We’ve been looking at this question: what is the purpose of your life, and how do you get to it.
I got an email this morning that talks to that really well… so I tweaked so it can talk to you… Read it, it is very enlightening.
Pleasure and Happiness – What You Buy Tells Your Story
Do not confuse pleasure with happiness.
Unhappy people can have pleasure.
And uninterrupted pleasures are not happiness.Happiness is the result of knowing and accepting who you are, why you are here, and what you should do
You need identity, purpose, and adventure
Identity – Who am I?
Purpose – Why am I here?
Adventure – What will I do now?Life is theater and you are an actor in that play.
Are you sitting quietly in the audience?
Your job is to get out of your seat. You want to stand up and take action. You need to storm the stage, perform your parts, walk on clouds of laughter, dance in the rain of the spotlight, revel in the thunder of applause.
This play called Life should always be about identity, purpose and adventure. Make it about something else and your play is certain to be a parody, a tragedy, a satire or a farce.
These are the motivations of the characters:
Identity: Who am I?
We buy what we buy to remind ourselves – and tell the world around us – who we are. We even choose our service providers based on how closely they mirror the way we would run their company.
We’re attracted to reflections of ourselves.
A salesperson points out this reflection, “That’s you, isn’t it?” and then gives the intellect the facts it needs to justify the purchase. You buy with the heart and the mind will follow.
Purpose: Why Am I Here?
If you’re sitting alone in the darkness, it’s because you’re afraid. Stand up fearfully, but stand up anyway. Flip the switch of the spotlight with a trembling finger and walk with wobbly-knees to center stage.
We measure ourselves by our intentions but others measure us by our actions.
Let your intentions become your actions and you will have stumbled onto your purpose. Quit thinking. Start doing. And whatever you do, do it with set-jaw determination. Your purpose will reveal itself soon enough.
Adventure: What Will I Do Now?
It is not the victory, but the audacity of the attempt that makes us feel alive. Small plans do not enflame the hearts of men.
If your life’s work can be accomplished in your lifetime, you’re not thinking big enough.
Waiting is a kind of dying. Indecision is a decision. When you let enough time go by as you wring your hands and say, “Well, I just don’t know,” the opportunity will pass and your decision will have been made.
Procrastination is the passive assassin of happiness.
Opportunity has been knocking for a long time now. In fact, it’s pounding on your door as you read this.
Get up and answer it.
Do something that scares you.What’s the worst than can happen?
Answer the door.
It’s showtime.
–Roy H. Williams–
Now, that you have read it, look at the stuff you’ve been buying.
I bet that most of it is an expression of your desire, of your intention, and very little is being actually used in action.
Your job is to close the gap between intention and action. You can do it in two ways, both work, both have integrity:
- ramp up your action to match your intention…
- declare that you stop having the intention that you are not in action about.Start small. Throw away stuff that you have been holding because one day you will need it… Throw away the clothes that are two sizes too small and tell the truth about it: you are probably not going to fit it, so why kidding yourself, using up precious psychic energy on the pretense.
Throw away the marketing courses, the investment courses, the courses you never used: chances are that you won’t actually pursue them, so why have them there preventing you from being in integrity with yourself.Once you clean up your life from the lies you tell yourself about the things that you are definitely going to do, you’ll be ready to look and re-assess your intentions, and will have energy to actually do.
One of the most important words in the English language is “no”. or “No, I am not going to do it“.
If you have never experienced the freedom saying “no” gives you, it is time to start.
You can’t wholeheartedly say yes to anything, until you learn to say no to everything else.
Life is full of choices, and you can only take one road… no matter what the mind says, multitasking and all. Make sure your “no” sticks, make sure your “no” is not a pretense.
Contrary to most teachings, powerful people are masters of saying “no.”
Resisting is not a NO, resisting is sitting on the fence. Only a clear NO will set you FREE.
PS: if you have ever made a “vision board” you know the eclectic identity that you have put together. Destroy your vision board and choose a path, choose something, anything to do, and say no to everything else. Otherwise your life will still stay the same: a steam-engine locomotive with all its valves spewing steam… but the train is standing on the rails.
