The Secret to Living Your Soul's Purpose

By Megan Woolever

I once asked a spiritual teacher "What should I be doing with my life? What is my purpose?" His answer was simple. "Do what brings you the most joy."

"What?" I thought. "How can I make a living just doing what brings me joy?!" It sounded too simplistic. Yet, I had never stopped to think about the ramifications of doing what doesn't bring me joy. Consider this, as we learned from The Secret what we focus our attention on expands, but its not just the end result that expands, its also the motivation behind our intention that expands as well.

Say we are focused on making a living that makes us lots of money, but the motivation for making this money is based on our fear of being poor or powerless. Guess what we are growing more of in our life? More feelings of being scared, poor and powerless, no matter how much money we accumulate in the bank.

Instead, if we focus our attention on how we can make a living by making a contribution to society or even on making money so as to give more powerfully to the things we believe in like environmental causes, sustainable businesses, and community projects, then we are growing more love, vision and service in our lives and communities. The Secret is as much about the why of what you choose to focus on as it is about the object you are focusing on.

Many people decide they want certain things- a better job, a mate, a new car- because they think these things will make them feel better. But what motivates those desires is just as important as whatever it is they are desiring. Marci Shimoff, featured teacher in The Secret, has really taken this concept to heart in her new book Happy for No Reason. In a recent Networking Times article Marci put it this way, "Having things and circumstances – money, success, relationships, health—brings a certain happiness, what I call being 'happy for good reason.' Unfortunately, this temporary experience of satisfaction or joy soon fades and we have to hurry up and fulfill the next desire to get a new high... To experience true and lasting happiness, we must be free of the need for any external reason to be happy. True happiness isn't a result of getting what we want; getting what we want is a side effect of happiness... Perhaps we need to focus a little less on trying to get what we want and a little more on creating a deep inner state of happiness."

Dr. David Hawkins in his 20-year research on the human energy field reports that the emotion of joy is the highest vibrating emotion the human system can hold. The key then is knowing what brings you joy. Unfortunately, for many people this is the biggest hurdle. In my practice I encourage my clients to begin by making a list of 20-30 things that they really love, things that make them feel good. It could be anything from reading, to walking in nature, to gourmet cheese. Then find a way each day to do one thing that you love. The goal is to give yourself permission to explore the things that light you up and fill you with a sense of expansion.

Living joyfully begins when we let go of all the excuses, the justifications, the reasons why we can't, and allow the child-like excitement of doing something new, something fun, something wonderful, to fill us with joy. Once we are living in this sense of wonder and expansion everyday we begin to magnetize what we truly want into our lives, for our joy becomes the most powerful attractor of all.

What brings one person joy isn't necessarily what will bring joy to you or me. For one person this might be climbing Mt. Everest, for another building bird-houses, and another raising a family. Our deepest desires are as unique as we are, no two are exactly alike. To choose joy is to choose your soul's deepest desires. For what your soul desires is a clue as to what you are here to contribute; your soul's purpose.

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