Life Coaching and Life Purpose

Robert Byrne is credited with saying: “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”

At New Insights we love to embrace that saying because we firmly believe that life takes on a whole new dimension and meaning once you are living it ‘on purpose’.

“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it fearlessly.”

― Steve Maraboli

What does it mean to live a life of purpose?

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What exactly do I mean by living life ‘on purpose’?

Well, at New Insights we believe that each and everyone of us on earth was born perfectly equipped to play a specific role in the evolution of our planet; a role that, once we come to terms with what it is and have the courage to act it out, will make us truly happy and fulfilled.

Another term for that special role we are equipped to carry out is our ‘purpose’.

Knowing your life purpose

If it is true that we are all born with a purpose in life then why, as we grow up, do we not instinctively know what it is?

Let’s be honest here … some people do. I’m sure you’ve heard others say something like: “I knew, instinctively, from an early age that I wanted to become …”

But these fortunate people are in the minority (perhaps you are one of the lucky ones?)

Most of us go through life seemingly quite oblivious to what it is we were inherently meant to be and do. I say ‘seemingly’ because there is a part of us – I call it the inner voice – that knows only too well what kind of ‘work’ it is that will make our heart sing!

The subconscious mind knows what we are here to do and how perfectly equipped we are to do it. But the conscious mind is far too distracted by trying to meet the demands and expectations of family, friends, peers, the community and the outside world in general.

As time goes on, the disconnect between the course we take through life and the course we were ideally cut out for, can become pretty big! The result can be inner confusion coupled with varying degrees of discontent or frustration at a deep level.

So how do we go about addressing the ‘disconnect’ and coming to terms with what our purpose is?

Life coaching and life purpose

Forming a connection with one\’s life purpose is at the heart of good life coaching.

Let me explain …

If life coaching is about helping people to live to their full potential then it follows that an important role of the life coach is to help move his or her clients into closer alignment with the calling that they are here to fulfill.

The process is not necessarily a quick and easy one but, for the client, the experience is generally quite emotional, almost always eye opening and inevitably both liberating and empowering!

Hard digging required

Best selling author, Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote a book titled ‘Excavating your authentic self’.

I love Sarah’s use of the word ‘excavating’ in this context. To my mind it quite rightly implies that one’s true self – and life purpose of course – are hidden under layers of ‘stuff’ that we accumulate over the years, such that some hard ‘digging’ is often required to uncover who we truly are.

Most people who sign up for life coaching do so because they want more out of their lives – but most are also simply not ready to get into ‘hard digging’ mode from the outset.

Because of this, it would be counterproductive for the life coach go there – at least in the early stages of the coaching programme.

Goals as a ‘surrogate’

At New Insights we use a two stage approach to coaching.

What I mean by this is that we deliberately avoid introducing the concept of ‘life purpose’ to the client until we are sure that he or she is ready for it.

Instead, we start by focusing on helping the client to set and achieve really meaningful goals that can act as a suitable surrogate for life purpose in the early stages.

As the coaching progresses and the client becomes intimately involved with the process of achieving the goals he or she has set, a more authentic and refined understanding of what he or she really wants from life will generally start to become clear.

That’s the point at which we start introducing the concept of life purpose!

And that\’s when life coaching gets really exciting!