Dear Jeff,
Q: I struggle with how I can find my purpose in life, if I am constantly bombarded with emotional problems and personal issues. Between working to make a living, and striving to heal, I don’t see how I can get to the finding of my life purpose.
A: I understand the challenges of identifying purpose in the heart of a busy life, and particularly one where you are also prioritizing personal healing. I do remember feeling frustrated at times, while spending my extra time devoted to identifying and working through my issues. But what I have come to believe is that—particularly at this stage of human development—the focus on our personal stuff is our purpose, at least until we reach a stage where we feel more at peace inside and organically shift towards identifying what we are here to bring to the world. And, of course, what we feel called to bring to the world often emanates from the stuff of our healing. Now that we have been down the healing road, we have tools, insight, and empathy into the human experience. From within that experiential well, a clear-eyed purpose often emerges.