PURPOSE IN LIFE/ MISSION STATEMENT Step 3: What words capture the essence of your mission?
Step 3: What words capture the essence of your mission? A short, thematic summary of your soul’s purpose will help you implement what you were born to do.
Explanation to Step 3: My mission is: to free imprisoned souls. “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” (Henry David Thoreau) In this context, living a life of ‘quiet desperation’ means the feeling people get from simply going on with life and doing what is expected of them in order to fit in and pay the bills, without even exploring what it is they truly want out of life. They know there is something wrong, but they are too polite to complain and too busy to think about it much. A silent hopelessness, a feeling of despair, but going on with life, never letting on that they are feeling it. Many people slumber through most of their lives. They live on auto-pilot. They keep busy so they don’t have to think too much. They ignore who they are. They forget what their dreams were if they ever knew.
Quiet desperation blends into the background. It doesn’t call attention to itself, but you see it everywhere, such as when looking at the faces of commuters racing to catch the next train. “Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious.” (Agent Smith, The Matrix) Why do people lead lives of quiet desperation? Because as bleak as it is, it’s still easier than the alternative: a life of noisy hope! A life where you dare to go after your dreams even if you fail. Even when you fail again and again and again. A life where you don’t quite ‘fit in’ to society’s norms. A life that people will call eccentric or bizarre. A life filled with successes and failures, joys and despairs. A life fully lived.
What can you do about it? Wake up! Who are you? What do you really want? What does your life mean? Are you doing the things you do because it’s what you chose, or did your life choose you and you just let it happen? Are you just conforming to a society that tells you, you must have and do these things? Are you living or just existing? “Death isn’t sad. The sad thing is that most people don’t live at all.” (Peaceful Warrior)
Remember, dear friend: “You must be the change you want to see in the World”, as Ghandi used to say. Does it really matter for little me to change the world when so many people do not?, you may ask yourself. The answer is: yes, absolutely! When you follow your path, the sky is the limit. In such a context does it really matter that you may struggle during the process?
Recently I came to this incredible conclusion that it really doesn’t matter to me in the long run. Hallelujah! Does it really matter in the eyes of eternity? No! This is just a learning curve. I will continue until I have done what I came to do because I am in control of my life, not anybody else!
Furthermore, I realised that I used to struggle or pay consequences, and it affected me because that was my limited belief. Because I was conditioned this way, I was told by everyone I know that this is the only way it has to be when you choose to follow your path. “Be careful. They will make your life difficult. They may destroy you”, my friends and loved ones kept repeating to me worryingly. One of the biggest realisations of 2014 was: “Life is a choice. You can choose to be a victim or anything else you would like to be.” (Peaceful Warrior) How refreshing!