Before we get started, here are two key things you need to know:

1. The first key is to understand that your Life Purpose is different than your career or your “niche.”

Your Purpose is the overarching raison d’etre (your reason for being) of your life, and can be expressed in many ways. My own purpose, “Big Shot Mentor” can clearly be expressed in many different genres or arenas, right? But the big Why is about being a leader and mentor in a big, big way.

2. The second key is to understand that your Life Purpose comes from your soul, not from your mind.

Because your Life Purpose is a soul-driven, spirited calling, I strongly suggest avoiding career assessments and heavily intellectually-based tools. This information needs to come from your spirit, not from your good ideas about what you “should do.”

Here are some possible pathways to help you discover your Life Purpose:

Option 1: Focus on listening to your inner voice.

If you have trouble hearing your inner voice, use these tools to get yourself into an open, inspired, positive space and see what comes out for you when you:

• Daydream, brainstorm, journal, collage, and diagram about what you LOVE, what you WOULD love, what’s next for you, and what inspires you.
• Meditate.
• Light candles, burn incense, pray, and wonder.
• Exercise, walk, dance, do yoga, or run.
• Lie on your back and look up at the sky to open your mind and shift your perspective (you’ll never find your dreams sitting at your desk).
• Journal about these questions: What are you called to? What’s sparks your interest? What secret dreams have you harbored (particularly since you were a child)?

These may sound simple, but honestly, you cannot spend your time more wisely than tuning in creatively to your deepest self and seeing what answers emerge. Again, it’s important to stay in an open, creative, intuitive space rather than letting your brain run the show. Your results will percolate over time, and may require some interpretation, but will begin to point you in the right direction.

Option 2: Visualize your Purpose.

Allow yourself to get into a deeply relaxed state and ask yourself:

• What do I see myself doing when I’m at my very best?
• When I imagine myself expressing what am I here to do, what do I see, hear, feel, and experience myself doing?

Give yourself about 5 minutes to first get yourself completely relaxed, then ask these questions and see what comes to you. Focus on the deeper meaning and message of any images that come to you, rather than interpreting literally if you find the exact images or information confusing.

The Life Purpose process I used for my former coaching program was organized around such a visualization. Because I’ve been hearing from people about wanting other methods to access your Purpose, I’m looking at making it available as a self-study tool within the next few weeks (leave me a comment below if this interests you).

Option 3: Get a Numerology or Hand Reading

Two of the best tools I’ve seen for determining Life Purpose are numerology or hand readings. I prefer hand readings myself, of course (why else would I have chosen to learn how to do them?), but both are powerful, accurate, and useful systems to help you get information about what you are here to do and why.

From a hand reading you can expect to learn your Life Purpose, your Life School, and your Life Lesson. What I find truly fascinating about hand analysis readings is how they often both validate what people already know to be true AND call them forward in a higher way.

Together these tell you not only what you are here to do, but also what you are here to learn, and how you will learn it. Because we teach what we’re here to learn, knowing your Lesson is equally important as knowing your Purpose.

Numerology readings give similar results.

Pull It All Together

Once you’ve got even the barest bones of ideas together, play with crafting a statement of Life Purpose to guide you.

Here’s mine for inspiration: “My Life Purpose is to be a successful, creative, visionary mentor serving others to honor their own visions by passionately leading the way to creative expression.”

I hope you’ve found this helpful to get you started on your path to discovering your purpose.

If you’re wanting help with finding your own Life Purpose, I’d love to have you join me for my upcoming course, “5 Steps To Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.”

Not only will you learn your Purpose, you’ll also discover who you REALLY are at a deep, Essential level; the unique formula you need for fulfillment and satisfaction, and the first steps you need to take to get back on your true path.

There’s still an early registration savings of $300 you can take advantage of by this Wednesday, February 3 at midnight Eastern. You can find out more, here.

Despite the rain, my husband and I got out to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary on Sunday with a real “date” out to a movie (Sherlock Holmes), Thai noodles, and amazing bread pudding at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. My mom was a star babysitter.

We also dared the airways with our 2 year old son to get to a retreat in Florida with my platinum coach, Bria Simpson, earlier in the month. It was a huge success — from both the travel and coaching perspectives (always bring sock puppets!).

Bria Simpson and Jenna Avery

Our Platinum Group
(I’m in the back on the left)

When my son fell and we had to dash off to the emergency room to get stitches for him, I was reminded of how intensely we sensitive souls feel EVERYTHING. We’re all still unwinding from it even today.

It was also interesting to notice how I so naturally tuned in empathically to my son and how upset he was. I had to make a highly conscious effort to get grounded and shift into a space where I could be there for him without getting caught up in feeling it with him, poor little guy.

Luckily, he seems to be healing well so far.

The craziness was intensified by our car battery being dead when we got in the car to go to the hospital, but my husband easily remedied that by jumping the battery. Whew!

Anyway, I’m telling you all this because it was such a good reminder to me of how intense experiences are at least quadruply intense for sensitive souls and how we have to allow ourselves time to regroup and recover as needed. I spent some time curled up in bed yesterday in a dark room to rest up.

In the midst of all this, when we got home I found that my email box was jammed with spam and bouncing messages back to people writing me. Normally, I would have found that upsetting, but in this context it wasn’t such a big deal. Isn’t it intriguing to get a new perspective on things?

So, if you wrote me (0r my team) within the last 24 to 48 hours, there’s a good chance we didn’t get it. Many apologies, and we look forward to hearing from you again.

It’s truly amazing the kinds of distractions we’ll come up with! As I write this article, I’m all too aware of the ways I use these addictions to avoid stepping up in an even bigger way.

As my client and I talked, we joked about the pitfalls of what I call “mind candy.” Mind candy is the stuff we feed our brains instead of doing our Work.

Mind candy is what we substitute for taking action — it keeps our intellects occupied with “thinking lite.” We do this instead of carving out the space for we need for inner deep sea diving to find the answers we really need or actually doing the work it takes to implement our purpose in our lives.

Usually when we do these things, we justify them with clever rationalizations.

My particular brand of mind candy is email, information, and technology. Before I do my Work, I often allow myself to:

• Answer and frequently check email: “I have to, right? It’s part of my business!”
• Search for more information: “I have to learn more about x before I can do y,” or “I need to know what so-and-so is doing.”
• Fiddle with my websites: “I’ve got to get that done first, right, before I can get it out to the world, right?”

Here’s what I need and want to be doing instead: The writing and creating that leads to the speaking, leading, and mentoring I’m here to do.

Here are some other examples of intellectual junk food you may be stuffing your head with:

• Facebook: Farmville seems like a particularly huge time suck for many people
• Twitter: “What’s everyone else doing so I can figure out what to do?”
• Internet surfing: Looking for answers, being restless seekers
• Watching television: “I deserve/I just need/I just want to take a break”
• Reading: Yes, even reading can be a check out.
• Tuning into the news: “I have a responsibility to stay current with what’s happening in the world.”
• Worrying: If we’re worrying it’s hard to be creative and is in many ways a justification for not taking action
• Getting caught up in fear and doubt: “I’m not good enough,” and “I don’t know how.”
• Telling ourselves we have other things we have to do first: Get a website up, learn more, get more training, clean the house, organize the sock drawer, etc.
• Perfecting: Endlessly editing, tweaking, and adjusting rather than going for it and learning as you go.

Here’s the thing: While there’s nothing wrong with many of these activities, IMHO, the sticking point is when we substitute them for taking action on living our Life Purpose.

Of course some of these can be ways to take breaks (though deep down I think we all know there are better ways to take restful breaks — see below).

As the great Morpheus said to Neo in The Matrix, “Clear your mind.”

Frankly, we’re so programmed around “staying busy” that it’s a wonder we ever move forward with what we love. We simply have to have quiet space and down time to be productive in a useful way that keeps us on our path.

The paradox is that because we don’t know how to “do” quiet space and down time, we stuff ourselves with mind candy.

Here’s What You Can Do Instead To Get Yourself Back On Track

Here’s my two cents about what’s worth doing instead, especially if you feel like you don’t know what to do:

• Find out who you REALLY are and what you were put here to do (my 5 Steps class can help with this).
• Daydream, brainstorm, journal, collage, and diagram about what you LOVE, what you WOULD love, what’s next for you, and what inspires you.
• Meditate.
• Light candles, burn incense, and pray.
• Work with your coach or mentor to uncover, discover, and take action on your Life’s Purpose.
• Exercise, walk, dance, take yoga, or run, (get your sluggish energy moving).
• Lie on your back and look up at the sky to open your mind and shift your perspective (you’ll never find your dreams sitting at your desk).

The common denominator here is that these “inspiring actions” all help you tap into your deepest intuitive and spiritual guidance about your life, instead of trying to run the show with your mind.

Remember Albert Einstein’s wisdom, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Related Posts: “How to Get Around To Doing What Really Matters To You.”

What’s Jenna doing?

~> February 11th. Jenna will be leading a Virtual Workshop called “5 Steps to Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.” Meet your Essential Self and discover your Life Purpose. Registration is still open.

~> Early Spring 2010. Exciting new changes for the Sensitive Professionals Network. Watch this space for details.

~> Spring 2010. Voice Your Vision Mastermind Retreat (in-person). Dates to be announced.

The good news: All you have to do is send me your hand prints.

Here’s a video showing you how it works:

If you’d like more information about getting your hands read, please let us know. In the meantime, you might want to check out my upcoming free Informational Preview TeleSeminar this Wednesday, January 20th, called, “How to Unlock Your True Path by Tapping into Your Deepest Source of Inspiration and Purpose.”

On the call, I’ll be introducing my upcoming course called, “5 Steps To Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.”

This powerful course will include a hand reading from me so you can discover your Life Purpose (what you were put here to do), your Life Lesson (the recurring challenges you’ll face throughout your life) and your Life School (your “Earth University” where you’re experiencing your lessons and delivering your purpose).

Or maybe you just know that what you’re doing isn’t “It” for you, and there’s more, but you don’t know where to start. I want to help you.

Here’s the thing: The world can’t keep waiting around for us each to get aligned with who we really are and what we were put here to do – it needs us each to be living our own life’s purpose, Right Now.

I’d like to show you how you can tap into your deepest source of inspiration and purpose so you can get back on your true path.

Please join me for a free call, this Wednesday, January 20th at 4 p.m. Pacific Time (that’s 5 Mountain, 6 Central, 7 Eastern).

“How to Unlock Your True Path by Tapping into Your Deepest Source of Inspiration and Purpose”

I’ll also be introducing my upcoming course, called “5 Steps to Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.”

You can find out all the details here:
http://www.highlysensitivesouls.com/fivestepspreview.htm

I hope to “see” you there.

p.s. The call WILL be recorded if you can’t attend live, but you do need to register for the call to receive the download of the recording.

But there are hidden costs as well.

For instance:

1. You feel soul sick. Deeper than the emotions you feel at the surface, there’s a kind of soul sickness that shows up when you’re not living your purpose.

Soul sickness is a malaise that you might recognize in yourself if you can’t get inspired about your current job anymore, and you just can’t seem to figure out why you can’t get motivated anymore.

This is a sign that your spirit has left the building and said, “No, thank you.”

Soul sickness can manifest as physical ailments, stress, and illness.

2. You fall into the “inverse” of your life purpose. If you’re not living your purpose (and by living I mean doing your purpose in your work and in the world), you’ll likely find yourself in the realm directly opposite your purpose.

For instance, in my case, I can recognize that I’m off course with my purpose (”Big Shot Mentor” aka Master of Results, Power, & Integrity) if I start feeling a sense of failure, powerlessness, guilt, or worthlessness.

(I’ll be talking about how you can get back on track with your purpose at a free Informational Preview TeleSeminar early next week — look for an email this Saturday about how to register).

3. You’re in the “penalty box” of your gifts. When you aren’t using your gifts, which are keys to implementing your purpose, you’ll find yourself paying the penalties associated with not using them.

For instance, if one of your gifts is to be a Gifted Author and Speaker with a Special Message for a Large Audience (known as “Lines of Genius” in hand analysis terms) and you’re not using that gift, you’ll find yourself endlessly shuffling papers and going around and around in circles trying to “figure out” your message.

4. The world doesn’t benefit from your gifts. While you may think of the impact on yourself of not living your purpose, don’t forget about the rest of us.

When you aren’t living your purpose, we don’t benefit from your gifts (plus you’re probably not as much fun to be around — I know I’m not when I’m off course ).

5. You’re doing someone else’s work. As I mentioned in my article a few weeks ago, if you’re not living your purpose, you’re taking up space meant for someone else.

The hidden cost here is that if you’re filling that other person’s spot, probably unhappily, neither of you is happy.

That’s not good for anybody.

And here’s a “bonus” sixth hidden cost of not living your purpose:

6. You are a waiting target for cosmic two-by-fours. I know that when I’m off track, I feel like I’ve got a bull’s eye painted on me just waiting for a solid whack from the Universe to say, “Hey, wake up! It’s time to get back on track.”

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather do it consciously than wait around for a big accident or health problem to appear.:)

It’s Time To Get Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do

If you’re not living your purpose, it’s time to make a change. The way I see it is that the world is suffering an epidemic of soul sickness. We all have to do our part to heal ourselves and bring the planet back into proper alignment.

It can feel frightening to make a big change in your life, but consider the far-reaching costs of NOT changing too. Are you willing to continue as you are indefinitely? It might actually be scarier to keep things as they are if you give yourself the chance to think about it.

What’s Jenna doing?

~> Wednesday, January 20th, Jenna will be hosting a free Informational Preview TeleSeminar about how to reconnect with YOUR life purpose. Stay tuned for registration details.

~> February 11th. Jenna will be leading a Virtual Workshop called “5 Steps to Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.” Meet your Essential Self and discover your Soul’s Purpose.

~> Early Spring 2010. Exciting new changes for the Sensitive Professionals Network.

~> Spring 2010. Voice Your Vision Mastermind Retreat (in-person). Dates to be announced.

Peter, like me, is passionate about people knowing and living their life purpose. He holds a vision where every human being on this planet knows and is living their life’s purpose.

Can you imagine what that would be like? To have every single solitary human being on the planet doing EXACTLY what they were put here to do?

Peter believes it would be the end of war, struggle, world hunger, and the beginning of world peace. I’m inclined to agree with him.

How to Make Your Soul’s Purpose Real

Peter uses his understanding of his life’s purpose as his lighthouse — the guiding principle to help him choose the projects, people, and tasks he gets involved with. By using his understanding of his purpose in this way, he is supported on a deeply practical level in his life.

The way he makes it practical is this: When he’s asked to be involved in a new venture or is considering a new project of his own, in a quiet space, he asks himself, “Is this my Work to do?”

If the answer is not a resounding “YES, this is absolutely in alignment with my life’s purpose,” then he says no. This shift has cured him of his prior people-pleasing tendencies — he would in the past choose to support other people to succeed without considering whether or not it was in his own highest interests.

What About You? Is That Your Work To Do?

Do you know your life’s purpose? Do you know what you were put here to do?

If you know your purpose, as Peter says, “Are you doing it? Are you implementing it? Are you aligned with it? Are all the things going on in your life right now somehow connected to and fulfilling your life’s purpose?

“If not, take a strong look, and say, ‘I need to shed this, let go of this.’ No matter how worthy the cause might be, no matter how important that work might be, it may not be yours to do. It may be for somebody else to do.”

And if you’re not doing what you were put here to do, not only are you neglecting what you are meant to be doing, you are also taking up space that belongs to someone else.

This is a common pitfall for sensitives who get so easily swept up into other people’s visions, paths, ideas, and emotions, not to mention how often we are tempted to rescue, fix, and “I’ll-do-that-for-you.” When we step into someone else’s Work, we lose ourselves, but we also disempower and diminish the people around us.

Let this be your invitation to do your own Work, and allow others to do the same.

Finding your soul’s purpose is the perfect place to start.

What’s Jenna doing?

~> December 16th through January 6th. Vacationing at home for the holidays.

~> December 28th and 29th. At a private retreat with her platinum coach Helen Graves.

~> January 7th through January 9th. Attending a platinum mastermind retreat with her platinum coach Bria Simpson.

~> February 11th. Jenna will be leading a Virtual Workshop called “5 Steps to Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.” Meet your Essential Self and discover your Soul’s Purpose. Please contact us for early registration details (and early registration discounts).

When I was a child, I wanted to be a writer. My parents didn’t think I’d be able to make much money that way, so I dismissed it (never a good idea).

When we ran through the various careers and how much they might pay (at that time), I decided that being an architect was a creative career that I would enjoy and that would pay well — $40,000 per year was what I was aiming for.

Ultimately I graduated with two master’s degrees in city planning and landscape architecture, but I found that the constant deadlines, client coordination, meetings, e-mail, plan writing, and marketing of the job simply didn’t suit my sensitive nature — or my creativity, for that matter.

I knew it wasn’t working, but I didn’t know what would.

My quest to discover my Soul’s Purpose continued.

I took classes, went to career counselors, and read books.

I equated Purpose with career — thinking that I would discover a specific, precise career that would be my Purpose.

I made a choice to between teaching/helping/counseling fields and applied creativity fields, which is what led me to where I am today as a life coach. Along the way, I discovered my Purpose.

My Purpose is to be a leader, guide, and mentor. I’ve known that for some time. I didn’t understand until recently that I am a mentor to leaders and visionaries, as well as a family and community leader, which I discovered through a powerful hand analysis session (I fell so in love with this tool that I’ve recently trained in it myself). My specific Purpose: “Big Shot Mentor plus Family/Community Matriarch.”

I also learned that I was put here to master and to teach the practices of Inner Knowing and Creativity — my Soul’s Lesson. Who knew?

Here are five tips to keep in mind as you find your own Purpose and Lesson:

1. Purpose and career are connected, but your Purpose is the larger over-arching What and Why behind the implementation of your profession. There are many ways to live your specific Purpose.

2. When selecting your Authentic Work or defining your niche, refine your understanding of your Purpose by looking at your Life Lesson, gifts, and passions to hone in on the specifics.

3. Your Lesson is a recurring theme in your life — if you look at the pattern of your challenges, what do you see? A hand analyst can identify your Lesson (and your Purpose) from your fingerprints.

4. You teach what you were put here to learn — your Lesson guides the specific implementation of your Purpose.

5. Get help from a mentor if you need it. We are often so blind to our own struggles and confusion that we can’t see what we aren’t seeing about ourselves.

Without Purpose, We Are Lost

If you’re off wandering alone in the dark of confusion and uncertainty, let your Purpose be the light that illuminates your path home. So often we try to find the “right” career, without ever knowing or understanding our deeper Purpose — our very reason for being.

Tapping your Purpose is what creates satisfaction within; it evokes a deep sense of inner rightness that is unattainable elsewhere. Don’t discount the importance of knowing deeply who you are and what you were put here to do when it comes to making the decisions that shape your life.

What’s Jenna doing?

~> December 8th and 9th. Doing private hand analysis readings.

~> November 5th through December 14th. Wrapping up her course, “Six Steps to Take You from Struggling to Thriving as a Sensitive Soul in this Not-So-Sensitive World.”

~> Tuesday, December 15th. Holding the monthly Laser Coaching Call-In Hours for her Mastery Circle members.

~> December 16th through January 6th. Vacationing at home for the holidays.

~> December 28th and 29th. At a private retreat with her platinum coach Helen Graves.

~> January 7th through January 9th. Attending a platinum mastermind retreat with her platinum coach Bria Simpson.

~> Early February. Jenna will be leading a Virtual Workshop called “5 Steps to Get You Back On Track With What You Were Put Here To Do.” Watch this space for more details.

In the meantime, I want to share a Thanksgiving blessing with you.

Although this is perhaps an unusual “blessing,” it occurred to me that as sensitive souls, one of the things we often forget to be grateful for is our own innate magnificence.

This piece by Marianne Williamson always reminds me to celebrate who I am.

I hope it does the same for you.

May your holiday be filled with peace, love, warmth, and light…

Jenna

Let Your Light Shine

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness,
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I

To be brilliant, gorgeous,
Talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

So that other people
Won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our light shine,

We unconsciously give other people
Permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.

Written by Marianne Williamson
Popularized by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 Inaugural Speech