Excerpt from "Creating Your Ultimate Destiny"
Author: Robert Stuberg

What is the meaning of my life? What is the purpose of my existence? For what reason was I put here on this planet? From time to time, we’ve all asked these questions of ourselves, and perhaps we’ve asked them of our friends, loved ones, or spiritual advisors. And, of course, if you discuss these questions with different people, you will certainly notice that you get different responses. For this reason, throughout history, philosophers have debated whether there actually is a purpose for living and, if so, what it is.

I hope that just because there are no consistent answers to these questions, you don’t think that no answers exist, for the exact opposite is true! A life’s purpose is a very real and concrete structure‹-and your purpose can be exactly what you want it to be. And what’s more, whether it has been a conscious acknowledgment or the faintest inkling, you already know what that is! The answer is already inside you, waiting to be discovered, waiting to fill your life with meaning and fulfillment. What you need is to have the confidence to recognize that answer and boldly frame your life around it.

The reason why there are so many answers to the question “What is my purpose?” is that there are as many potential purposes and reasons for existence as there are people who exist! Sure, some purposes will be similar to one another, but remember that yours is as unique to you as you are unique from the billions of other people in the world. Nobody else could ever create or fulfill a purpose for your life. Your life’s direction is completely in your own hands. So what is your purpose? Have you recognized it yet? Can you put it into words?

Some background on purposes in general may help you to focus on what yours is. You might ask, What is purpose? What does it mean to have one? Does everyone have one? Well, to start at the beginning, a purpose is basically a reason for doing something . . . not an action itself, but a justification of it. This session is about your life’s purpose, and within the framework of this program, this will be the reason behind the ultimate destiny you design. It won’t be the actual steps that you take toward achieving your goals, but it is the direction and driving force behind them. It will be the focal point around which your goals and ambitions are arranged.

Your purpose can be based upon some intrinsic talent or interest you have, or it can be a part of some of your grander ideals. It can be something you want to achieve for yourself, or it can be something you want to bring to the world at large.

The benefits of organizing your life around a purpose are profound. Elsewhere in this program, we’ve discussed the characteristics of a life out of control. If you’ll remember, some of those characteristics were directionlessness, conflicting actions, inefficiency, and being easily manipulated. Well, these are also possible qualities of a life with no defined purpose. In fact, a defined life’s purpose is one way you can start to bring control to your life. You can have control without purpose, but to what avail? What benefit is control when it is for no reason? The nineteenth-century writer Mary Shelley wrote that “Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose‹-a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” By “tranquilize the mind,” Shelly didn’t mean putting yourself to sleep! No, her thought was that having a steady purpose makes a mind calm and sure, eliminating uncertainty and aimlessness.

A life’s purpose is your inspiration. It’s the motivation behind your actions. It’s the force that not only leads you to realizing your dreams, but that also provides a context for your dreams to come true. And it’s one of the key components to your ultimate destiny. If you are not living by a purpose, you may achieve some of your individual goals, but those goals won’t be cohesive or organized around any unifying principle. Instead, they’ll be random accomplishments based on immediate desires, probably not contributing much to each other, to the whole of your life, or to the world around you.

On the other hand, recognizing your life’s purpose automatically creates a structure for your goals and desires. It gives you something to work toward, something for you to measure your progress against. You probably wouldn’t believe the number of people in the world who have no idea why they’re living the life they lead and doing the things they do. Well, a life’s purpose is an all-encompassing answer to the question of why. And it is an answer that will constantly inspire and motivate you to make strides in this direction you’ve set for yourself.

As to whether everyone has a purpose . . . well, of course! There is one or more inside of each of us, waiting to be discovered or grasped. But since a vast number of people have not done so, the issue becomes murky. Think about this philosophical question for a moment: Can you have a purpose if you don’t consciously know what it is? That’s a bit like asking whether a tree falling in a forest makes a sound if there’s nobody there to hear it! Although your own unique configuration of mind and spirit might result in a number of potential directions for your life, these won’t be of much benefit to you until you recognize them, decide among them, and put one to work for you.

Can you decide on more than one? The answer is yes, as long as they don’t conflict. I believe that you will have only one or two major unifying life’s purposes at a time, but you can certainly assign purposes to the individual areas of your life. And you can always change what you’ve defined for yourself. This is where the power of decision comes in.

So the question now becomes, How do you recognize your life’s purpose if you haven’t already done so? Well, there are a few guidelines I can offer to help you there. The first is not to confuse your purpose with your role in society. Your role might be acting as a banker, a lawyer, a salesperson, a manager, or a mechanic. But your role is not your purpose. That’s like defining your identity by what you do for a living, a phenomenon we’ve discussed earlier in this program. If you are living your ultimate destiny, your role will probably be closely aligned to your purpose, since your role will be a result of your destiny, while your destiny will be a result of your life’s purpose.

And as you encounter other individuals and groups with their own purposes, try to keep your own purpose distinct from theirs. Too many people substitute the purposes of other groups and individuals for their own, and just as many people think that part of their own life’s purpose is to get as many people as possible to adopt the same one. Unfortunately, both of these tendencies are flawed. You must find your own individual direction and leave others to do the same. This is the nature of a life’s purpose.

Your life’s purpose is like a calling, something inside of you that draws you to a certain field of endeavor. It comes from a part of you that’s difficult to categorize, but you’ll recognize it when you see it. There may be some doubt surrounding it; it may even be a bit frightening to contemplate. But if you grab it and run with it, you will have such a sense of rightness. Embracing a life’s purpose is like reclining in a chair that was custom-built to your proportions or slipping into a bath that’s just the right temperature. It’s comfortable . . . and comforting.

Aligning your life to meet your direction may actually take some effort, but it’s always worth it. A life lived on purpose is a wonderful and productive life indeed, and it’s an absolute must for living your ultimate destiny.








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