Laura Carroll
According to doctor and author Deepak Chopra, the most common reason for heart attacks is not smoking, overeating or lack of exercise, but a lack of purpose or meaning in life. Physical crisis or not, a lack of purpose in life commonly manifests itself as a perpetual angst.
People today commonly ask themselves and don't find answers to questions like -- Why is it, that no matter how good life gets, there always seems to be something missing? What is that something that feels missing? Why is it so difficult to pinpoint what it is?
The missing link is purpose--knowing and living one's unique purpose in life. Discovering purpose requires more than knowing how to care for the soul. It is so much more than doing what we love and hoping the money will follow. For so many of us, what society has taught us about finding purpose leads to dead ends, and no longer satisfies.
Finding Fulfillment From the Inside Out: How to Unravel the Real You and Discover Your Purpose in Life lays out a path to a deeper, sustaining experience of personal purpose. You will learn what purpose truly means, how to discover it, and how to make it come alive in your daily life. It will guide you through seven steps that include stories of people from a variety of backgrounds who have completed the process. Complete with exercises, Finding Fulfillment From the Inside Out is designed for you to use as your tool to uncovering and living a life rich in purpose and meaning.
Laura Carroll has worked as an industry psychology consultant, seminar leader and professional writer for the last 15 years. She has a Master's degree in Psychology, and has counseled individuals from a range of backgrounds on job career and job transition issues. Her background in counseling and leading seminars for employees who have lost their jobs due to company downsizing helped form the foundation for Finding Fulfillment From the Inside Out: How to Unravel the Real You and Discover Your Purpose in Life.
...I repeatedly saw how many people looked to the outside for meaning as they went from job to job, wanting it to fill up the place inside that felt empty. But, eventually the painful feeling returned, and they concluded the job wasn't the 'right' job, the one that would truly make their life feel full.
Other clients related to the idea of being filled by something outside themselves through their personal relationships. Instead of job hopping, they tended to relationship hop. They wanted so much for an intimate relationship to fill the void. And many times it did--for awhile. But eventually, the magic wore off. What once looked like the other person's beauty marks, now looked like warts. This happens because no one can ever truly create meaning in another person's life.
Whether through work or love, we have been taught to look outside ourselves to fill the void that our lack of purpose creates. And that's why deep down we feel dissatisfied, no matter what is going on in our lives.
..To find purpose we first need to sever our reliance on the outside to define it for us, and connect to the place of indwelling spirit that will lead us to our meaning. It's easier to say, than do, in a society that strongly reinforces us to do just the opposite through consumerism, materialism, and a focus on social progress. Yet, as long as we look to the outside for answers, we move farther away from the center of ourselves, where the answer already lives. When we can touch this central place within us, we touch the home of our spirit, and it holds the key that unlocks the door to a unique purpose that belongs to each of us.
