Spiritual intelligence - Skill #2 - Awareness of life purpose

Articles on spiritual intelligence usually appear on davidgmarkham.substack.com on Tuesdays and sometimes other days of the week..

The three big existential questions are: why was I born? What is the purpose of my life? What happens when I die?

The second skill of spiritual intelligence in Cindy Wigglesworth’s model of twenty one skills is awareness of life purpose. Why am I here? What am I supposed to be doing with my life?

There are many ways of finding an answer to this question of life purpose. What are your talents and abilities? What are your interests? Some people have such clarity that they can say “I was born to do this.”

This clarity often comes after exploration and experimentation slowly over time with a great deal of trial and error. For others it comes clearer earlier in their lives.

What activities give you a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment? What makes you want to get up in the morning and get going?

A painter is born to paint. A musician is born to make music. A carpenter is born to make things out of wood. A seamstress and tailor are born to make clothing out of fabric and thread. An accountant is born to account for things, and a doctor and nurse are born to heal people from their illnesses.

What turns you on? What gets your juices flowing?

In helping people find their purpose it sometimes helps to answer this question “The three things that matter the most to me in my life are ___________, ________________, and ___________.”

Another helpful question is “The things I would like to have gotten out of life in the next 1, 3, and 5 years are _____________________________________?

We each are born for a reason unique and special at a particular time in human history. Why? Why would our Creator go to all this trouble to make each of us different and not clones of each other? And why would our Creator put us on this Earth at this time and not 1,000 years earlier or 200 years later?

We each were born here for a reason and it is our mission to figure out what that reason is and to engage in it. To do otherwise is what we sometimes call “a lost soul.”

To what extent do you have clarity on your life’s purpose and to what extent are you a lost soul? If you feel lost, find someone you trust and have confidence in to talk to about it with the goal of gaining more clarity.