What is my Life Purpose? Insights from contemplation

[Jayden Birch]

Hello everyone,

I am currently half way through the life purpose course and have today started to contemplate "what is my Life Purpose?". I had this mini realization that perhaps my Life Purpose is to be a sage, but I am unsure if this comes from a fear of specializing. 

Here is some backstory:

Ever since childhood I've been a natural leader. Whenever the opportunity came, even if I was totally unprepared, I would step up and take on the role of a leader. In my last year of middle school I was deputy head boy, and on the day, I had no prior experience of speaking and no speech to read, but I got up there anyway and did it. This lead to this year where I had a blast being the head boy at high school!

When I was young I was also very curious about the fundamental workings of reality. "What is this really?", "How does this world even work?", "Is this a dream?": I would often ask myself. This is why I was attracted to science initially as it was the most direct way of finding the answers i.e. Stephen Hawking's.

Generally I've been interested in every subject equally. Actually at the end of each year at school when you could pick any subject, I struggled to choose subjects centered around just one domain such as Science because I didn't want to sacrifice not learning about English, History, or Maths.

This makes me believe that all along I have been living like a Sage. This is because I've naturally wanted to lead others, read a variety of books, be both in the abstract and concrete, and meditate for long periods of time. There has always been this desire to get a big picture understanding of reality, and to discover deep insights in each area because I simply enjoy it.

None of my family or friends told me to study everything intensely, to be a leader, or to meditate. 

I do understand that this may have been born out of a fear of specializing in just one domain. But it just feels right for me in my heart to study everything . I would love to hear some thoughts on this as I am at a critical time in my life where I either go to University to study Engineering Science (Which is less risky) or to stay at home and start reading the 40 books I ordered from Leos list on consciousness, and to keep meditating etc. But where will this lead? How can I create a life out of being a sage? 

Also my top strengths are: Spirituality, Future-mindedness and Enthusiasm. Top Values: Truth, Love and Open mindedness  @Leo Gura

 

 

Edited December 18, 2017 by Jayden Birch

[aurum]

@Jayden Birch

I'd focus less on whether you're going to be a "sage" and just follow your curiosity. Sage is just a label.

3 hours ago, Jayden Birch said:

I either go to University to study Engineering Science (Which is less risky) or to stay at home and start reading the 40 books I ordered from Leos list on consciousness, and to keep meditating etc. But where will this lead? How can I create a life out of being a sage? 

No one can give you a definitive answer on this.

In general, college is good if you need some sort of technical knowledge or a degree. They're training employees.

There's also your financial situation to consider. You'll save a lot of cash not going to college, cash you could be using towards your life purpose.

Meditate on it. Ask for guidance. And then just make a call.

 

[Jayden Birch]

Thanks for your answer!

I agree sage is a label, but I use it to describe my deep passion to discover What I truly am existentially; that is what I want to know beyond any technical skill right now. For the last 8 months I have been focused on spirituality and this may have inadvertently biased myself to 'just want to meditate and grow myself' so I probably do have a passion somewhere else in a specific domain and probably the rest of the course will answer that! It just seemed to click for me that my whole life was always around gaining a big picture understanding and University seemed restricting.

I always imagined myself owning my own business because I want to be flexible to for example, go on a 10 day meditation retreat and so I thought personal development could be a great domain for me. Anyway I'm going on a tangent, I'll meditate as you said on finding my LP.

BTW, Uni is free in New Zealand for the first year which is awesome!

 

[aurum]

17 hours ago, Jayden Birch said:

I always imagined myself owning my own business because I want to be flexible

I’d start incorporating marketing, sales and basic accounting into your studies as well then if you aren’t already. Also keep taking any leadership opportunites you can. Maybe even try setting up a simple little online business.

[Jayden Birch]

That's really good advice. I'll order some online after Christmas.

I've realized that I was afraid of specializing. This is because Leo clearly says that your Life Purpose should be focused on one domain in life, which is a trap I'm out of now. Science (specifically how our neurons can create thought, feelings and consciousness), and personal development resonate with me the most; I may need to go to University for Science and then ultimately build a business later which is the dream.

This has been very clarifying. From here I'll stop being lazy and finish the LP course and read 'the big leap' while on vacation; I've got 5 weeks to get more specific and my LP is on the tip of my tongue. See my journal for updates!

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Jayden Birch

[Dovahkiin]

Definitely agree with aurum's advice for you. I've had a fear of specialization since high school & college, too, and I think it boils down to a fear of missing out on some sort of "potential." Eventually, life purpose becomes about something specific; you don't retain a life purpose that is itself finding your life purpose. Actually getting out there and trying stuff will help you learn more about your passions, and your ideas will change. You'll close some doors, which can feel hard, but walk through the ones that matter.

 

I wouldn't make the rigid rule in your head that education = specialization, though. Education can open doors and give you leads you wouldn't have imagined it would. This is a bummer in the sense that in the U.S. going to university is essentially paying for some sort of status / signaling that you're smart and can perform certain jobs (you can learn 99% of what you learn in college by reading and researching), but especially given the first year is free in NZ, I'd 100% do that. I do think there's something to be said for meeting the diverse people and perspectives you'll encounter in college and being in that atmosphere for a period of time as you learn more about yourself and what you're after in life at this critical juncture.

[Jayden Birch]

Thank you Dovahkiin. This hit the nail on the head for me. I've been so afraid of 'wasting my potential' that I didn't want to risk dedicating myself to a subject at University for a year in case there was something 'better' if I just waited. 

But what is there to lose? Really there is everything to gain in terms of finding out more about each course which would require only a simple switch half way through the year or at the beginning of 2019 if I found out that my passions where elsewhere (which can hurt). Also, like you said, I can meet new people there and make some friends who are in line with my values rather than being an indecisive hermit living in a abstract prison I call my room.

I'm so grateful you and Aurum answered because I was about to not go to University, and in reality, going through those doors gets you closer to your potential than sitting in a room reading without a focus. Bonus points: I can also flex my leadership skills there.

I'm enrolled in Engineering, Business, and Law. I think Business and/or Engineering is where I am heading.

Thank you again, I feel much more confident about the future. I'll still contemplate in these next 5 weeks of course to try and get a clearer answer however I won't let uncertainty keep me frozen at home.

Edited December 20, 2017 by Jayden Birch

[Jayden Birch]

1 minute ago, Jayden Birch said:

Thank you Dovahkiin. This hit the nail on the head for me. I've been so afraid of 'wasting my potential' that I didn't want to risk dedicating myself to a subject at University for a year in case there was something 'better' if I just waited. 

But what is there to lose? Really there is everything to gain in terms of finding out more about each course which would require only a simple switch half way through the year or at the beginning of 2019 if I found out that my passions where elsewhere (which can hurt). Also, like you said, I can meet new people there and make some friends who are in line with my values rather than being an indecisive hermit living in a abstract prison I call my room.

I'm so grateful you and Aurum answered because I was about to not go to University, and in reality, going through those doors gets you closer to your potential compared with sitting in a room reading without a focus. Bonus points: I can also flex my leadership skills there.

I'm enrolled in Engineering, Business, and Law. I think Business and/or Engineering is where I am heading.

Thank you again, I feel much more confident about the future.

 

[Dovahkiin]

@Jayden Birch Very happy to help. I like your idea of continuing to think on it and thinking about it in that nuanced way (it's good you have the option to switch). No one has the intuition as to what's right more than you do here.

 

I'm living proof that you could easily spend the next 7 years "keeping your options open" out of fear of choosing wrong and missing potential, and ironically just delay the inevitable process of realizing whatever potential is there by picking a path. Yet, because I went to college in that time and at least tried stuff as far as work, I've learned about what's not for me and am in a good spot to pursue my next hypothesis on my purpose.

 

Gluck!

[Joseph Maynor]

What does being a sage mean to you?  Gimme a paragraph.

[Nahm]

@Jayden Birch @Joseph Maynor

9 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

What does being a sage mean to you?  Gimme a paragraph.

I was wondering about the same thing. What meaning / definition are you currently working with on, “sage”?

and of course, overall, do both.

[Elisabeth]

On 18. 12. 2017 at 10:32 PM, Jayden Birch said:

I do understand that this may have been born out of a fear of specializing in just one domain. But it just feels right for me in my heart to study everything . I would love to hear some thoughts on this as I am at a critical time in my life where I either go to University to study Engineering Science (Which is less risky) or to stay at home and start reading the 40 books I ordered from Leos list on consciousness, and to keep meditating etc. But where will this lead? How can I create a life out of being a sage? 

2

Engineering will mean less time for consciousness work, but you can totally do both. A good university will teach you rigorous logical thinking, don't dismiss it. 40 books ... if you read one book every two weeks, you know them all within a year and a half. Sounds good enough to me. 

The missing piece for life purpose is the "impact" you'd like to have. (Well, still missing for me too.) You want to be a sage leader ;), but lead ... where? 

Good luck. 

[Jayden Birch]

17 hours ago, Joseph Maynor said:

What does being a sage mean to you?  Gimme a paragraph.

Back to English class again

To me a sage is a person that is deeply fascinated by everything in life. He/she is interested in History, English, Science, Religion, Art, Sex, world politics; thus the sage is the ultimate definition of a cosmopolitan. As well as being interested in these 'right brained' areas where we he/she can use rationalism to explain the depths of conceptual frameworks and paradigms, he/she also will access altered states of consciousness on a regular basis in order to find out the truth of reality. A sage studies other areas with equal passion to compare relative truths (perspectives) with relative truths (other perspectives) to creatively answer questions like, why do people act like monkeys?, why is humanity slowly becoming more loving? (i.e. why don't we just kill like we did in the middle ages anymore), why does life always evolve yet the Universe devolve due to Entropy? etc. In my opinion a sage gets the greatest fulfillment in life by dissecting reality to come to original conclusions about the world. His/her daily life would include constant contemplation, reading, being unconditionally loving to every spirit the sage meets, philosophizing, being social, and sharing his greatest talent with the world (which is typically sharing a big picture understanding with ordinary people to improve their lives); the sage has no fears whatsoever and is willing to stand up against the common denominator and create the reality he wants to see such as cleaning our rivers or making meditation more available in the Western world. 

Just imagine Sadhguru, that's what I think of when someone asks me that!

Actually, by writing this I realized Sages seem to be very passionate people about a particular domain. For Sadhguru it is rivers and yoga; for Eckhart Tolle it's being a teacher; for Matt Kahn it's about understanding and communicating Love in ways we can all understand. I'm a human as well, so I also have the symptom of passion  in me! They are all teachers, but in their own nuanced way.

This means a sage is like an engineer. A sage is passionate about reality and an engineer is passionate about the theory and practical application of numbers to optimise the surface area of buildings, or make computational algorithms. To be honest, I'm not passionate about this, I just picked the hardest subject I could to impress those around me.

I do like this idea of a sage but I fear of the financial consequences, and the lack of focus; so I think it's a good idea to be both. When I go to University I will defiantly be reading and meditating still @Nahm  

@Elisabeth Haha a sage leader sounds interesting! I'm working on the impact, or should i say the tears.

Interesting point: when I was around 10 I used to love studying about space, particularly about other planets with life on them; after seeing an object in the sky a few days ago I reconnected with this; but the real implication is that life is already here in another dimension, to prove that to the public would be really fun.

[Nahm]

@Jayden Birch that’s a good vision man. Nice.  I don’t know about engineering. Picking a career to impress others - that’s a profound self realization. Extremely valuable. I would listen to that. There’s probably a career path that you would like more. Got to let go of what other people think, then it’ll come to you, imo. I think you’d be more satisfied helping people directly. Just one guy’s opinion of course. 

[Jayden Birch]

Thank you @Nahm. I have been influenced by my family quite a bit to get a high-paying and intellectual job. We've had money problems in the past, and I feel my family have not appreciated the work I've created. So go big says a voice inside of me to be an Engineer, and I was even going to take Law alongside it at one stage which was obviously driven by fear. Now I love myself more, and this has put me in a better place to find my purpose!

At high school I enjoyed helping my friends with all of their homework and seeing them get good grades, to be in a teaching like role sharing my expertise to another human (like a psychotherapist, owner of a business) sounds way more authentic than writing an essay in Law.

Great Nahm. We've narrowed the options down. 

Edited December 24, 2017 by Jayden Birch

[Leo Gura]

@Jayden Birch Being a sage IS a specialization. Sages sacrfice a lot to be sages. Don't confuse being a sage with being a dabbler who just reads whatever books strike his fancy.

[Pallero]

@Jayden Birch You said you're halfway through the course. Why don't you finish it before making any big decisions?