Lost & Found. Where Did We Go Wrong? Finding the Way to Infinite Possibility & Purpose

By Lori Lines

Are you “living the dream” and relishing the “good life”? If one were to ask most people that question, the honest answer would likely be no. Why are more people not “living their best life”? Because often, we have been conditioned to believe that the best life is a one-size-fits-all ideal of what is supposed to make us happy. 

Early Education
Many people in western society (and beyond) are taught from a young age, through media, family modeling, and social norms, that a life well-lived means a university education, a “respectable” career, and a committed relationship leading to marriage, resulting in children. Based on media depictions, idle adult chatter and gossip, and admonishments by teachers and parents, as children, we are programmed to see people who don’t want or don’t have what has been dictated as outliers who are lazy, selfish, aimless, and lost. But what does it really mean to be lost?

“Midlife” Crisis
We are all familiar with the idea of a midlife crisis when people deviate, at varying degrees, from their careers, relationships, value systems, or lifestyles. However, the truth is that this can happen at any time in an individual’s life. The sooner, the better in most cases, because this crisis of personhood is often a rejection of the conditioning, education, training, conformity, and spiritual imprisonment we have been taught to submit to.

After doing everything we have been taught would make us happy, many are still met with unhappiness, lack of fulfillment, and emptiness. The career and relationship that was supposed to validate them have let them down. Now, because they have so closely intertwined their personhood with these external circumstances, they have lost their identity; they are awash with anger, frustration, apathy, angst, and depression. This is what it truly means to be lost.

The Power to Question
At this point, the “midlife” crisis, starts to look a lot like the Dark Night of the Soul. So, why would you want this crisis of self to happen sooner than later? Because the sooner it happens, the sooner you can begin to question! It has been said that it is not the answers that enlightens us, but the questions themselves. This could not be truer in this case. Beginning to reflect is the first step in uncovering who you are and what you truly desire; These are the first steps in revealing the soul’s purpose.

What is soul purpose? It is how you chart the path of destiny, the role the Divine has bestowed upon you that no one else can fulfill, and to complete it is to ascend on your unique journey of enlightenment. Soul purpose may have everything or nothing to do with our education, our training, or our profession. It can be what you do full-time or what you can only squeeze a few weekend hours into. This higher purpose can be what you share with other souls or a gift of healing, learning, and loving you give yourself. It can make you rich with material wealth or in Spirit, and for some, both!

The Light at The End of The Tunnel
Finding your soul’s purpose can be an overwhelming prospect in a world of infinite possible callings. Where to begin? Start where the greatest truths are not known but felt; follow your heart. In a world where nothing is forever, and no promises are made, following your happiness and fulfillment must become your number one priority. 

Make no mistake; this can be a painful, fearful, and lonely process at first. First, you must admit that you have fallen off track and lost your way. Remember, your time has not been wasted; everything you have been through has brought you to this junction of cataclysmic change and infinite possibility! Next, you must step off the well-trodden path, forging through the unknown with tentative steps. Finally, accept that only you can walk this course. It is yours and yours alone; no one has ever walked it before, people may not understand, and they may judge.
 
Still, casting off the shackles of conditioning by listening to your intuition and higher truth, following your heart, and eschewing the need for ego-comparison and conformity is so purely empowering, freeing, and enlightening that the sacrifices all but disappear in comparison to what is gained!

The Ultimate Purpose
When fully seeking and expressing your soul purpose, you will find that not only provisions for your needs and desires follow—but most importantly, wholeness, happiness, and fulfillment. Yet, ultimately, seeking purpose, the self-realization, self-actualization, healing, liberation, and awakening you achieve can be purpose and fulfillment enough.
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It has been said in many ways by many theologians, philosophers, and gurus that the fundamental purpose of life is to devote your whole heart to seeking purpose. When you can do that without ego-comparison, expectations, norms, and “obligations,” you no longer need to seek love, success, and wealth; it inevitably finds you!

In love and truth,
Lori Lines