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What is your purpose in life? Many people have trouble with that word, purpose; it seems so serious, so heavy. You can substitute the word mission if you wish. Or vocation, which comes from the Latin word for calling. What is your calling? This is a great question to ask.

When I ask that question, I’m given a great key to a life well lived:

We have a great purpose in life —
a great mission, vocation, and calling.
We are here to reach our full potential,
to evolve as much as possible,
and to contribute to the betterment
of humanity.

Life Purpose: Contribute to the Well-Being of All

We are here to move upward in the pyramid of consciousness that Maslow described, until we become self-actualized, self-realized, and able to help many others move up to realize their potential, and help make this world a better place for all.

Our purpose is to grow as much as we can, for on the way we are discovering new possibilities for humanity. Our purpose is to contribute in some vital way to the well-being of all. As so many have discovered, when we love and serve others in some way, our own sense of well-being, and our resources, and our joy of life expand vastly.

As Charles Caleb Colton wrote nearly two hundred years ago:

If universal charity prevailed,
earth would be a heaven, and hell a fable.

Life Purpose: Personal & Global Evolution

Our purpose is nothing less than personal and global evolution. This is all very serious stuff, and so sometimes Spirit lightens things up, and I hear Bobby McFerrin singing Meher Baba’s famous quote:

Don’t worry, be happy.

What wonderful guidance! How simple can it get? Or I hear it put in this way:

Remember the joy of Being.

This always reminds me of the words of Eckhart Tolle, in The Power of Now, a book that guides me every day and will continue to be my guide for the rest of my life: “The happiness that is derived from some secondary source is never very deep. It is only a pale reflection of the joy of Being, the vibrant peace you find within as you enter a state of nonresistance.”

I often think that all I need to do is to truly, deeply understand and remember these two powerful sentences from The Power of Now and I will know how to fully live — and even how to die — in peace and with grace.

Life Purpose: Loving & Serving Yourself & Others

Sometimes in my mind I hear the words of Ramana Maharshi, one of the greatest teachers in the history of India and the world. Whenever I hear those words, I have the feeling that they are the most beautiful words ever said, in any language:

The end of all wisdom
is love, love, love.

That is the greatest secret of all. Sometimes I hear it whispered quietly in my mind in these words:

Loving and serving
yourself and others is the key
to happiness, fulfillment, and inner peace.
This is the greatest secret of all.

This is the key that overcomes our fears and leads us to a life of grace and ease, a miraculous life.

All Life is a Miracle

It is a miracle, isn’t it? A collection of trillions of atoms and molecules, working in amazing partnership with each other, wrote these words in a time now long past -- and at this moment, your amazing collection of trillions of atoms and molecules is sitting with these ink marks on paper [or on your digital screen] and absorbing them into your mind, creating new synapses in your brain that literally change the way you think, act, and experience life. All life is a miracle, far beyond our ability to understand.

But we can learn to understand its secrets, and to work with them to create better lives for ourselves and a far better world for all creatures, great and small.

You know the secret now. Say it to yourself, in your own words. And remember it, always. It will guide you, every moment, to fulfillment, whatever that may mean for you.

It will guide you to the top of the pyramid of humanity, to a place of peace and power.

It will show you how to create the life of your dreams and contribute in your own wonderful way to making the world a far better place.

What Is The Secret?

The secret is love. Love is the creative force of all life, and love is all that matters. Everything else fades into insignificance and passes away; love and life alone are eternal.

That is the greatest secret of all, the secret to a life well lived — a precious life, a sacred life, where we realize the miracle of what is.

It is love, always and forever.

This article was excerpted with permission from the book:

The Greatest Secret of All: Simple Steps to Abundance, Fulfillment, and a Life Well Lived
by Marc Allen.

This excerpt was reprinted with permission of the publisher, New World Library. ©2011. www.NewWorldLibrary.com.

Click here for more info and/or to order this book.

About the Author

Marc Allen is an internationally renowned author and president and publisher of New World Library, which he co-founded (with Shakti Gawain) in 1977. He has written numerous books, including Visionary Business, A Visionary Life, The Millionaire Course, and The Type-Z Guide to Success. He has also recorded several albums of music, including Awakening, Breathe, and Solo Flight. Marc is a popular speaker and seminar leader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. For more about Marc, including his free monthly teleseminars, see www.MarcAllen.com. For more about his music (including free samples), see www.WatercourseMedia.com. 

More articles by Marc Allen.

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