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Setting the Cornerstone--The Purpose of Your Life

Guest post by: Stefan Doering

Article Overview: Creating the life you love all starts with having a solid foundation, where the cornerstone is to understand your life’s purpose. Learn here how to learn what is important to you and pursue your goals with these four simple steps.

Setting the Cornerstone--The Purpose of Your Life

Recently I came back fromIndia, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity to build houses for people living in poverty.

While on this amazing trip, one of the things that struck me while digging ditches and building houses was how incredibly important it is to have a strong foundation.

One of the other volunteers— an architect fromCanada— explained that placing the first cornerstone is the most important step in creating a solid foundation. For placing everything after that will either be in alignment or not. When the first stone is set properly, the other stones go into place much easier. And if the stone is not set properly, the entire house will be unstable and weak, perhaps even unlivable.

And just like building a strong house, creating the life you love all starts with having a solid foundation, where the cornerstone is to understand your life’s purpose. Why are you here? What is it you want to ultimately achieve in your life?

Discovering your life’s purpose is simple… andnotso simple! In fact an organization has recently been started with the sole objective to create a process for individuals to discover, build and maintain their life’s purpose.

In order to help my clients discover their life’s purpose there is a powerful four-step process I take them through:

1.Ask yourself the powerful question of “Why…?”

2.Listen for the answer. (For many, this is the most complicated step.)

3.Repeat steps 1 and 2 until there are no more answers to “why”.

4.“Check in” to make sure the answer istheanswer.

It is important to note that it does not matter what the powerful questioning starts with, because going through this process willalwayslead to your ultimate answer.

For example, “Why am I here living this life?” With your practiced listening skillsyou answer, “So I can make a lot of money and have financial freedom.”

Ask again, “Why do I want a lot of money and financial freedom?” And your answer may be something like, “To travel the world.” Ask again, “Why do I want to travel the world?” And keep going until you get to a “why…?” that can no longer be answered. An example life purpose would be to ‘love unconditionally’.

And you willknowwhen you arrive, for you will feel it in your heart! How long this process will take you depends on how good a listener you are. Once you know what is your life’s purpose, you are ready to build your life around it. And making life’s choices becomesmuchclearer: Should I pursue this career… marry this person… live in this part of the world…?

And as any good bricklayer will tell you, with a solid foundation in place, laying the bricks is much easier in building your dream home.

Related Articles
  10 Ideas about Life Purpose
  Building a Practice On Purpose Series Part #2 - When Life Purpose is About More than What You Do
  Blueprint for Building a Business On Purpose
  Your Life Purpose
  You Need to Close the Knowing-Doing Gap

Article Tags: decisions, dreams, goals, Lifes purpose



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