*According to Chris GuillebeauThe other day I was led to the website and blog of Chris Guillebeau, The Art of Nonconformity - Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work, and Travel. I highly recommend it for those of you looking to live your life with more purpose, especially those of you looking for tools to help you find your purpose, and also for some very entertaining writing.
In his manifesto, A Brief Guide to World Domination (not what you might think it is), he encourages anyone looking to live a life less conventional, to live a life instead filled with purpose, to ask yourself these two most important questions in the universe:
1. What do you really want to get out of life?
2. What can you offer the world that no one else can?
Okay they may seem daunting at first, but try it out, ask yourself these questions, and be honest when you answer.
The challenge for me, and perhaps many others, is in not stopping myself before I even get started. Plenty of nay-sayer voices came rushing to the forefront trying to tell me, for example, all the reasons why I couldn't possibly have something unique to offer the world. I had to tell them, "HUSH! You've had plenty of air time in my life, no more! Now it's time for the affirmative answers to step forward and be heard."
And what did they say? Here they are:
What do you really want to get out of life?
~choose at each moment, what I am going to do or be (it is no one else’s choice but mine)
~dance in sisterhood
~a relationship with a certain patch of Earth, interwoven with a web of family and friends
~grounded, and able to fly
~life enriching experiences, at home and abroad
~make beautiful things, make things beautiful
~no regrets
What can you offer the world that no one else can?
~my life as an example of living life outside the box
~belly dance - giving women permission to do something for themselves, having fun, and trying something different
~encouraging others to find what they are here in this life to create (be it one big thing, or several small) and how they can give to others through their creation
~doing all of that beautifully
~combining all of the above into my own unique way and offering it up to the world!
And now, the next step, checking in on every single area of my life to see how these two above questions are being answered, or not. Yikes. Big committment, but I'm worth it.
By the way, I do believe it's possible to do something you love while giving back and doing something for others. It usually works out better for everyone if you love what you're doing, whether it's for yourself or for others. Afterall, if you don't love what you're doing, what are you waiting for? (I have my own challenges in this area!) And if the way you give to others is less than satisfying, ask yourself if the world really needs more martyrs? Probably not.
And I'd love to hear your answers to those questions! Please share!
Happy discoveries!
Thanks, Tracy! I am working on myself, my life, in similar ways as you, and your explorations help me, too. Right now, I'm having some difficulties with focusing----it's a BIG WORLD out there (and IN HERE)----but am still looking forward to the work of refining, defining, finding what's most important to me and who I truly AM, and embracing that! I fully agree with you that we must continually work (question, explore) to BE our best selves, not only FOR ourselves, but also for OTHERS. Thank you again for recording your dilemmas and explorations and sharing them here.
ReplyDeleteYou inspired me to reflect, too, in my post today. Thanks, Tracy!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much "Dubious" :o) Inspiring others is such a gift in and of itself! May you do the same in your cyber-world! Hugs, Indigo/Tracy
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