What is the purpose of life?
If you’re on the 49 day path to personal growth, this week you will focus on personal rules. It’s because of personal rules that we can influence the world around us. Personal rules allow us to be the implement of change. Personal rules also allow us to accept change we can’t control.
The week of personal rules is critical to changing your life because this is the week to determine your mission and purpose in life. The first exercise consists of five meditations to guide your thoughts, your planning, and your behavior. What is your purpose in life? What is your mission? I used to consider these two to be the same thing, but now I’m beginning to ponder their differences. At this time I think our purpose in life is the fundamental thing we stand for and our mission is the expression of our purpose. A mission is how we accomplish our purpose. It’s probably true that for most people their purpose and mission are very closely linked. When purpose and mission are closely linked they merge into one inseparable vision.
How an individual personally views themselves, the world, and their vision of the future profoundly influence the choices they make. How one talks to themselves is a big part of the self improvement picture.
Orientation
Our personal rules, purpose, and mission determine our orientation. Orientation is influenced by what we focus on. I will again take an example from dog training; we say a dog is orally oriented when it focuses on using its mouth to interact with the world. An orally oriented dog will do a lot of chewing and often a good bit of social mouthing. To get a better idea of orientation we can move from our tail wagging best friend to one of China’s greatest philosophers. Confucius said “Look at a person’s acts; watch their motives; find out what pleases them: can they deceive you?” In this passage Confucius is referring to a person’s orientation.
It’s through personal rules that we affect the world. Our orientation determines how we fulfill our purpose in life.
Wishing you the best in dogs and in life,
Andrew Ledford