The human desire to search for our life’s purpose has a long history. We want to know at a conscious level the reason we are here on earth so that we can take responsibility for our lives and start living authentically. Are you seeking your life’s purpose? Do you take responsibility for your life? Are you living authentically?

Does this topic interest you? If so, were you following “A New Earth Web Event” that was online every Monday evening? Oprah and Eckhart Tolle taught an online class based on Tolle’s best-selling book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. It was a live webcast in which people from around the world watched online and also participated via Skype. Each week one chapter from the book was reviewed. We were amazed to learn just how many people are sincerely seeking emotional well being through identification of their life’s purpose. The report we heard stated there were almost two million viewers online and that didn’t count the people who watched the recordings at a later date, OR others who are following other avenues!

Tolle is a spiritual teacher and states that you can begin to awaken to your life’s purpose when you stop identifying the person you are as the chatter in your mind, the voice in your head. He calls that voice, those negative messages and reactions, the ego and the ego wants to be separate from everyone and everything else. The more you recognize your own ego, the more it will diminish and you will experience greater emotional well being. As you practice noticing when your ego is talking to you, you will be able to let go of the roles it has had you playing and you can begin living authentically using your core inner strength. Letting go of the ego in this way sounds simple yet it requires practice and more practice.

Do we work too hard at seeking our life’s purpose? In “The Secret” (book and DVD) it is stated that your life’s purpose is whatever you want it to be. It does sound like an oversimplified notion and yet it makes sense. You are in control of who you are. What you are passionate about is most likely related to your life’s purpose. So by following these passions and yearnings, using your intuition and disregarding the negative mind chatter, you will be living your life’s purpose.

Another perspective is that whatever you are doing at any given time, could very well be part of your life’s purpose. What we mean is that your life’s purpose may not be “one” thing or activity. It could be a series of steps that lead you in a specific direction with each of the steps being a part of your life’s purpose. If you are living your life from inner strength and eliminating that negative internal dialogue, you can relax and enjoy each and every step.

About the Author: Lynn Hull and Julie Molner, professional life coaches, co-authored “Your Life Your Way: The Essential Guide for Women” despite living across the Atlantic Ocean from one another. They are passionate about the unlimited possibilities that exist for all! http://www.essentialguideforwomenblog.com

Do you have a strong feeling that you have a life purpose to fulfill? Do you have an inner urge to accomplish something specific with your life? Do you have these feelings, but have no idea what specific thing that might be? Does it seem that you are here to do something great? Do you wonder how to accomplish it? Do you believe you know what to do, but not how to do it? Does it seem you are lacking know how, knowledge, connections, guts, support, self confidence, or financial wherewithal?

Consider approaching life purpose strategically, that is, laid out as a complete plan consisting of many and varied small action steps accomplished over time.

For our purposes here, we will assume that you know what your life purpose is, but don’t know how to accomplish it. Figuring out life purpose is more complex than could be covered here. So, you know what you are here to accomplish, but cannot figure out how to go forward, taking action consistently.

The first thing to do is to do a “brain dump”, that is to get down on paper every single idea you’ve ever had about how to accomplish this purpose.

At the top of the first page of paper, write “Strategy:”. After the colon, write your life purpose goal. Underneath, draw three columns. Use several sheets of paper, drawing three columns on each sheet. At the top of each column, write “Tactic:”. After each tactic heading, come up with a tactic for that column.

Let’s say your strategy is to become a musician whose work provokes humans to treat fellow humans lovingly and compassionately. Let’s say you are already a trained musician. Some of your tactics might be:

• Create a band or performing group
• Learn music business
• Create electronic press kit
• Create a repertoire of songs
• Write songs
• Get a booking agent
• Plan a tour
• Develop professional relationships
• Get recording contract

Now, under each tactic, begin to list as many small action steps as you can think of. If you realize there is knowledge you need to acquire, make a tactic column titled “Acquire Knowledge”.

For an example of the tactic “Create a Band Or Performing Group”, you might have the following action steps:

• Decide on size of group
• Decide on instruments
• Figure out participants (already known and needed)
• Decide type of music
• Create Ground rules
• Hold auditions
• Find practice studio
• Decide practice schedule

Create more tactics as you realize the need. Consolidate or expand as needed. Your strategy is a living document that expands as your vision expands. Print your completed strategy off and file it in a binder. Set aside regular times to work on reviewing and revising your strategy. This could be once a week, or twice a month.

When you review your strategy, cross out all the items you have completed. You will find that simply by having a written strategy, you are taking action on it without even thinking of it. As you see what you have completed, you will get new ideas. Add them to the strategy. Date the old version.

Then create a new version, typing it up and adding new items. As you accomplish action items in your strategy, you will meet new people, gain new knowledge, get new ideas, develop new contacts. Add all this into your strategy.

Developing a strategy is the way to bring your Life Purpose into reality the easiest and fastest. It can be done…and it can be easy.

About the Author: Suzi Elton is a success coach working with highly creative types to create income that matches their talent.She has coached hundreds of clients to approach their goals strategically through tiny steps to bring about quantum leaps. Get free Life Purpose exercises, at http://mylifepurposecoaching.com.

Did you have an abusive childhood? As a child, were you the victim of sexual, verbal, or physical abuse? Were your earliest years lived amid chaos, conflict, substance abuse, neglect, poverty, or crime? Were these things such a part of your youngest years that they have become your identity? Do you find that tears come to your eyes at the thought or mention of those days…even 20, 30, 40, 50 or more years later…even if the people are long dead? It may be true that the intensity of this early conditioning and trauma has imprinted itself on you and your brain to such a degree that it has essentially become your identity.

It is your identity if:

• You use it as a context to explain your current behaviors, especially not performing to your abilities.
• You consistently and constantly reference it to describe your “specialness”.
• You make self-limiting choices now because of these “ancient” experiences.
• Anyone who knows you needs to understand your background to get close to you.
• You feel that you’re “entitled” to unique treatment or behavior because of having been traumatized.
• You must mention your background everywhere you go.
• You believe you have suffered unusually more than others…entitling you to “kid glove” treatment.
• You still suffer regularly and often from the experience.
• You believe others have been so much more blessed than you.
• You have multiple ways you let these past experiences rob you of a fully expressed life now.
• You are easily traumatized in present day life.

If you recognize yourself in these statements, it could be that you are robbing yourself of a great life now, by not realizing that you have let your history become your identity. This does not mean anything bad about you or who you are. It is a fairly common occurrence and may just be a natural part of the human animal. It is simply an unconscious way that humans let the past control their present and their future.
Here are some things you can do to change your past from being your identity to simply being your history:

1. Bring these behaviors to consciousness by paying attention to any way you limit yourself now because of your past.
2. If you need help, seek out an excellent therapist. Get referrals from people you trust. If the first session is not spectacular, keep “shopping” for a therapist, until you get the feeling that you have “found the one”. Don’t settle for someone average or second rate. Go to therapy as long as you need to resolve your issues. There’s a great life on the other end of this work.
3. Start to notice when you find yourself needing to tell the story again to new people, and see how it feels “not to go there”.
4. Consider modifying your behavior by not repeating the story again, but instead, identifying yourself in a new way.
5. Having this type of history does not mean anything bad about you. It just means that you had the misfortune of never having known a normal loving family. It is better to have compassion for the child that you were.
6. Make a point of choosing people, places and things that validate you and support you and help you grow in the ways you want to grow.
7. Realize that you have a responsibility to yourself to create the type of “intentional family” that you wish you had had as a child. Go to those types of places where caring, loving people are. Keep showing up and make a point of “putting yourself out there” to connect with others.
8. Realize that many people who have had painful childhoods punish themselves with various forms of substance abuse. If this describes you, get help. There are no solutions (and certainly no happy lives) in the bottom of a bottle.
9. Know that it is possible to completely heal from a horrible childhood. It is not easy. It takes a lot of work, but the happiness and joy are worth it. Don’t let “them” steal a wonderful life from you.

Just because you have allowed your history to become your identity does not mean that your whole life has to be like this. It is possible to deactivate these traumatic events, release this old identity, and have it just be simply your history. Take back control of your present and your future.

About the Author: Suzi Elton is a success coach working with highly creative types to create income that matches their talent.She has coached hundreds of clients to approach their goals strategically through tiny steps to bring about quantum leaps. Get free Life Purpose exercises, at http://mylifepurposecoaching.com.