Coming down to the home stretch with our top ten list of benefits. Remember, pick the top 3-4 that you would find most beneficial to have more of in your life, because tomorrow I’ll offer a coaching assignment that can move you further along the Purposeful Path to your own life on purpose.
Benefit #9–Grace
According to the dictionary, grace is “the unmerited divine assistance given man.” People living on purpose often report living a grace-filled life. When you commit to living true to your purpose, something amazing begins to happen. The Universe lines up with your intention and commitment. Perhaps W. H. Murray says it best:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creativity there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision; raising in ones favor all manner of assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
‘Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it.'”
Benefit #10–Flow
All nine of the previous benefits can be summarized within this last one. People living on purpose live in the flow of the universal stream of consciousness. Rather than fighting against the current, they allow what wants to happen to happen. They allow what wants to flow to flow. They know that while they may never completely understand or comprehend God’s divine design and plan for this Universe, they can still play an integral part in its realization.
If you don’t feel like you’re in the flow of life, then you’re working hard to resist the flow of the Universe. Many years ago, while attending the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, some of the other vet students and I took up white water canoing. Dr. Dawe, a wise and knowledgeable college professor who also loved canoing, took us under his wing so that we wouldn’t drown before we graduated.
His first safety lesson was very simple: When you fall into the water at a set of rapids, be sure to keep your feet out in front of you and your head up out of the water, then relax and enjoy the ride. What if we approached our lives like this, and instead of resisting, we simply sat back and enjoyed the ride along the rapids of universal flow?
This is why one of Life on Purpose Institute’s key purpose operating principles is to “flow with what’s flowing, and work on what’s working,” rather than getting caught up in whatever might not be flowing.
(Excerpted in part from Life On Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life, available now.
