The Purposeful Paradox of Purposeful Play
==============================================

“Purposeful Play: Approaching a project, goal, or task with a willingness to play and experiment.

The secret to purposeful play is being committed to a particular result or outcome without attachment. Purposeful play is a way of being that can be especially powerful when you’re engaged in a Purpose Project.”
~~ One of the Power Tools for Living On Purpose found in Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life.

What would you say most people’s relationship to results are especially when they’re not producing the results they expected?

Look for yourself. How to you respond or react? I know for me, it’s often with a “Oh no, what’s wrong with me… Or with another person… Or with the situation as a whole?”

In other words, most of us can become pretty nutsy when it comes to results.

We live in a culture where there are few higher compliments than being known as a “result producer.” But what happens to our peace-of-mind when we fail to produce the desired results?

We go nuts, right? Why is that?

===============
Is Your Identity Tied to Your Results?
===============

The downside of living in a culture where it’s a red badge of courage to be known as a result producer is that when the results aren’t happening our identity is challenged. It goes something like this:

“I’m a result producer and the results aren’t happening so I must not be.”

And before we know it, we’re caught in the grip of the fear, lack and struggle that comes with our lives being shaped by the Inherited Purpose. (This distinction is touched on in the fr.ee book excerpt you should have received access to when you subscribed to the ezine. If you don’t have a copy of it, send an email to lopi9-313388@autocontactor.com )

You see, the Inherited Purpose — this false sense of who we are that comes from our past interpretations about life — feeds off of result — or more accurately feeds off of the need to produce results.

But if we’re not our Inherited Purpose, then who are we? If we’re not the story we’ve been telling ourselves for most of our lives about ourselves — about being a result producer or the other side of the coin, not being a result producer — then who are we?

===============
When Who You Are Isn’t Your Actions or Results, Who Are You?
===============

I know this can sound like a bizarre question to ask yourself especially if you’ve always known yourself as either what you do or by the results you produce or fail to produce, and truth be told, that’s most of us.

But consider for a moment that we’re not our actions and we’re not the results of our actions. Then who are we?

Consider this: You are the ARTIST of your life. Sit with that for just a moment. I know you’ve probably heard that before but hang in with it for a moment or two as though you’re hearing it for the first time.

And if you are the artist of your life, what are your paints and brushes with which you paint your masterpiece? How about:

~ Your thoughts,
~ Your Emotions or feelings, and
~ Your actions which include your speaking/communication

And like an artist gets to choose not only what medium with which to work but also which colors to use, and where to place the paint, etc. you get to do the same thing with your thoughts, emotions, actions and words. And in the process you can either paint a masterpiece of your life or a picture not worth sticking on the refrigerator.

===============
Shifting Gears with Purposeful Play
===============

So, what does this all have to do with results and going nuts around failing to produce results. Well, this is where “Purposeful Play” comes in. Let’s look at the definition again:

“Purposeful Play: Approaching a project, goal, or task with a willingness to play and experiment.

The secret to purposeful play is being committed to a particular result or outcome without attachment. Purposeful play is a way of being that can be especially powerful when you’re engaged in a Purpose Project.”

Yes, it is possible to be committed while remaining unattached, though it does take ongoing practice and persistence. Here’s how it often works.

You create a project or goal and determine what the results will be that will measure its success (or someone else does this for you if you’re part of a team or business, etc.)

Then you tool along playing like the point of the game is about producing those results, and in fact, in most of the world, it really is all about those results — which is where we start to get attached.

But a Purpose Project has a different primary purpose. The primary purpose of a Purpose Project is for you to be, be known and to express your life purpose in the world. That’s really the reason someone creates a Purpose Project. And since a Purpose Project also has results that you can measure, you then play the game AS THOUGH it’s about producing those results — ie, you play fully committed to the results while remaining unattached to them.

How? By remembering the real reason and purpose for the project is for you to be, be known and to express your life purpose. Simple, right? Well, yes, but not always easy.

===============
A Simple, True-life Example
===============

Ann and I recently created a Purpose Project known as Living the Fulfilled Life Program — Purposeful Prosperity Edition, and one of the results we’re committed to achieving is to have 8 participants in the program. (more info is at http://www.wbradfordswift.com/lop/lfl

So, we’ve been playing full out as though it’s all about having 8 people in the program, while regularly reminding ourselves that the real purpose behind the project is for us to be our life purposes, to be known as our life purposes, and to express our life purposes in the world being of service in this way.

And yes, I catch myself from time to time getting attached to whether or not we’re producing the results, and in that moment of reminding myself what the real purpose of the project is, I can let go of that attachment.

So, below I’ve included some information about the program, as a way to continue to create and express my own life purpose as the artist of my life.

And you get to choose to read it or not… And it’s my hole that you’re be guided to participate in the next program. It really is going to be awesome. And in the meantime, if you find yourself going a bit nuts at work or elsewhere in your life over results, try a little purposeful play. It can be a powerful tool to bring you back to a peace-of-mind that hard to describe but so yummy to experience.

It’s an important part of living a life on purpose.