What’s Your PassionPurpose Triad?

February 24th, 2011 by Kathleen

“To follow the Fourth Instinct is to obey the law of human development. It is a universal law, but it expresses itself differently in each individual. Indeed, there are as many paths to wholeness as there are those who would walk them, threads through the labyrinth of life that we can follow to the center of ourselves and of all existence.”….Arianna Huffington, The Fourth Instinct: The Call Of The Soul

Making our way through the so-called ‘labyrinth of life’, the question of Passion and Purpose commonly arises.  It is usually accompanied by a profound expression of desire to fulfill something larger than oneSelf, bigger than what we are currently engaged in or that with which we are presently occupied.  Here, I would like to step away from our usual description to take a perspective from the law of  human development referred to in Arianna Huffington’s quote.

What if we consider that we are living our Passion and Purpose every single day in our solitude, our relationships and our activity in the world – whether we are conscious of it or not?

In our pursuit to define these two factors, we are asked a multitude of questions that generally instigate more looking, sometimes frantic.  The more we look, the more frustrated we can become.  For what Purpose am I here?  What is my great Passion?  Why am I unable to experience knowing of these aspects of my humanity?

From a true human development perspective, it’s just not that complicated.

I invite you to try on these ideas and to consider that Purpose and Passion may be staring you in the face, simply asking you to stay present through the process of living your very own unique life.

Purpose is the reason for which something exists and what it is used for.  It is NOT foreign.  We do not need to go out finding Purpose – Purpose is finding us.  We are not in need of determining Purpose – Purpose is distinguishing us.  We are not fulfilling Purpose – Purpose is fulfilling itself through us.  Calling for acceptance of what IS, Purpose is given by collaboration with circumstances and conditions as they are.  Purpose presences surrender to what is so today and through the process of living.

Though we live separating ourSelf from events, circumstances, conditions, and things, life is continually integrating these externalizations with our internal experience.  As we surrender to and collaborate with each expression, fulfillment proceeds.  Want to distinguish your Purpose?  Ask yourSelf three questions whose combined responses will give you a clue to your unique Purpose:

What’s intolerable to you?

What are you unwilling to compromise on?

What gives you pleasure?

It is the combination – the triad of these responses that is the container of Purpose.

If Purpose is the front of the hand, Passion is the back.  Passion has so many connotations in today’s language, we seldom know if we are in the same ballpark in discussing this topic.

Passion is infinite desire and compelling motive for something.  It is NOT arbitrary.  Its context matches that of Purpose:  We don’t choose Passion – Passion chooses us.  We don’t have Passion – Passion has us.  We don’t fulfill Passion – Passion fulfills itself through us.  Shedding light on what IS NOT yet seen and understood, Passion followed expresses revelation.

While we seek what we consider to be perfect, life demands attention to what we deem flawed.  As we allow the existence of both, revelation occurs.  Integrating the flaws of ourSelf, other, and world is Passion’s essential process of defining ‘how’ our deepest desire is to be realized.  Like Purpose, Passion is distinguished by a triad of questions, the answers for which you need not go seeking:

What are you passionate about?

What are you always doing?

Where do you consistently get results?

The responses you give to these questions do not require deep thoughtfulness.  If anything, they call us to notice what we generally don’t see in our habitual searching.  Why?  Most generally, because we miss noticing what is here right in front of us in our daily living and our natural orientation to life.

Purpose and Passion are two exquisite elements inextricably connected in our individual Blueprint through the commitment we already carry and the desire that is intrinsic to the design of who we are.

What are your responses to the Passion/Purpose question triads?  Can you see their activity in your daily life?  Are you willing to follow your personal ‘threads through the labyrinth of life to the center of yourself and of all existence‘?  Leave a comment – I’d love to hear from you!

 

 

 

 

Is Your Heart Following Principles Or Steering Drivers?

February 14th, 2011 by Kathleen

Each individual QuintessentialYou Blueprint brings together polarities that we unknowingly hold within us.  These polarities are fundamental to who we are.  As our Blueprint elements are revealed, we gain a view of the relationship between these polarities.  In articulating them, we open the door to understanding and integrating them as a part of ourSelf.  When this integration occurs, it impacts three perspectives on who we are: ‘You For You, You With Other, You In World’.

This holding of polarity is common to our humanity and it is experienced differently in each one of us.  We can’t eliminate the existence of these push-pull elements nor would we want to.  Despite our eternal attempt to trade what we dislike for what we pursue in support of peace and pleasure, we require both to grow, expand and come to know ourSelf intimately.

Just as we have Intentions and Wants, we have Principles and Drivers that form a set of truths we hold about life and beliefs we hold about ourselves.  These truths and beliefs play a part in sourcing our experience of life, influencing the actions we take, and creating our circumstances in the world.  In the QuintessentialYou Blueprint, this element is named PrincipleDriver.

The Driver aspect of this element captures the beliefs we hold about ourselves.  These beliefs motivate us to make choices that are NOT conscious.  They are appropriately named Drivers because they push us and become more intense when we are disturbed or disrupted and focused on fixing circumstances.  Drivers are expressed differently in every human being.  When and how they show up is much more common.  They are typically present when things are not going the way we want.  Hence, we react and determine some finite result that we are convinced will repair the unwelcome condition or predicament in which we find ourselves.  The fix is always designed to get rid of the current circumstance and replace it with what we believe will forward what we want.  With a certain and sustained push which is often an automatic reaction, we unwittingly commit to a solution and force its result.  Sound familiar?

On the other end of the spectrum, the Principle aspect of this element captures the truths we hold about life.  These inspire us to make choices that are conscious.  They are appropriately named Principles because they call us forward and are experienced when we are reflective and quiet, observant of our circumstances and open to the opportunities they offer.  Like their Driver partner, Principles are expressed differently in every human being.  Though we may not be aware of it, we are acting from Principles when our desires are being met.  Hence, we respond versus react, opportunities expand, and through open-ended infinite evolvement, we find ourselves fulfilling our most cherished intentions.  With thoughtful presence, we allow space and time for emergence of right expression and perfect form.  What will you witness?

The integration of Driver and Principle forms the PrincipleDriver element of the QuintessentialYou Blueprint.

What would have to be true about life for you to consistently live in Principle and fulfill your intention?  What about life has you move from Driver and NOT fulfill you intention?

What’s Your Wisdom?

February 10th, 2011 by Kathleen

‘Education is not accomplished by putting something into man; its purpose is to draw out of man the wisdom which is latent within him.’…Neville, Your Faith Is Your Fortune, 1941

Living from the premise that in the design of each one of us there is a unique wisdom makes me gush with excitement!  What a fabulous context from which to take the journey of life.  From this place, individually and collectively, we are on a continual path of discovery.  Personally, I can’t imagine any other kind of existence.

Our particular experience and process of life creates our particular lives.  Access to the wisdom to be discovered is through the process itself.  So how do we open the door to this precious wisdom?  I think the short answer lies in this simple phrase:

We make space for mystery.

We can’t ‘goal and objectify’ ourselves to Wisdom.  It has to have room and time to show itself.  It needs an environment that is welcoming – one that gives it a place for development.  Wisdom doesn’t do well with targeted actions and pre-conceived outcomes.  It requests … and requires… deliberate listening and movement informed by inspiration – action that is its natural application in lieu of ‘applied action’.  Less interested in result than in realization of desire, Wisdom won’t necessarily cooperate with wants and plans.  It’s primary raison-d’etre is fulfillment.

We have hints of our individual Wisdom when we experience spontaneous fruition and surprising actualization.  We know that feeling intuitively.  It is, more often than not, difficult to articulate or explain.

Mystery taking its space.

What’s your Wisdom?  What is hiding latent within you?

The Timing Of Process Is Perfect

February 7th, 2011 by Kathleen

“Don’t answer ‘anything’.  Life’s real. It’s made up of little things; minutes, hours, naps, errands, routine, and it has to be enough.”….Barney’s Version

In the movie, Barney’s Version, his soon-to-be wife, Miriam gives this blunt response to Barney’s comment,  ‘I would do anything for you.’  I love her answer.  It is such a reminder that life is a process, proceeding while we wait for it to happen.  This is not a new idea but it might be a revelation of great impact.  So what in this simple answer has it have an importance worth heeding?

I think it is what sits behind each simple factor noted – behind the ‘little things; the minutes, hours, naps, errands, routine’.  These are the markers of a life through days, weeks, months and years that eventually carry us from childhood to youth to adulthood to elder years to passing.  Our life proceeds through these thousands of menial tasks, wakes and sleeps, and circumstances we experience.  Through these simple movements, we proceed perfectly through the process of time.  Logically speaking, we know this and pretty much accept its inevitability.

But what about the timing of our individual process?  Are we as willing to see the timing of that process as perfect?  Do we appreciate the rhythm of our own development and allow process to emerge what is next?  Do we have equal patience for breakdown and disintegration, creation and construction?  Can we accept the timing that our innate wisdom demands?  To fully give ourselves over to our own process, what would have to be true?

The shift required is itself a process.  It cannot be instantaneous.  It involves a change of context and a relaxing of the rules we’ve set up for ourselves.  Goals and objectives have to make room for desire and intention.  We would have to ask and explore Miriam’s initial question to Barney, ‘How can I trust you?’

What is the answer you are waiting to hear?

Are You Aging or Evolving?

February 3rd, 2011 by Kathleen

‘When the self consciously accepts its role in the process of evolution, life acquires a transcendent meaning.’….Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, The Evolving Self

In the dictionary ‘aging’ is defined as gradual change in the structure of a mature organism that occurs normally over time and increases the probability of death.

The dictionary meaning of ‘evolving’ is to unfold, open out, expand.

As a significant number of people inhabiting our planet approach their advanced chronological years, there is more and more conversation on aging, what it means, and its seemingly inevitable impact. It strikes me that amongst all this discussion there is an opportunity.  A new conversation can positively impact how we think about ourselves, engage with others, and contribute in our world at every age and stage of existence.  When we talk about things differently, they inevitably show up newly, giving us a chance to review and revise out-of-date constructs.  The ‘aging’ discussion gives us exactly this kind of opportunity.  What would happen if we took on the idea of ‘evolving’ versus ‘aging’? What would we bring to our cultures and communities if we held ourselves responsible for evolving for ourselves, each other, and our world?

In early life moving from one expression to another, from one chapter to the next we engage in creating and changing.  We rarely, if ever question these natural transitions and we embrace the experience, activities and learning they afford us.  We age from the moment we take birth and we delight in the forward steps we take.   In the innocence of youth and the energy of our emerging adulthood, we celebrate new ideas and the commitment and actions required to see them through.  Our North American culture teaches us to imagine our future and to follow a path to its fruition.  We promote slogans in support of can-do attitudes and we are critical of anything that suggests giving up.  Every individual is a symbol of our freedom and our potential.  In the first three or four decades of human existence, we are bombarded with development and application of what we have to offer.

Then, culturally speaking, it seems something happens.  We hit some magic number that has been mysteriously deemed the digit and we talk about ‘aging’.  My point here is not resistance to maturing.  Rather, it is promotion and commitment to ‘evolving’ as a place from which to live.  It is in support of giving value to the wisdom that comes with living. Perhaps many of the ancient texts and writers of long ago had it right.  Their premise was that it takes ‘three score years and ten’ to accumulate enough knowledge and experience to really understand and contribute to life.  Three score years and ten–That’s seventy.  I  am not at that certain age but this makes sense to me from the perspective of ‘evolving’.  In fact, I aspire to it.  What a complete and utter joy to anticipate that as we accumulate years, we evolve as individuals.  With this context, we are truly on an amazing journey.  It is a perspective that gifts us everyday.  This idea can carry us elegantly from the development and application of youth to the fulfillment of maturity.

Evolving versus Aging seems right and rich for our lives.  Aging implies dying.  Evolving is alive.  Aging conjures up completion and endings.  Evolving inspires beginnings and embraces the idea of transitioning from one expression to another.  It anticipates and delights at the surprise of what is next.  Aging has a sense of exclusivity and singularity about it.  The energy of evolving is inclusive.  It encompasses the self, others, and the world.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, evolving is a responsibility.  It asks of us and does not allow us to sit back and retreat from life.  There is no retirement in evolving.  There is invitation to continual growth, sustained living, exploration and discovery from here to eternity.  I can live with that!

What do you choose: aging or evolving? How does your choice have you live and be alive?