Making “Life Purpose” & “Abundance” Simpler? August 10, 2009
Posted by selfworks in Career and Work, Happiness and Success, Money and Prosperity, Personal Development (General).Tags: abundance, life purpose, personal development
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Much is talked in personal development circles about, “life purpose” and “abundance”. And yet, in both cases, answers can be given which are so over-simplistic as to be unhelpful. Eg. “Just love yourself ” or ” You are already abundant, but have yet to realise it.” (?!)
The other day though, a thought struck me which links together both, and could simplify matters for anyone currently thinking about life purpose or abundance.
If a certain interest, concern, or way of being is part of our life purpose, we’re likely to do it a lot, and with enthusiasm. And by doing things a great deal, any of us can accumulate expertise and skill in a given area. Yet precisely because we are enthusiastic about it and precisely because we have become skilled enough at it to find it easy, we may not value that skill as highly as others who don’t possess it. Hence, our life purpose naturally yields an abundance of something, but we may need to recognise it for what it is.
Taking examples of this may make the matter more concrete. As a talkative, communicative person, I learnt a long time ago that others sometimes prefer you to keep quiet…and so labelled myself internally as talking to excess. In fact, it’s an excess that can be turned into abundance (eg when the words are used in trainings, to help clients, or to write).
To take another example: my Long Suffering Spouse loves to fix computers (so much so that, on the rare days when he isn’t fixing other peoples’ computers, he wanders round our house looking for devices and problems to fix). People pay him gladly to exercise a skill that he has in abundance.
So, inĀ a sense, people perhaps haven’t changed that much over the centuries. Just as the miller used to barter an excess of flour for the farmer’s excess of apples, so today, we trade more abstract skills: conversation, fixing, a helping hand, the ability to make things beautiful, and so forth. But with our modern world comes a degree of complication and stress that can make these true skills harder to see in all their glory.
My question to you therefore, is simple:
What do you do, naturally, and in such easy abundance that it creates an excess that others will value?
Therein may lie, not just abundance, but a lot of information about your current life purpose as well.
Turning on the Tap? July 9, 2007
Posted by selfworks in Uncategorized.Tags: abundance, creativity, law_of_attraction, LOA, love, personal development
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Hello again-and no, just in case you’re wondering, this blog’s title doesn’t refer to the truly appalling weather we experienced on holiday last week. Let’s just say that my Long Suffering Spouse and I had plenty of time to get rest and relaxation.
Anyway, down to the point of the post.
Over the last few days, I’ve also had cause to meet a whole bunch of people with different ideas about life to my own. And as a result, here’s a new thought/idea that you might find useful too.
Not to put too fine a point on it, many of these people were enjoying a type of abundance that made my head spin. Not because of intrinsic greed (at least, I hope not). And in fact, many of the same people, far from being greedy, were also sharing out the goodies in a way that the rest of us can only dream about (so far).
At the same time, some of those same people were not so blessed in areas such as as creativity, or good old-fashioned love, as I’m so very thankful to be.
Which got me to thinking…Why do we, as human beings, tend to “turn off” the flow of various good things towards ourselves?
For a long time, I just put it down to a weird kind of emotional masochism.
Then, on applying the “law of attraction” and related principles, I thought it was all a part of “pinching off supply” by not feeling worthy. Which it is. But there’s more to it than that (or at least, a slightly more practical way to understand and overcome these self-imposed obstacles).
You see, experience suggests that most of us are actually pretty sensible creatures, who want the best in life for ourselves and those close to us, as a fairly basic instinct.
And there’s only one basic instinct that could have any chance of defeating an evolutionary success drive that’s that strong. Fear.
So then it hit me. If you increase the supply of some “good thing” into your life that’s been missing, you are also then often forced to live your life in a more “full-on,” kind of way. For example, allowing more love into your life brings with it relationships, extra concern for others, commitments and obligations.
And it looks as if the increased choices available to super-abundant individuals also bring with them a responsibility towards others, and an amplification of the speed and pace of life, that may not suit everyone. It would, in fact, take large amounts of self-confidence and internal wherewithal to negotiate that path successfully.
So in fact, a part of each of us may be keeping a close, if unconscious, eye on the flow through the “tap” of abundance, love, or whatever, in order to feel secure that we have the internal resources that match the external situation.
Or, to put it another way, perhaps this is why the sages have said for aeons that “all change must begin from within”.
Does this mean that we should all be content with the merest dribble from the metaphorical “tap” in certain areas of our lives? Absolutely not. But the challenge for each of us is to realise that we really do, already have all the resources to cope with increased flow if we choose, and that anyway, the rate and amount of flow really is in our control.
I’m off to experiment with some ideas around this and will report back. (As if on cue, we now have a thunderstorm. Nature, it seems, has no difficulty turning on the tap).
Hope this helps
More soon
Clare




