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4 Steps to Discovering How to Live on Purpose

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A Guest Post by Veronica Drake

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I am Veronica Drake…. mother, ex-wife, wife, victim, friend, arch enemy and survivor. I will show you how I came to realize there are really only four steps to finding your purpose. It only took me 18 plus years to figure it out. Most likely it will take you all of three minutes to decide if it means anything to you.

One cold November morning in 1996 I screamed at God and tried to give Him back His faulty product. I even had the balls to challenged Him to a standoff: “If you have any use for me, show up now or I’m outta here.”

I was sick and tired of living the life I was given. I was blaming the Creator. I had no idea if there even was a God. I figured what did I have to lose. As I was careening my car toward the abutment I came face to face with the details of the life I had created: friends I’d made, loves I’d lost, bridges I’d burned, battles I’d created, and mistakes I’d lived to regret. I realized all this in a split second. And, yes, like in the movies, something happened. It was as if something literally was taking my foot off the gas and applying it to the break. I truly had no control over what was happening. I remember feeling very warm and safe. Something very familiar had me.

t wasn’t long after that experience I got all Holy Rollerish. It didn’t take me long to realize that Holy Roller stuff wasn’t me. But, it did make me question WHO I WAS and WHY I WAS SPARED that day?

I decided to dive in and explore what was really going on with me. What I know about me is I have charisma, I’m very out-of-the-box, I am quick witted and people are drawn to me. Ummm, what was it the Creator wanted me to do with all of that; what Purpose could I possibly fill. There it was right in front of my face the entire time. I would be who I was naturally created to be. Still struggling to identify Purpose, I simply continued to live my life, a life I could be proud of, a life that served others no matter what title I wore.

Ironically, just as I settled into living, it became crystal clear to me. I am a teacher of Purpose. I was given the gift of connecting people to Purpose. Wow, that was powerful. Lil’ ole me using the gifts I was given to be naturally who I am.

It was an 18-year journey for me but luckily for you I condensed it all down to 4 easy steps!

My Four Steps for Finding a Purposeful Existence:

  1. Clarity. Be clear about who you are. Take an honest inventory of what you are bringing to life. List your successes and your natural abilities. Take the time to write it out and revisit it daily. Begin knowing that we are all inherently good and we were all created with natural gifts. If you are struggling to get started, remember our Creator put default settings in us and all we have to do is simply return to what we know; the Golden Rule, do unto others.
  2. Passion. Passion IS energy. It shows up mentally, physically, and spirituality. Embracing the passion and learning to focus it is really the core of finding Purpose. Passion pushes us to look for ways to continually improve what we do and how we do it. Be passionate about who you naturally are. Marrying passion with Purpose is the ultimate fulfillment in life.
  3. Acceptance. A big part of living on Purpose is acceptance. To live a simplified Purposeful life all you need to do is surrender to what is. When you have expectations you will always find yourself in chaos. Bring acceptance into your life and you will find how easy life really is. Acceptance isn’t about living with what is forever it merely means you allow it to be until it no longer is.
  4. Deciding. Nothing happens until YOU DECIDE. The law of inertia states that “A body in motion tends to remain in motion, a body at rest tends to remain at rest.” Will you stay stagnate or will you move? I have DECIDED to be a Spiritual Life Coach who empowers people to live life on Purpose. You?

Living life on purpose is living up to the reason that we’re here, making the most of our gifts.

Have you discovered how to live life on purpose yet?

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Veronica Drake js an International Spiritual Life Coach who inspires clients to explore their spiritual self. Her site is Spiritual Coach Veronica Drake and she writes for people heeding the call of their inner guidance systems and who look to reconnect to their heart on her blog. Her Twitter name is RonnieDrake.

Thank you, Ronnie, for sharing the story of your passion, your purpose, and your life!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Give Yourself Permission to Claim Your Life

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The How to Happiness

In January, I wrote these words.

I want to have the time of my life.

I wrote about the how to happiness and listed out ten ways to live life. The first way was to claim it.

We don’t need to get a life.
We need to own the one we’ve got.
Owning our life is the first step to living life.

Give Yourself Permission to Claim Your Life

After years of school and people telling us what to do, we can find ourselves doing what “comes next” for everyone without ever considering whether that’s what should come next for US. We end up moving through time doing things, but not really living life.

Give yourself permission to claim your life. You know you can do this. What is a few minutes in the context of the hundreds of thousands that you might reignite?

  1. Stop what you’re doing.
    Still yourself, your body, and your mind, completely.
  2. Sit and breathe in deeply.
    Be inside your skin.
  3. Notice the feeling that begins to become you.
    Keep breathing deeply.
  4. Keep with that feeling until you forget about the breathing,
    until you are comfortable feeling the lightness of being.
  5. Name that being feeling “living.”
    Don’t try to make it into anything.
  6. When you feel like a human, get up and do something to claim this life you’re living.

Go Out to Claim It

Here are a few ways you might do that, in case this notion is new to you.

  1. See the sun rise. See a beautiful sky.
    See a smile you put on someone’s face.
  2. Eat something delicious.
    Share a marvelous meal with a friend.
  3. Send yourself fresh flowers.
    Keep some and give some away.
  4. Listen to the sounds of nature that you don’t usually hear.
    Enjoy silence, especially silence share with someone you care about.
  5. Take the longest shower or bubble bath in your experience.
    Buy something soft as cashmere and give it someone who inspires soft thoughts.
  6. Kiss someone you love.
    Follow that with a hug.

Most folks don’t need ideas to fill our life moments. But we might need an occasional reminder to fill our moments with life. Once we start breathing and inhabiting our skin again, the ideas for living life aren’t hard to recognize.

How will give yourself permission to claim your life?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

The In Between

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I've been thinking . . .

about how we mark time.

sister and brother

Yesterday way my son’s birthday.

Two weeks ago he started his first job after college.

In May, he graduated.

We mark such big events. Weddings, birthdays, graduations. Births. Deaths.

But we live our lives in the time in between.

This weekend as travel to work a project,
I’m going to remember . . .

that it’s the in between I value most,

that’s it’s the in-btween I find myself wishing back.

Liz's Signature

Great Find: Five Things I Learned from Blog Comics

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It’s More than Reading the Funnies

Doing research for another post, I came across this one.

Great Find: 5 Things I learned From These Hilarious Blog Comics by Siziopedia

Permalink: http://www.sizlopedia.com/2007/06/24/5-things-i-learned-from-these-hilarious-blog-comics/#more-453

Target Audience: anyone who knows a blogs

Content: This article describes blogging made using blog comics as the talking points. The commentary is right on the experience of blogging. Click the comic below to read the article.

It’s short, sweet, and funny.

What more could you want for a Sunday afternoon?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Be Alive and 10 Ways to Celebrate Living!

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Give It a Try

silhouette of girl splashing water at sunset

Oh yeah, science has defined and described life — no disputing that. It’s that time that occurs between birth and death that we fill up with breathing, eating, sometimes sleeping, preserving the species, and whatever thoughtful and mindless else we might devise.

To get beyond the state of being to having meaning is an art and a craft. The trick is finding the space between the literal and the figurative.

If you want to give it a try . . .

How to Be Alive

In some ways, being alive is a mystical balancing act. It takes thinking and feeling about ideas, things, and people. Actually being alive is deliberate and spontaneous. It’s getting all systems go while being totally still. It can be done. I’ve actually met people who are alive!

Here’s a way to give it a go.

  • Check your life signs. Even though working lungs and a beating heart are clear necessities of living, most of us hold our breath and lose our hearts when we’re overwhelmed. We crawl up into our heads and forget who we are.
  • Know that you can’t get a life — you’ve already got one. If you don’t have one, you’re not reading this.
  • Bring things to life. Be there and show up with all that you are. We get back what we invest.
  • Hold onto your wonderful memories, but let go of the rest. Keeping too much makes us less, holding onto less makes us more.
  • Work hard to reach for your potential, but be easy on yourself. We all need love — our own most of all.
  • Be true to life. Listen to what you knew when you were born. We start out wise, authentic, and letting the world know we’re here. That’s the part we call spirit. We know. We did then. We always will. It’s who we are.
  • Be who you want to become.

One reward of putting all you are into living is how other people find a living soul fascinating and attractive. We’re drawn to a person so vibrantly centered. Our life expands with each person who responds that attraction.

10 Ways to Celebrate Living

When we walk back into our own life again, it’s a wonder — we wonder at what took us so long, wonder at things we hadn’t been seeing, doing, being, sharing with folks we care about. The realization can be quite stunning and profound.

It’s breathtaking to be living.

Definitely worth celebrating. Here are 10 Ways to celebrate living.

  1. Whenever you stretch your mind, stretch your body too. The difference is exponential and incredibly cool.
  2. Do something that’s not electronic. Better yet make it something you’ve never done that you do with someone who sees you as you are.
  3. Go somewhere you can’t see anything made by people. Then before you look, close your eyes to listen for the longest while.
  4. Eat something delicious. Go for that “last cookie” feeling with every bite.
  5. Run your hand along a fence or a wall. Sit on a floor. Walk the curb like a tightrope walker would. You know how. I bet you’ve done them all before.
  6. Listen to music filled with images of your history. Seek out and savor the smells and tastes of comfort times in the past. Send a thought to the people who experienced them with you wherever they are. They’re not gone, if you remember.
  7. Test drive your body like a two year old who just got brand-new shoes.
  8. Run in the grass and fall down on purpose. I bet you did that once too.
  9. Touch wet paint to see how wet it is. Wipe your hand on your pants without a thought. Then send a wish to a guy who did that same thing once, while his mom was watching. Know that his mom didn’t get mad.
  10. Say “I love you” and mean it to someone who least expects it. Then do it again and again. Every time that you do, tell yourself the same thing.

I’m guessing you have the hang of it by now. Being alive really comes down to one sentence.

Live your experiences and experience your life.

We have a whole life of time to do nothing but that. It makes sense, simple and elegant. It’s not hard to be alive . . . once we remember how.

Liz's Signature

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Cream in My Life

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I've been thinking . . .
In the olden days, even before I was short . . . the milkman delivered milk in glass bottles with cardboard caps. The milk was straight from the dairy just outside of town. It wasn’t homogenized. That meant that it would separate. The cream would rise to the top.

The cream is the wonderful part.

One teaspoon of real cream in a cup of coffee is better than any famous coffee shop can offer. I used to drink real cream in my coffee every morning. But now the store where I live doesn’t carry it. I suppose that’s better for my health. I’m not so sure about my well being . . .

Believe it, compared to one teaspoon of real cream, anything at Starbucks is second best. And Starbucks is also a wonderful part of life to me.

This weekend, I’m going to find some cream. Maybe it won’t be the kind that goes in coffee, but it will be cream just the same.

I might just read a novel.

Or I could take two naps on Saturday.

Maybe I’ll sit at the window and watch the lake.

I’ll watch a favorite movie.

I’ll handwrite a letter to a friend I miss.

I’ll do one thing that’s not electronic, something that is in no way related to working or moving a project forward. I’ll so something that is good for my well being — one teaspoon of rich cream.

The cream is the wonderful part. Can’t have a life without that.

Don’t forget the cream this weekend.

Liz's Signature