Almost everyone I meet wants to live a life of meaning. They feel dissatisfied if there is no meaning to whatever they do, and course it is perfectly valid to feel this way. This explains the high turnover rate in some industries, where the staff find it difficult to justify them being there.
There are of course circumstances well beyond the control of individuals where they need the job and the purpose for being there is to feed themselves and their family. And for them, the meaning is in the means. Not everyone needs a PROFOUND MEANING for doing what they do.
There are others who feel a lack of dissatisfaction with their spirit, to them, finding meaning in the means to live, is not enough. And understandably too. I always advise them to be patient and keep the focus on personal growth and development; the answers will come. The thing is whenever I say this to people; they tell me: you don’t understand because you are living a life of meaning.
The reality is that it is a process. I did not become a life coach automatically, nor did I sail through life effortlessly. Please allow me to share about my personal experience and how I became a life coach. It was indeed not handed to me on a silver platter; there was lots of tears, heartache, and pain involved.
I led a life of intense addictions for a good 8-10 years (the last two years were extreme ups and downs) when I started my working career. To not go into a long boring story, the addictions were the result of a sense of emptiness, I was searching but did not know what I was seeking. I thought I was happy doing what I did, but the void just kept echoing through my soul.
So then, on top of having to search for the meaningful life for myself, I had another set of problems — battling with addictions.
I’m sharing this to illustrate how in the search for something if we are not careful, we can slip down a very slippery slope and it can take us even further from our intended path. The harder the fall and deviated away from our path, the harder work one has to put in.
For me to become a life coach, there was a lot of significant cleaning up to do! It took years. The physical clean up was by far the easiest. It was the emotional, mental and spiritual clean up that took years! It is for this reason, I have made myself a forever student of In-depth Psychology — attending weekend classes, checking in with a mentor therapist every few weeks to make sure I am always on track of development and growth. A lot of time and energy is invested. As a life coach, it is my responsibility to keep improving, learning, and keep making myself a better version of myself. It is my duty.
I never saw my addictions at that time as part of my process, nor did I ever dream that I would be helping others battle their addictions too, but life does throw you some surprises at times.
The thing is, whatever path you choose that has meaning for you, you cannot shortchange whoever you are serving by being content with where you are. If you do, you will soon find yourself feeling restless because a part of you is slowly dying.
Living THE life of meaning does not happen overnight. It is not as if; you have an Aha! Moment one day and then the next day your life changes and you are on the euphoric path to greater peace and happiness with no challenges. It does take investment in time, energy and sometimes money. Being open to learning and seeing your entire life happenings as preparation to take you where you need to go are keys!