Do You Want A Mighty Purpose Or A Safe Life?

Do You Want A Mighty Purpose Or A Safe Life?
"This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one." - George Bernard Shaw

Notice that the quotation above contains the phrase, "being used for a purpose." The implication is that somehow our life purpose can take us over, consume us and demand everything from us.

Notice also that Shaw says that "this is the true joy in life."

Many artists and people of great accomplishment have expressed similar ideas: Gandhi did and so did Sting in his autobiography, "Broken Music." The inventor Thomas Edison said, "It was never work; it was all fun."

All three of these men, and many others, reflect what many of us have the privilege of knowing: that a life purpose that is expressed as work is absorbing, interesting, fun, involving, creative, expressive and often even, obsessive. It's as though we were possessed by a need to accomplish something, create a specific result or solve some great problem.

When we are possessed by the 'daimon' of purpose, it is as though we have been given a life assignment to fulfill and we will not be content or happy unless we fulfill it.

The word 'daimon' above is from the Greek and is the origin of our word, 'demon.' Very often the word demon is used in conjunction with the idea of being possessed by an irresistible power or force.

In the case of a life work or a life purpose, it can mean the same thing. We are taken over by a powerful urge to create, to achieve, to live the life we imagine we could have.

The notion of daimons or demons can be scary, though. I believe more of us have a daimon of purpose for our lives than we will admit. And the reason comes from the power we sense of the daimon itself.

Shaw alludes to it: we are 'used' by this purpose. Sting refers to it in his autobiography as being obsessed with music. He has no choice really but to go forward.

Many of us are afraid to feel we are possessed by a life purpose. We want to be the ones in control or we want to control the pace at which it happens.

In other words, we want to stay in our comfort zone and just take a little energy now and then from our life purpose.

It doesn't work that way.

If we truly open to our life purpose and the imperative to express it in terms of a meaningful career or life work, we must also open to the possibility that we, too, will be driven, possessed, obsessed by that which we desire to do.

We need to remind ourselves that the power of the purpose is what leads us to express our biggest dreams; some would say the soul's biggest dreams for us.

For years, every night before she went to sleep, Oprah prayed, "Dear God, show me what your biggest dream is for me."

Big dreams and big tasks demand big commitment and openness to those big energies within. If we are called to a big work, we'd better have our 'daimon' standing by to inspire us and drive us. If we leave it up to only our human efforts, the work will likely be human-size and not a work greater than ourselves.

What about you?

Are you open to being driven by a big desire? Are you open to being possessed by your daimon in service of some big work?

Are you open to exploring that big career dream you've had for a long time but have been afraid to explore? Isn't it time you dusted off those explorations to see what it might be like to achieve something big?

As I write this ezine, we now know who the Final Four are for the 2009 college basketball championship. Don't you think each of these teams had a big dream? Don't you think it possessed them? Have you seen the joy of achievement on their faces as they won the game that put them into the Final Four?

How will you feel when you achieve a career so meaningful it blurs the lines between work and pleasure? How will you feel looking back on that mountain you've climbed to achieve a life work and purpose you can be justly proud of?

When will you begin?


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