Life Purpose - Finding Meaning to Your Life
By Douglas
Woods
Have you ever wondered as to the meaning of life? Have you ever
asked yourself why you are here? Do you ever feel your life lacks a
purpose? If so, then you are not alone. Yet have you ever found an
answer to these issues?
Questions such as these have been taxing even the brightest of
minds for centuries and yet we still seem no nearer an answer that
satisfies everyone. Philosophers, religious leaders, lifestyle gurus
and politicians have each at various times pondered upon these
issues and come up with an apparent answer. Their answers, though,
have rarely been totally satisfactory and have often been more a way
of bringing people round to their way of thinking rather than
solving the deeper mystery of the meaning of life.
Nowadays, while politicians and religious leaders may still
debate or preach upon the meaning of life, individual people are
finding new ways of searching for a meaning to their life. Indeed,
there would appear to be a shift away from looking for the one deep
answer to the meaning of everyone’s life; people are now
increasingly searching for a purpose simply for their own life.
The ‘one size fits all’ theories are being eschewed in favour of
a more individual approach to finding life’s purpose. People seek
not so much the purpose of life in general but rather the purpose of
their own life.
In searching for a purpose to your life, there would appear to be
two broad approaches that you can adopt. One approach is an
‘external’ approach and the other is an ‘internal’ one.
The external approach would involve outside agencies, such as
religious, charitable or political groups and adopting their beliefs
and attitudes. You can choose to join and support such groups and
allow their philosophies and practices to become your own. Your life
purpose then becomes one of advocating, promoting or supporting the
cause of your chosen group. Quite often this approach is seen as
very popular, the group provides a ready made answer for your
questions and often a sense of camaraderie and support from fellow
members. Often, though, there is also a sense of compromise, for it
is rare that any one group or organisation will match entirely with
your own beliefs and viewpoint. So you may find yourself having to
forego or bury some of your own beliefs in order to fully promote
those of the group.
The internal approach is to examine your own life, your own
beliefs and your own values and to see what these tell you about
your approach to life. Sometimes, though, we are uncertain about our
own beliefs and our own values and we may feel the need for help in
discovering and clarifying them. This is one of the things for which
people increasing call upon Life Coaches to help with. Discovering
your own beliefs and your own values, including your limiting
beliefs (that is to say, those beliefs that hold you back), are all
part of the core work of a life coach. Indeed several life coaches
now openly advertise there services in helping people to discover
their life purpose.
Yet, are there advantages in this ‘internal approach’? The
internal approach does not provide quite the same ‘ready made’
answers as the external approach but there does mean that there is
less likelihood of you having to make compromises. The internal
approach also has the advantage of helping you to understand
yourself better. The appeal, for many people, though is that the
internal approach allows you to find the purpose to your own life
rather than giving you one that has been predefined by someone else.
Douglas Woods is a fully qualified life coach. You can read more
about his work on his website at
http://www.dougwoods.com.
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