The Success Principles Series – Be Clear Why You’re Here
The second topic in the book “The Success Principles” by Jack Canfield is all about being clear about why you are here.
Jack Canfield shares that each of us is born with a life purpose. Identifying, acknowledging, and honoring this purpose is perhaps the most important action successful people take.
He explains that successful people take the time to understand what they are here to do and pursue that with passion and enthusiasm. With a purpose, everything in life seems to fall into place.
Once you know your life purpose, you can organize your activities around it. He shares that without purpose as the compass to guide you, your goals and action plans may not ultimately fulfill you.
While it might seem challenging to discover your purpose, Jack Canfield explains that you were born with an inner guidance system that tells you when you are on or off purpose by the amount of joy you are experiencing. The things that bring you the greatest joy are in alignment with your purpose.
To begin to home in on your purpose, he suggests that you make a list of the times you have felt most joyful and alive. What are the common elements of these experiences? Can you figure out a way to make a living doing these things?
He offers an exercise that is a simple but powerful way to create a compelling statement of your life purpose to guide and direct your behavior:
- List two of your unique personal qualities, such as enthusiasm and creativity.
- List one or two ways you enjoy expressing those qualities when interacting with others, such as to support and to inspire.
- Assume the world is perfect right now. What does this world look like? How is everyone interacting with everyone else? What does it feel like? Write your answer as a statement, in the present tense, describing the ultimate condition, the perfect world, as you see it and feel it. Remember, a perfect world is a fun place to be. Example – Everyone is freely expressing their own unique talents. Everyone is in harmony. Everyone is expressing love.
- Combine the 3 prior answers into a single statement. Example – My purpose is to use my creativity and enthusiasm to support and inspire others to freely express their talents in a harmonious and loving way.
Once you have determined and written down your life purpose, read it every day, preferably in the morning.
Lastly, he suggests you make sure that you align your goals with your purpose. Make sure the vision you have and the actions you plan to take are in alignment with your purpose.
Source – “The Success Principles”