Your Purpose Is None of Your Business

After much soul-searching and journalling, e-courses and workbooks, I have come to the rather startling conclusion that my purpose is none of my business. Now, sweet reader, you may feel no small amount of resistance to that statement, particularly as I am also extending it to you  – Your purpose is none of your business either.

Bear with me while I explain…

Throughout your life you will make millions of tiny actions, you will say millions of words and you, my lovely, will never ever know the impact of those words or actions. They will ripple out from you and touch and change and influence and revolutionise the world in ways that you couldn’t possibly imagine. What I am talking about here is the Butterfly Effect.

You are probably familiar with this analogy used to illustrate the broader implications of chaos theory. It goes along the lines that a butterfly flapping its wings in Asia may cause a hurricane halfway around the world. It’s used to explain the theory whereby if you make a small, seemingly imperceptible change in one place, in a nonlinear system, that change will have, what appears to be, a disproportionately large effect in another place.

This wisdom will either cripple you or set you free.

It’s the kind of information that reverberates around your mind, and has the potential to make you question everything you do. Every word spoken. Every movement made. Every tweet sent. Every purchase bought. And it can make you question everything you don’t do. All those times you kept silent. All those times you didn’t act. It can be easy to slip into a paralysis of thought and action when we approach the butterfly effect from this perspective.

And yet, this concept also contains the seeds for deep, life-altering liberation. We can let go. We can stop trying to control the outcome of everything, because we accept the ultimate futility in those grasping, desperate actions. And I’m not saying that we go down a route of nihilistic despair – why bother doing anything at all? – no, dear reader – down that path madness lies.

What I am saying is that instead of obsessing over what our life purpose is, that positive change we are here to effect in this lifetime, we should just let it go. Let it go and embrace the truth that your purpose is to do what brings you true joy. It’s to follow your bliss.

Our time here on this earth is incredibly short. In the grand scheme of geological time we are alive for less than a heartbeat, but even in the more relatable human time-scale, our lives pass dazzlingly fast. I was recently reminded that we can hope for 70 summers in a lifetime – 70! And that’s only if we are incredibly fortunate and have been blessed with the opportunity to grow old.

So in this brief window of time available to us, this tiny portion we’ve been gifted, don’t waste it by trying to discern your purpose. When all is said and done, you will never know the impact of your existence. And to try and second guess it is a waste of your precious time.

If you want to work out anything, figure out what makes you happy – that, right there, is the work of a lifetime. Ask yourself where you find flow? Where you find pleasure? Where do you feel at peace? Because that, my lovely, is what you are here to do. You are here to experience joy – as much joy as your heart can hold.

The next time you pick up a book that offers to help you find your purpose, or you find a service that claims it will help you to discern your reason for being, approach it not with the mindset that it’s going to give you a life map, the key to your dharma. Instead use these books, these services, these tools to reconnect with the parts of yourself that remember what joy felt like and what you were doing when you felt it. Let them lead you towards new opportunities to find bliss, to find flow.

After all, it may be none of your business to discern what your purpose is here, the effect you are destined to have on this world, but it absolutely is your business to live a life that spills over with love, laughter, compassion and exuberant joy.

Hold onto this truth, beautiful, and let your purpose evolve of its own accord – it will anyway.