This blog post is also available as a podcast on Cinch and iTunes.
I just finished up Deepak Chopra’s latest book The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness. At the start of the book, he walks his readers through an exercise that will eventually lead to an individual’s purpose. Ideally, that purpose, or dharma, will be one word. At first, I was skeptical. Being a woman of many words, a fan of words, I didn’t believe I could get my great big beautiful life to fit in just one tiny word.
I love to be proven wrong because when that happens it literally blows my mind. In addition to being a woman of many words, I’m also a woman of strong convictions. That’s how I was raised – to have an opinion. And I just didn’t think that even the wisdom of Dr. Chopra was going to get my life into one word.
Dr. Chopra 1, Christa 0. Or rather, a win for both because he did help me get to a one-word purpose, so focused, elegant, and simple that it had me skipping around my apartment. After all of my wandering, literally and figuratively, I found a single purpose of being, not doing. Awareness. I am here, on this Earth, in this body, at this time, to wake up. And help others do the same. Awareness is the purpose that underlies everything I do, wherever I am, and whoever I’m with.
I thought a one word purpose would be confining when in fact it is the most liberating thing in the world. I do feel unlocked and I do feel great. just as the book promises in its title. Just saying “awareness” actually helps me to release and let go. It doesn’t feel small at all. It actually feels expansive, like all of a sudden I found a way to take in the whole world without feeling overwhelmed by it.
Do you have a word that conveys your purpose? If not, grab a copy of The Soul of Leadership and take a spin through the exercise. It takes about 30 minutes. I can’t wait to hear what you find!
The image above can be here found here.
This blog is part of the 2011 WordPress Post Every Day Challenge.
Christa Avampato 
