Do you follow your purpose? Do you consider your purpose on a daily basis? Several times a day? Is every action in your day to day life in accordance with your deepest principles? Are you even regularly aware of those principles?
For more than half of my life I’ve been a musician. I got my first guitar and learned to play when I was 11 years old. For more than half of my life I’ve been paid for it. I started busking (playing music in the streets for money) in front of the local Beer Store and Liquor Store when I was 12. I’ve done this off and on since then, with my last visit just before Christmas. I started playing gigs in clubs and bars in my early teens and was recording music (albeit in a crude fashion) around the same time. I was a member of several bands over the years, and formed several others; the most productive and successful of which is Suburban Sunrise. Although members have come and gone, and some friendships have developed while others depreciated or dissolved, Suburban Sunrise still consumes a huge chunk of my time and remains my main project in music. I created this site and eventually transformed it to what it is now because SubSun Records is a means in which I can release music. A fair amount of effort has been put in, and a fair amount of music has been created and produced because of this. You can enjoy some freebies in the audio section.
So is it safe to say that if not Suburban Sunrise directly, than at least music creation and performing in general is my purpose in life? If you ask anyone who knows me, they’d likely tell you that the answer is obviously “yes”. Outsiders looking in would probably agree. For much of the past decade, I too would have agreed. But is that truly my purpose? Is that what it all adds up to? Is that the final conclusion of a holistic view of my existence?
The answer is “no”.
A while ago I put a lot of thought into my life; a lot of thought into what I’ve been up to for all these years, and what I’d like to be up to in the coming years. But I didn’t really find any solid answers until I reassessed my purpose in life. This quickly helped raise my self awareness and level of consciousness. And I realized music was not the ‘be all, end all’ of my existence.
You see, although music has been and continues to be an untiring passion for me, and when I found music I fell in love with it, I was living before hand. And when music did enter my life and my love for music helped me quickly gain skill as a musician, I saw it as a tool to serve my purpose, not as a replacement for my purpose. For example: one might learn a trade to serve the purpose of one day owning a business or several businesses in that field. Their love may be in the trade, but the trade is still just a part of an over all purpose.
Now in the case of this post, when I speak of ‘purpose’ I tend to mean more along the lines of a general life’s purpose. But in fact, every action serves a purpose, and every person does as well. You may not pay attention to it or be aware of it, or you may not even believe you serve any purpose at all, but you definitely do. The real question isn’t whether or not, but rather what purpose do you serve, or better yet, whose?
Whose purpose do you serve the most?
Is it your boss’s…? Your parent’s…? Your spouse’s…? I’m not saying you should ignore your spouse, or tell off your parents, or quit your job. But when you go to work, is catering to someone else’s purpose congruent with following your own? For some of you it is. You work somewhere that satisfies you on all levels of your being. You spend your days doing what you love, while adding to all that you believe is right in the world. You are financially secure. Every day you bring yourself closer to the greatness you want to achieve in your life. Your efforts at work serve your own purpose as much as, if not more than they serve your boss’s. You’re in a good spot. There probably isn’t much for you to gain from this post. Carry on.
For most people though, this isn’t the case. You may be working somewhere that makes you feel like a good person every day, but it’s not what you love. (Mr. T says, “Didn’t wanna be a mean guy, wanna be a dancer!”). Or you make good money, but you suffer spiritually. Your core beliefs tap away at your conscience. You push your own purpose aside to serve your owner… I mean boss. Or you may not even be aware of your purpose at all.
Follow Your Purpose
Regardless of what you do, you will be serving someone’s purpose. It’s inevitable. Why not take the time to find, assess or create your own personal purpose? You may realize that what you’ve been working for isn’t actually what you want; that your goals are hand me downs, that a lot of your life has been without direction and that you’ve just been a creature of habit. But when you find your purpose, and follow it always, you’ll become more aware of what you truly want out of life, what goals you’d like to achieve and who you really are. Your decision making will become much easier because in every situation you only need to ask yourself, “which option will greater serve my purpose?” You’ll gain direction.
And finding your purpose doesn’t have to be difficult. Just spend some time to think clearly about what you really want out of life. Think on a spiritual level. View yourself from a perspective outside of your physical identity and/or outside of time. What would that image represent? What would you like it to represent? There are many different ways for you to create and assess your purpose, and I’ll share more ideas in a future post. This post is lengthy enough already.
You may be wondering what I view my purpose as. Well here it is:
- strive for peace, internally and externally
- align myself with, and project love (the unconditional kind)
- connect the world
- and (most importantly) help others do the same
And to accomplish these things, I’m always aiming to raise my consciousness and awareness… and to grow. And you should too.
This is why music has always been a great way for me to live my purpose; I just can’t help but feel love when my guitar’s in my hands. Music really does soothe the savage beast (except when it’s late and ’the savage beast’ wants me to stop playing drums). 
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Thank you kindly for your support and encouragement!
