Purpose

25 journaling questions on how to discover your purpose and fulfill your destiny.

Abraham Maslow tells us that what one can be, one must be. Actualizing our potential is like oxygen for the soul. Helping you discover your purpose and fulfill your destiny is what this class is all about.

Joseph Campbell occupies the Grandfather slot in my spiritual family tree and this book is an incredible collection of some of his most inspiring wisdom. In the Note, we'll explore a range of Big Ideas from what it means to (and how to!) follow our bliss as we rock our hero's journey to learning that we've gotta be willing to break some eggs if we want to make omelets (aka, we've gotta be willing to make mistakes as we grow!).

This is one of the three books by Campbell we cover and in this Note, we'll learn why following our bliss is so important (hint: our bliss is the transcendent wisdom within us bubbling up!) and how we can more courageously follow it in our lives (hint: say "Yes!" to life more often!). We'll also look at how we can make the simple things in our life part of our heroic journey and how going for it isn't an ego trip.

Ah, The Fountainhead. It's always fun to distill a 752-page magnum opus into a 6-page PDF and 20-minute MP3. Ayn Rand is intense and this book is packed with Big Ideas. We'll explore a few of my favorites, including our responsibility to own our greatness, not live as a second-hander (someone who is over-concerned about other people’s opinion of them), love what we do and know what we want.

Ah, The Power of Myth. This book is based on the amazing PBS interview series Bill Moyers did with Campbell shortly before he passed away and captures some of the 24 hours of filmed wisdom that hit the cutting floor. We'll learn how Campbell came up with the admonition to "follow your bliss!" (hint: it's from the Upanishads), the importance of loving our fate, how we're helped by hidden hands when we really commit to our paths and so much more.

This book is like a greatest hits collection of Castaneda's best passages. In the Note we'll look at the need to transcend our conditioning as we develop our personal power, the importance of choosing a path with heart (aka following your bliss), using death as an advisor and living with impeccability as we achieve no stress success.

Mastery. Are you a dabbler or a hacker or an obsessive or a master? We all have elements of each and we tend to fall into particular patterns in our lives. In this Note, we'll explore George Leonard’s brilliant ideas on how to live a life of mastery, in which every moment becomes an opportunity for growth and self-expression as we embrace the practice of living masterfully.

Robin Sharma is one of the top leadership coaches in the world and an all-around awesome guy. This book is a fable about a hard-charging attorney who becomes a yogi and shares his wisdom with his former protégé. It's packed with goodness. In the Note, we'll look at the "7 Timeless Virtues of Enlightened Living," the importance of blue printing our ideal lives and expressing the greatness that is all of our birthrights.

Jack Canfield, the creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul, gives us a book packed with Big Ideas on the fundamentals of success. In the Note, we explore some of my favorites—including an awesome exercise on how to discover our purpose, the importance of taking responsibility in our lives (that's Principle #1!!!), becoming an inverse paranoid (think: “OMG the universe is out to help me!!”), and recognizing that 99% commitment to something is a bitch and 100% is a breeze.

I’m not sure how I found this book but I’m glad I did! Steve Chandler’s awesome and this book kinda reminds me of my book: One quick, inspiring, Big Idea after another that helps us get our practical wisdom on and go out and rock it. Some of my favorites include the cure for “Intention Deficit Disorder,” Creating vs. Reacting, and the importance of replacing worry with action.