Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Life Purpose

Since I was a kid, I've always had this profound sense that there must be something more to life than just doing a great job, having a family and wealth. A sense that I must be here to do something beyond just my own interest. Of course ,I took the wrong paths a few times, tried to immitate others and then realized I must find my own unique path and my own unique goals.

Some of the techniques that worked for me were:
  • Trying to understand what I deeply cared about, what I valued and what I really liked
  • Trying to know my skills
  • Use these skills to find what I cared about, valued and really liked
One of the important things I learned over the years was that things change, I change, my likes and dislikes change and my goals change. I needed to build up and improve the techniques further. Also never stop looking for what needs to be done.

During this quest, I fortunately came across a few very good tools. A few years back I came across Anthony Robin's book "Awaken the Giant Within" and saw some of his books. There were some very good pointers into figuring out your potential and fulfilling your potential. I had taken the CDP course at the IAC previously and wanted to take their Advanced program on self knowledge. It filled in some more of the gaps in this big puzzle I was trying to put together.

Last weekend, one of the best lectures I've heard on the topic happened here in Miami. Wagner Alegretti from Portugal gave an 8 hr lecture of "Identifying your Existential Program". He introduced the concept of Existential Program, which is an integral term for life purpose or life mission; how assistance is an essential part of it; how we have an obligation to ourselves, our families and friends, to the community and to the bigger world. He also introduced some techniques and asked questions that we could ask ourselves in order go deep into this topic.

It is important to stop and think about what kind of life do I want? Then think about what kind of a life do I have now? The idea is to figure out how to match these two but also to go beyond.

We have to understand the concept of Karma. Using this knowledge we can begin to address the obligations starting with ourselves, our families and friends and to the community.

We can start with a comprehensive analysis of ourselves and identify what are the talents, strengths, strong qualities and abilities we posses. We should also identify what are the characteristics of ourselves that are weaknesses, less than admirable and/or than needs to be improved.

Ask important questions from ourselves continuously to keep a tab of the direction we are heading; also, ask yourself from time to time if you die today will you be happy about the life you spent?

One more aspect to consider when trying to figure out our existential program is the need in a particular place we live or the people we live around with. It makes sense to use your talents and skills in an area to help people where help is needed the most.

One of the effective techniques you can use is one more year of life technique. Chasing daylight is a related book you can read that can inspire you. The Journal of Conscientiology volume 10, # 40 reviews this book in comparison to this technique.

Be aware, you will not instantaneously know every detail of the whole journey you have to take and everything about what you have to do with life. Every single step of the way, you will find a new piece of the puzzle that will lead you closer to the goal.

Knowing what we want in life, what we have to do and the direction we must take is quite crucial. This enables us to have a satisfying life and complete the goals to move on to the next level in our evolution.

PS: Recommendation - Dr. Vieira's Existential Program manual is a book to read if you are willing to dive deep into this topic.

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