A Life Without Purpose

In This Bloutcher

• A Life Without Purpose
• Life Change Artists Upcoming Launch
  
• What's been in my head
  

A Life Without Purpose

Last week I gave a talk at the 92nd Street Y Tribeca entitled "What the Great Artists Can Teach Us About Living the Second Half with Creativity, Vitality and Meaning." After the talk a woman came up to me. The furrows gathered across her brow suggested deep sincerity as she shared the fact that she did not have a purpose in life. "I've attended lots of talks about meaning and purpose. I've read the books. But I have to confess I don't have a specific purpose in life. I go from one thing to another. From one interest to another. I learn and enjoy what I'm learning. I even think I am happy doing all these different things even though I have never been able to find a singular purpose. What's wrong with me?"

After staring blankly back at her for a moment I inquired what made her feel something was wrong with her.

"There's so much out there about living your life with meaning and purpose that I feel something must be wrong with me because I don't have a grand purpose in life. On the one hand I really enjoy all my different interests. I am learning stuff all the time, but underneath I am made to feel somehow inadequate because I don't have this bigger thing called a passion."

I have found that there are lots of folks out there with similar experiences, outlooks and senses of doubt. They have not found an over riding purpose that organizes their life. They move from one interest to another and get energized by what they learn. But feel they do not have the right to feel satisfied with that alone. They are made to feel something is missing in their lives. And as Baby Boomers age and come into the potential for a renaissance phase of life many, if not most, have not found a single true passion. As a result they feeling something is wrong with them.

To me the issue is not one of purpose but of creativity. By that I mean the most important dynamic in play is to feel engaged in something or somethings that allow you to think, feel and grow in new ways. This may be a single thing or many things. I like what the great German artist Kathe Kollwitz said: "No longer diverted by emotion, I work the way a cow grazes." Kollwitz Drawing

If we free ourselves from the emotions of how we think we should feel then we are free to poke around where ever the grass is most appealing to us. In other words, learning and growing as a person becomes our purpose. Becoming more complete and whole. For some it may require a singular purpose. For others it might simply mean grazing.

Life Change Artists Upcoming Launch

Since the publication of Becoming a Life Change Artist in August people have been asking me and co-author Kathy Jordan: Can you train us on the concepts, tools and techniques in the book? Can you help me incorporate this rich material into my life and coaching practice? How can I use these great ideas to bolster my leadership skills? We have received these requests from folks around the world.

In response to these requests we have teamed with nationally recognized coach Donna Krone, CPCC, to set up Life Change Artists. We are in the process of developing a unique, interactive on line program dedicated to turbocharging personal and professional creativity and building a dynamic community of people who wish to help themselves and others become true life change artists. We are aiming to have the program launched by later this spring.

Please let me know if you have interested in being on a dedicated mailing list for alerts related to the program. As part of the alerts we are including a short "Action Insight" each week. Below you will find a sample:

What If You Reframed a Client's Problem as a Creative Dilemma?
Creative Dilemmas arise out of a tension between the current state of our lives and a sense that things can be better or different. Creative Dilemmas are sources of innovative breakthroughs in art as well as in life and work. Without them the history of art would be a series of boring reproductions rather than lively bursts of expressive originality. Our lives and work, too, would take on the familiar but boring patina of repetition if it were not for the uncomfortable but necessary tensions that give rise to our creative dilemmas. When we understand creative dilemmas as the entry point into the creative process, we are more likely to face them for what they are, even welcome them, as unsettling as they may be, as opportunities for personal growth and professional growth and reinvention.
Think of a client at the threshold of change. How could he or she benefit from reframing a current challenge as a creative dilemma?

Let me know if you'd like to be put on this mailing list.

What's Been In My Head

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm,
or a great song.

---Rainer Maria Rilke


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