I listened to a Podcast yesterday by Trent Shelton and something he said resonated deeply within me.

“What if purpose isn’t something that you search for? It’s who you are. What if you’re searching for something that already exists? What if what you’re really searching for is external validation from this world?”

I started my spiritual journey a long time ago. I can remember moments when I was a teenager, moments of awakening, and realization. I remember sitting down on a park bench beside the school chaplain in Year 11 telling him that I believed I could see spirits, that I believed in a world and in a life beyond the one we’re living now. It was my first time opening up to someone about my beliefs and experiences.

But, I really committed to the journey of understanding, the journey of connection in 2022. Along with that, came the search for my purpose. Like many of us, I have been through the questioning and searching phase, “what is my purpose? What am I here to do? What if never find it? How will I know if I’ve found it? How much more do I need to dig up in order to uncover what my purpose is?” I’ve immersed myself in classes and activities, in learning and in the sometimes painful act of digging for answers.

I thought that I had found it and was driven to move towards it at full speed, just in case I missed my opportunity. I was certain that my purpose was to run events and be a Connection Coach to teenagers and their families. However, I had this voice inside of me telling me that my purpose was already within me. I was already doing it. I already am it. I ignored this voice, because it was small and quiet and it wasn’t persistent. The push, the drive forward was louder and more determined. I was going to be successful and achieve big things.

After a couple of failed attempts at creating marketing and running my first workshop, I had started to question – what if what I was wrong? And that little voice started to get a little bit louder. What if it wasn’t as complicated as I was making it out to be?

Maybe my purpose isn’t something that I need to find? Or something that I need to become, or do? Maybe it’s who I am? I don’t need to search for it, because it isn’t lost. My purpose isn’t to write a book, it isn’t to host hugely successful workshops, it isn’t to travel the world and to speak in auditoriums to hundreds of people. My purpose isn’t external. My purpose is to be me, to live my life, to share what I’ve learnt and what I’m learning along the way. I am my purpose. My life is my purpose. There’s a reason why I am unable to separate what I do from who I am – I am a teacher. It is who I am, it’s embedded within the fabric of my being and it is my purpose.

Trent Shelton speaks about the fact that God chose to create you. He gave you gifts and abilities and there is nobody on this planet who is the same as you. You are unique and that in itself makes you enough. “You are enough. You have always been enough. You will always be enough, (Trent Shelton).” You are your purpose. I don’t necessarily believe in God being our higher power, but there’s something in Trent’s words that ring true for me. There isn’t another me. I am unique both in body and soul – separate my DNA, study the parts that make me who I am and you will not find an exact replica of me in the entire world and that’s something powerful.

Being me makes me enough. Being me is my purpose. I don’t have to search for it, I don’t have to do anything to achieve it. Truth be told, I haven’t been searching for my purpose, I’ve been searching for a way to live within it, a grand gesture that says, “here, I am! Do you see me? Do you hear me? If you do, buy a ticket and validate me.”

The thing is though, once you realise that your purpose is to be you, that in the act of living and being, you are already your purpose, you don’t need anyone to validate it.

I will continue to write, continue to work towards creating my own coaching business and speaking at events, but not because I need external validation. I choose to continue because I believe in growth. I believe in being myself, I can have a positive impact on others. In understanding that my purpose is internal and it doesn’t require me to be anything other than my unique and authentic self, it affords me the permission to proceed without having the pressure and urgency of push energy. There is no such thing as failure, because I am alive and I exist and I don’t need to do anything other than to live in order to fulfil my purpose.