How to discover your life purpose

I may have been a little harsh with Steve Pavlina in my last posting, but in truth, I think he's a hard-working and smart person who sincerely desires to help people. In all fairness, he does have good ideas and techniques. HERE is the link to an exercise he recommends to find one's true purpose in life.

I was suspicious at first, but then I started to write and suddenly had a little epiphany.

I wrote:

"A better world through better men. Better men through better knowledge."

According to Pavlina, I should have tears in my eyes. The tears will "prove" that this is indeed my purpose in life.

But so far, no tears.

Then I thought about my own life and what helped me to improve myself, specifically by seeking knowledge since I'm a natural reader (I became a natural reader by spending my entire childhood reading encyclopedias instead of chasing girls. Talk about a misspent childhood!).

Anyways, as I kept thinking further, I began to remember all the girls and women in my life and how they influenced me to change and improve for the better. Many girls in high school were impressed that I was always the top student and eventually graduated as valedictorian. Many girls were also visibly impressed by my calligraphy skills. One time, I was filling out an application for a job at a government office when a girl (her name was Sandy) suddenly exclaimed: "Oh my God, that's amazing! Did you write that?"

She was referring to my job application form, filled out in beautiful calligraphic handwriting. I said: "Yes." I was exclaiming (in my head): "Oh my God, this blond-hair, blue-eyed girl is so beautiful!"

Then, she started calling all her coworkers and showed them my job application form! I was very happy to have discovered that insight (that girls like beautiful handwriting and that, furthermore, beautiful girls like beautiful things and sights). The rest is history: I intensified my calligraphy practice, joined a professional calligraphers association, read every single available calligraphy books, and became of the noted calligraphers in the City of Montreal!

Another girl encouraged me to read Nietzche's "superman" philosophy, yet another helped me to get back to McGill to do a management degree, and a third inspired me to begin teaching calligraphy seriously.

Anyways, I'll stop here, otherwise I'll sound like Casanova recounting his romantic conquests.

But my point is that Pavlina's technique worked for me.

My question is, Why do people cry when they "discover" their purpose in life? I remember an author who wrote: "We are afraid to see ourselves too clearly, and we are afraid that other people will see us too clearly."

Maybe that's why we always try to look happy and normal, when often, deep inside, we are not happy and feel inadequate. It's possible that Pavlina's technique, like Freud's psychotherapy, gently guides us to see what we would rather ignore. The truth is always extremely beautiful, but because it is beautiful, it has the power to melt all our defenses. As a result, we cry.

We cry because we feel we are in the presence, often for the first time, of the infinite beauty within us, within every human being. What is this beauty within us? Perhaps it's our divine purpose trying to communicate with us, trying to manifest itself in our lives.

Perhaps we cry because by writing, even if tentatively, our purpose on a piece of paper, we are giving voice, for the first time, to our soul.

In my case, my "soul" spoke to me in August 2004, and I felt compelled to take dictation and write down what this mysterious voice was telling me. The resulting one-page document is a secret that I will share in due time, but it's basically a manifesto titled "Perfect Man Enterprise."

It's a plan to create "a better world through better men."

In short, Pavlina's exercise helped me to write that simple purpose. I recommend that you try the exercise and see where it leads.