Do you know the purpose of your life?

Whether you do or not, you could benefit from reading The Purpose of Your Life by Carol Adrienne.

Struggling to Discover How to Live

For the last several months, I’ve been obsessing about the possibility of losing my disability and wondering how I could possibly support myself if I do.  As I’ve written about before, I’ve been investigating going into business for myself as a freelance writer.  That’s what motivated me to start this blog.

But I’ve lost steam.  As I’ve gone through materials on Freelance Writers Den, I’ve had a strong feeling that this just isn’t me.  I don’t have the heart for freelance writing.

A friend of mine says I haven’t really given it a chance.  I have to get back at it.  But I don’t want to.

Maybe I should get a full-time job doing clerical work after all.  But ugh!  That would be a nightmare.

What I really want to do is support myself creative writing.  But that seems impossible.  And sometimes I get an inferiority complex about creative writing, that it’s not spiritual enough, that it doesn’t serve anyone.

Carol Adrienne Says…

Enter Carol Adrienne.  I had a gut feeling I should read a book on purpose.  And when I went to the Kindle store, her book The Purpose of Your Life caught my interest.

Carol Adrienne says, “Anything is possible.”

She teaches that our purpose is at work in our lives whether we recognize it or not.  We attract circumstances, people, and ideas that help us fulfill our purpose all the time.

Carol also explains that spirit guides us toward our purpose through our interests, our childhood dreams, intuitions, synchronicities, and our nighttime dreams.  We just need to pay attention and take actions to follow our guidance whether we’re certain they will work out or not.

In the second chapter of the book, Carol provides a list of guidelines, like believing anything is possible.  She says that if you can say yes to every one, your purpose has already been revealed or is about to emerge.

I could say yes to most of them.

My Purpose

Over a year ago, following guidance I found online, I wrote out the following purpose statement:

“To use my creative intelligence to courageously face and overcome the challenges in my life, produce works of art, and make the world a more peaceful and loving place for family, friends, neighbors, and strangers.”

After I did Carol Adrienne’s exercises for coming up with a working purpose, I realized I already had the right purpose statement.

And, after reading through the many stories in Carol Adrienne’s book, I realized it’s okay to pursue creative writing as a career.  People have all sorts of different careers and it doesn’t make sense to judge theirs or mine.

Besides, I feel most alive when I am creative writing.  I disappear.  And as a child, I dreamed of being an author.

Carol Adrienne Claims Who She Is

Carol Adrienne tells her own story toward the beginning of the book.  She says, at one point she reached a breaking point and told God, “I am an artist.  I am a writer, and I am a numerologist!  That’s who I am God.  If I can’t make it as that, then I don’t know what else to do.  You’re going to have to help me out because this is who I am and this is what I do.”

After that, things turned around for her, and she started making a good living doing what she loved.

Wow!  Could I do that?  Could you?

Under the Influence of Carol Adrienne

I worked through Carol Adrienne’s book in a little over a week.  And things started changing in my heart, mind and life.

I had a dream in which my dad was telling me he wrote out his dreams before he died.  I know he didn’t really do that, but I took it as a message that I was supposed to write out my dreams.  And night after night, ever since, I’ve been waking up and writing out my dreams.  Some of which have answered questions I had the day before.

I went through my old writings and found three children’s stories and an adult-oriented novella which I think are worth publishing.  And I’ve been wondering if they might generate enough passive income to keep me out of the red if, and when, I lose my disability.

My inbox has been flooded with resources on self-publishing, which I have been exploring.  These resources assure me it’s possible to make a living self-publishing.  And they give me ideas for marketing my books inexpensively.

The more I explore self-publishing, the more I find it unthinkable to do anything else.

Have I turned a corner?  Is it time for me to support myself doing what I love?

Maybe.  I hope so.

Bonus

The hope this book has given me has had one added bonus: it’s easier to get up in the morning.

Carol Adrienne’s book The Purpose of Your Life is helping me be more me.  I highly recommend it.  It could do the same thing for you.

What About You?

Have you found your purpose in life?  How do you feel you’ve been guided to discover your purpose?  Share in the comments.