by Rick Forbus, PhD
Transitions are intriguing. All of us have had some transition. We transition through life cycles, through academic or technical training, through personal and work transitions. Relationships change, kids grow up and we sometimes have to adjust. Even for the enduring stoic, never-changing personality types, transitions are inevitable. Steady work is good; living and working in your purpose is sublime.
Discovering one’s purpose in work and life is not easy. Sometimes, if we are fortunate, we find purpose in one or the other. Seldom do we find it in both, and, then, also live “in it” simultaneously. Transitions, at face value, are just the moving currents of our lives. They switch and turn and surprise us. They bring us pain, sadness, happiness and joy. Transitions, unexpected and expected, may modify our life-plans. Sometimes, they immerse us in a fulfilled ecstasy that is the convergence of life’s purpose and work, fulfillment all nicely and connected with the strand of hope. We get paid, yet, we know we would perform the work duties for nothing, because of the currency of satisfaction and devotion.
Transitions with Intentionality
I find writing about what I know and have experienced personally the easiest topics. The consistent drive towards fulfillment and freedom have always been my intent. All of us are different, but, most of us look for a path to purpose and fulfillment. Of course, because of upbringing, behavior differences, thinking style diversity and general life-cycles, people find themselves searching with different intensities for purpose.
Adding intentionality to the pursuit of purpose can be the key to discovery. Even as an executive coach, I’m finding there is no one way to realize it. Many times, it is a serendipitous unearthing. Most know when they have found fulfillment. Most know if they are living within a palpable purpose. Intentionality is important. The specifics to the intentionality can be as simple as clearly articulating your hopeful purpose, writing down your hopes and dreams, and, defining what the outcomes will look like when you are living in it. Awareness goes a long way in discovery.
Career transition expert, Katharine Brooks, Ed.D writes about creating a path to a healthy transition. You’ll find her writings at www.psychologytoday.com. I really like the four steps she writes about in her blog entitled, “Make Your Vision a Reality.”Without elaboration, here are her four steps:
1. Vision – Ask,” who, what and where?”
2. Decision – Ask, “why?”
3. Intention – Ask, “how?”
4. Action – Ask, “when?”
In my coaching business, if find that the clients who are the happiest, most fulfilled and less stressed are the ones working and living their purpose. Purpose fulfilled drives energy, enthusiasm and encouragement. My work doesn’t “feel” like work because it fulfills my purpose. The wind in the sails of our destiny is blown from our understanding of our intent lived through our purpose.
Knowing your life purpose is the first step toward living a truly conscious life. A life purpose provides us with a clear goal, a set finish line that you truly want to reach.
Simon Foster
Head, Heart and Gut
With some of my clients we go through an Aspirations Worksheet. Part of the coaching activity is to write about their thinking, feelings and intuitions as they pertain to purpose of life. There is more to this activity, but, in essence, I ask the client to clarify the perfect work and life match to their (1) thinking style, (2) feelings when at peace and satisfied and (3) how their intuitions come to play in a happy and balanced state of being. The simple explanation of this activity is this: when our thinking style matches the environment, we are in a purposeful state. When our feelings are healthy and thriving in our work and life reality, we are in a purposeful state. And, finally, when we are centered and uncluttered in our life and work state our intuitions are vivid and reliable.
How are you discovering your purpose right now?
Have you enlisted the help of a coach?
How will you change your present state of being to better support the search for a purposeful life work state?
Purpose is an essential to fulfillment.
Rick Forbus, PhD – Executive Advisor and Coach
www.troveinc.com
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