How do you discover your life’s direction and purpose?

I just finished reading The path made clear: Discovering your life’s direction and purpose by Oprah and her friends. I thought the book had a lot of aha moments for me and I think it’s a great book to read for that moment in your life that you feel stuck and feel that you don’t know what your purpose needs to be. It’s a quick read I actually read it in 2 nights but I had to go back through it to get some more pointers and highlight a few things. I want to break down some of the parts of the book that stood out to me and I hope what I share helps you with whatever direction you want to go in. After I’m done I want you to tell me how would you discover your life’s direction and purpose?

How do you discover your life’s direction and purpose?

What I know for sure is you become what you believe?

Easier said than done. I believe I can become a millionaire but without the proper tools, hard work, and the right connections I can’t become anything unless I win that lottery. I will say this work on what you believe and then you will become it. I believed in photography that I worked on that craft for 2 years straight before I started taking folks money. I continue to work hard today because I believe in myself. Same thing with blogging. I have gotten down many many times because my blog isn’t seen or I don’t get any money from it but guess what I still blog and someone is reading so I’m good with that.

Whatever your calling, it’s already rooted within you, and those roots can be trampled or tugged at but never removed.

I thought this was powerful because isn’t it funny that your calling has always been there all along but you just never realized it. Something you did as a child prepared you or is preparing you for the future. As a child I loved reading I loved the story part of it and so I was always a storyteller. Now I do that via my blog and photography. It was always in me but I never realized that until about 3 years ago. Better late than never right lol

Situations like job loss, financial problems, a painful breakup, or a chasm between you and your child might feel like a shock, but they rarely arrive without whispers along the way.

Nothing just happens. I hate when folks are shocked their husbands ask for a divorce when they barely talk or communicate. I hate when folks are shocked about their spouse spending money they don’t have when they met them they had several credit cards and was never good with money. You lost your job and you are shocked? You must not have been paying attention because you know when you are about to lose your job someone will give you a warning, you will see changes within the structure of the job, you know it’s coming you just don’t want to see it. Life is always speaking to you and your gut will tell you when something is off…you better trust your gut. The whisper is the first warning it’s a quiet nudge that you get within you pay attention because it’s almost never wrong.

Most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us.

How many of us live a boring life and wish we could live another life?  I live a life that does the same thing day in and day out but the life in me wants to travel the world, see new things, meet new people. The introverted life that I live is not the life within me but I don’t know how to get that life within me to get out of me and start living. I’m working on that!

We run from problems, most of us. But sometimes we have to run to the problem.

Chilllleeee the problem we run from will continue to chase us if we don’t handle it. We gotta face the problems head-on or it will never get fixed. Run to the problem and decide that you will fix it and if it’s unfixable then move on and find another solution but make sure you have given it your best. Make sure that you have addressed all sides of the problem including your role in the problem. See many of us always want to blame the problem on others but we hardly address us as part of the problem. We are sometimes the problem we need to run to and fix.

I think we’d like life to be a train. You get on, pick your destination, and get off when you reach it. But life actually turns out to be a sailboat instead. Every day you have to see where the wind is and check the currents and see if there’s anybody else on the boat with you who can help out. The weather changes. The currents change and so does the wind. It’s not a train ride, in other words.

I think this speaks for itself…..life is not a train. There is no stop and go and you will end up at your destination. Things change, circumstances change, life changes….

Nothing is ever out of order

I get mad at the way my life is sometimes not in the order I want it to be. I also get mad when things come up, for example, my air was out downstairs last week and then the air went out upstairs. I was mad that I had to spend money on this mess but when the guy went into the attic he discovered that one of the wires had caught fire and burned out. Now had my air not went out…I would have never known about the wiring. Y’all nothing and I do mean nothing is out of order every bad thing that happens is supposed to happen.

This book was so good with lots of aha moments that you will have to reread to get. I think this is a must for your collection.

What are you reading right now?