Become Your Purpose #56 #cong22

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1. True human expression, the purest kind, is one of contribution and love.
2. We must take time to understand our true purpose and two, we must recognize the barriers to access it.
3. Our stories are just noise that fill the space where possibility shows up.
4. Build the muscle of self-love; fake it till you make it.

Brand strategist; ex-horse rider; fitness enthusiast; intentional thinker; non-intentional creative; mortgage free; house free; mother of two; beach walker; rock climber.

By Laura Kennedy

A few years ago, I had an ‘Ah-ha’ moment, when I saw a clip of a young composer play his cello to a room of people. The moderator, a well-known & respected teacher-conductor congratulated him on the technical accuracy & musicality of his playing. He then asked if he could make one slight adjustment. With the musician’s permission he asked a lady from the audience to come forward & sit in a chair, in front of him. ‘This time’ he said, ‘I want you to look at her & play for her’. The musician looked shyly at the woman and raised the bow to his instrument. As the music began to vibrate off the strings, the sound of Bach, Cello Suite no. 3 filled the room and all the time, he looked directly at her. And then, something began to happen. She began to smile, and he began to smile, and her eyes filled with tears. The human connection between them was palpable. As if carried on the music itself, the intention of his playing had transformed from one of ‘I must play this correctly’ to one of ‘this beautiful music is for you, all for you’.

It was in this moment that something shifted within me, the realization that true human expression, the purest kind, is one of contribution and love. Not romantic love, but love for our fellow human beings, creatures & indeed, the planet or anything else that really matters. And why is this important? Well, the thinking goes, if we want to wake up every morning and really love what we do, we must do something that is linked to our purpose. So, what is our purpose? Well in my view, It’s just that; a statement or belief that links what we do (or don’t do) to our true selves. Not that I could have articulated all of this in that moment, it took some years of self-exploration (& coaching) to understand all of this.

So, what have I learned about purpose since then? Two things; One, we must take time to understand our true purpose and two, we must recognize the barriers to access it. What do I mean by barriers? Well, the first step, I found, was to take on the belief that I deserve a life of purpose and to do that, I needed to abandon the belief that I didn’t! That may sound weird, but back then I didn’t hold myself in high enough regard to sustain that belief. And so, I had to ‘do the work’, develop the muscle of self-love; ‘fake it till I make it’. It was hard. I had to drop a lot of ‘stories’ I had about myself and the world. Be conscious of the language I used. Get real about the fact that life is empty and meaningless and its up to me to fill it with all the things I value & want around me; love, empathy, kindness, inspiration, hope.

That, I realised, was my responsibility, the responsibility of a privileged individual, who have the time, money, education & freedom to ponder these things. That was my purpose, manifested in one way or another. From this place a green shoot started to appear, the belief that I was good and honest and deserving. Concurrently, things that had never shifted before, in my life, started shifting (I met my fiancé & had two beautiful children, having always been single).

Its BE HAVE DO, not DO HAVE BE. If you want something, pretend (with every fiber of your being) that you have it already. Studying this stuff doesn’t get you anywhere, you have to BE the change.