control over my attention and have a very low tolerance for boredom. I recently started practicing meditation, which I hope will help me a little bit with impulsivity, not jumping from one thing to the next and regaining a little bit of control over my attention. However, I do not believe that this will provide 100% of the solution? I have been a disorganized person since I remember myself. Always losing my stuff, my desk always a mess. It just like something deep inside of me hates order and structure. Unfortunately this is a major weakness when you undertake something as big as starting a business. Do you have any ideas for book and/or other ways I can improve myself on this?

I recently finished reading chapter 9 of "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle, in which he talks about life purpose. According to E Tolle, "Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and is secondary". The outer purpose can change over time and is different for each person. The inner purpose however is the same for everyone, that is "awakening". Per E Tolle, "Awakening is a shift of consciousness, in which thinking and awareness separate". "Another word for awakening is Presence: consciousness without thought". Also, "Without living in alignment with your primary purpose, whatever purpose you come up with, even if it is to create heaven on earth, will be of the ego or become destroyed by time. Sooner or later, it will lead to suffering. If you ignore your inner purpose, no matter what you do, even if it looks spiritual, the ego will creep into how you do it, so the means will corrupt the end...In other words not your aims or actions are primary, but the state of consciousness out of which they come" More, "I am not saying that helping others, caring for your children, or striving for excellence in whatever field are not worthwhile things to do. They are an important part of the outer purpose, but outer purpose alone is always relative, unstable and impermanent. This does not mean that you should not be engaged in those activities. It means you should connect them to your inner, primary purpose, so that deeper meaning flows into what you do". "Whenever you become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over, and you lose sight of your inner purpose. You have forgotten that your state of consciousness is primary, all else secondary". What do you guys think? I find it hard to grasp, yet some part of me find this very meaningful. I have been trying to find my life purpose for some time now and my quest has not resulted in finding anything meaningful in the long term. All of my endeavors ended up causing me suffering at the end. I always wonder if I am doing it all wrong, that I am missing something fundamental...

Thank you very much

I was wondering if anyone could share a spiritual retreat they have been on and recommend it. I am still a beginner and I am not quite sure what to look at and how to find a retreat. I like very much the teachings of E Tolle, however he organizes only 1 retreat per year and it is already sold out.

Currently I am stuck in a career path which I am unhappy with and have a 9 to 5 job which I find quite unfulfilling. Currently I am going through the life purpose course and have been exploring different options for starting my own business. The last exercise I did was to find my find greatest strengths. These are: 1. Love for learning 2. Judgement, critical thinking and open-mindedness 3. Modesty and humility 4. Caution, prudence and discretion 5. Creativity, ingenuity and originality If someone's greatest strength is love for learning, the first thing that comes to mind is becoming a college professor. Unfortunately I am 32 years old, with a wife and a kid, which I have to support. At this point of my life, it is impossible for me to spend 5-7 years pursuing a PhD and producing almost no income at all. I have been thinking on what type business could epitomize most of these strengths, but I have been unable to come up with anything so far. Another thing is that the life purpose course focuses on you finding your strengths, but mentions nothing about weaknesses. One of my greatest weaknesses are my poor communication skills. I believe that almost any business that you are in requires some sort of networking or relating to other people in some sort of way. I have been actively involved with toastmasters international during the last one year, working on this weakness and trying to improve myself. I do believe however that my progress has been rather slow. I was hoping that you guys can give me some ideas. I slowly start losing hope...