Your Passion, Purpose and Dreams

I haven't blogged in forever. Clancy, you are probably the only one that will notice. LOL

I have had a few different blog posts in mind lately. But, I wanted to just get my thoughts on paper about a topic that I have read and heard about for a long time but, that have just recently come together for me.

Miles and I have been goal driven for several years. We have put pictures on the wall of the things we want and have really made significant efforts to make those dreams a reality. A few months ago I read A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. There is a section in there that I want to reference.

Make sure your vision or goal is not an inflated image of yourself and therefore a concealed form of ego, such as wanting to become a movie star, famous writer, or a wealthy entrepreneur. Also make sure your gaol is not focused in having this or that, such as a mansion by the sea, your own company, or ten million dollars in the bank. An enlarged image of yourself or a vision of yourself having this or that are all static goals and therefore don't empower you. Instead, make sure your goals are dynamic, that is to say, point toward an activity that you are engaged through which you are connected to other human beings as well as to the whole. Instead of seeing yourself as a famous actor and writer and so on, see yourself inspiring countless people with your work and enriching their lives. Feel how that activity enriches or deepens not only your life but that of countless others. Feel yourself being an opening through which energy flows from the unmanifested Source of all life through you for the benefit of all.

After reading that I came home and took down everything on my dream wall. I took down the home that I had designed for us to build. The cars I wanted to replace my current one with and the vacation we had been working toward. I thought I needed to take my focus totally on how I could help others and how the the "unmanifested Source of all life" could flow through me for the benefit of those I associate with.

Then yesterday I listened to a cd by Chuck Goetschel called Investing in People (SOTB13). He talks a little bit more in detail about the Hoyt Team that I have blogged a little bit about before and then he gives five reasons that investing in people is important. I am going to focus on the #1 reason. (He gives them in reverse order, kinda like David Letterman's Top 10 building up to the last one.)

He explains that finding your purpose and your passion and then applying the gifts and talents that God has given you will show you HOW YOU should invest in people. He asks: What are you passionate about? Are you passionate about helping the orphaned children in Brazil? Does that tear at your heart strings? Well then something needs to be done. So, he says to find your gifts and talents and apply them to that. He says this is how we will change the world. As each of us reviews our gifts and talents and notices what we are passionate about and then applies those gifts and talents to our passion we have found our purpose. Then, we have found God's calling for our lives. Seems so simple right!! Everytime a speaker tells me to find my purpose I just seem to feel totally lost and don't really want to try to find it becuase it seems so overwhelming. But, Chuck really made is simple. Apply your gifts and talents to your passion and see God's will/calling for you revealed.

He then talks about a law that ties all this together for me. It ties our purpose, what Eckhard talks about and what I have been learning over the past few years together. He says that if you want happiness and and all these things, don't pursue them. He says that the Law of Reverse Effect says that the harder you try to acheive those things the more ellusive they become. But, if you do what you are called to do then all of those things will just be a by-product and you will be happy and fulfilled because you are doing what you are called to do and that will always include investing in people. Isn't that what Tolle is talking about too. That we shouldn't focus on that things that will build our ego and give us a bigger image of ourselves. We should keep our focus and attention on how we can invest in other people and "benefit" them.

I have reconciled all this in the last couple of days and had already put my goals back up on the wall recently; not all of them yet. But, my custom home is back up and my big house is back up there. And, I am glad because they are the tangible rewards that will come as a by-product of finding HOW I am suppose to apply my personal gifts and talents to my personal passion to invest in people. Now when I look on that wall I don't see a house and cars I see people between me and them. And, I know from my limited exerience that when those things arrive as a result of my efforts to "benefit" others they wont matter much. What will really matter is the people I invested in and the difference that investment made in benefiting their lives. Nothing is as important as that!!