In the last issue of My 2Cents I promised you that I would discuss how to find one’s purpose in life. I am still reeling after all the emails I got from readers who wanted details, details and more details for finding one’s reason for being on the planet!  

First of all realize this, most people don’t even ask the question, “Why am I here?” If they do ask the question they are likely to furrow their brow for about 15-20 seconds and then move on to the next crisis in their life. You are not that sort of person. You are learning and/or living a debt-free lifestyle and that puts you into the category of “living consciously.” What is living consciously? That is where you make the mental effort to determine what your purpose in life is and then you spend the rest of your life living up to the expectations you’ve placed on yourself.  

Does this scare you? Take a deep breath right now and calm yourself. This is not like taking a math exam. What you’re going to do is take out a piece of paper (or pull up another screen on your computer) and start writing/typing what it is you want most out of life. What makes you happy? What activity causes you the most joy? As ideas form in your mind, write them down and don’t EDIT your thoughts. The reason most of us have difficulty figuring out what we want out of life is that we don’t allow ourselves “room” to think. We edit our thoughts before they hit the page. For this exercise don’t do that! As thoughts occur splash them on the page as quickly as you can and you will be amazed at what comes out of your head. Stuff that you haven’t thought of in years will make itself available to you as long as you relax your mind, let your thoughts percolate and don’t punish them for existing by editing them with the following statements: 

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  • Oh, that can never happen, I’m no good at… (fill in the blank!)
  • Who am I kidding, I’ll never have enough money to…(fill in the blank!)
  • My wife/husband/children/parents will never let me…(fill in the blank!)

Many of you know that I ask all my readers to write out their obituaries or eulogies. This exercise seems most morbid to folks when they first hear about it because we don’t like to think about our mortality. Well, dear friends, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but none of us get out of life alive! So, start planning on how you wish to be remembered. What is it that you want said at your funeral? If you could write out the speech given by your best friend after your demise, what would it say?  

This single exercise has motivated many of my clients to change jobs, change houses, get-out-of business, start a business, you name it. What I’m saying is this, writing your obituary is life changing. Many of us are not living according to our purpose. This is why we are uncomfortable, we spend too much and we feel restless despite society telling us we should feel fine.  

When you actually take the time to write out how you wish to be remembered you begin to see what you need to do to find pure joy in your life. Now, I warn you, many folks have no idea HOW to do all the things they want to do in life, but that is not the point. What you’re trying to do here is determine what impact you want to have on this world of ours.  

So, this month’s assignment is to write your obituary/eulogy. I know the holidays are on there way for many of us and that you have so much to do, but this is the perfect time of year to figure out how you wish to create your life. Then the next time we meet, I’ll discuss with you how to go about setting goals and making the day-to-day details fit into your overall plan. Does that sound good?  

If you have problems with this exercise or you get stuck, don’t forget to email me and I’ll happily give you some pointers. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it