The advice that I first thought sucked…but it was dead on!

During my aggressive search for purpose (a.k.a. my search to live a more exciting life) I stumbled upon the answer way before I was ready to hear it. So what did I do…

I balked at it!

Yep, I scoffed, and thought, “No, that doesn’t sound exciting” and off I went again…searching and searching…until I circled back to this same advice. Pretty crazy, huh?

I kid you not, when I first heard Wayne Dyer (super awesome contemporary spiritual teacher) share his perspective on how to find your purpose, I balked!

His set-up for delivering this message was great, too. Here I was, someone who was just drooling at the idea of knowing my purpose and he pops the question: “Do you want to find your purpose?”

“Hell yeah”, I responded! (I was driving in my car, listening to an audio cd, so I probably said that mentally).

“Put yourself in service to others,” he replied.

And then I sunk back into my seat, deflated.

That just did not sound exciting to me. I was looking to escape boredom through the creation of a “big” life and service sounded “small”.

So I get it, like really get it, when the idea of a service mentality seems hard to swallow. I get it when your inclination might be to attack me for sharing this advice…how could I not understand this when I attacked Wayne Dyer for doing the same thing?!?

This is just a part of the process of shifting out of your ego into spirit (or love). Ego becomes challenged and responds by attacking the challenger. In that moment, it feels so natural to attack the messenger or the advice itself. This is ego’s way of preserving itself.

Ego is attacking the light that is being brought into your awareness. This light is encroaching on ego’s territory, so it is responding by trying to stamp it out. Remember, ego’s sole goal is to keep you from knowing and expressing the love and light that is your truth.

Your core essence is love; therefore it is your natural inclination to act through love and compassion. If this doesn’t feel natural to you (yet), it’s simply because you’ve got to excavate some “stuff” that’s blocking this natural expression. These things are your “assignments”.

Balking at the idea of being in service to others is simply a conditioned response of ego that needs to be examined as a part of your “assignment”.

Ego’s main motivation is self-interest. That’s why I thought creating a “big” exciting life was more important that being of service.

Ego had fooled me into thinking that being of service would be creating a “small” life. This was a particularly effective strategy for me, because I was trying to escape living a “small” life.

(Oprah’s life is in service to others, so that pretty much squashes the idea of a life of service being “small”. I couldn’t see that then, though.)

In truth, ego knows for you to realize being of service is what you were sent here to do that it has been “found out”. It loses hard earned power through this revelation, which is why it works so hard to prevent you from taking this advice in at a conscious level.

When we are unclear of our soul’s desires, we are vulnerable to ego using them against us in manipulative ways. That’s what happened to me…

My soul-desire is to impact the world in a positive way. However, my awareness of this idea was in its infancy when I first became excited about living a “big” life, which meant I was vulnerable to ego.

My soul had revealed part of its plan to me…to do something “big”. But I only registered the outcome being “big”, not the driving force behind the desired outcome.

This lack of clarity resulted in ego swooping in and filling my mind with ways that this “big” life could be reached using its primary motivator—self-interest.

In disentangling myself from ego desires, my soul’s desires became clearer. I can now see that aligning with my soul’s desires does not mean abandoning living a “big” life. It means abandoning self-interest in place of service.

If you’re having trouble accepting a service mentality, begin by examining your resistance:

• How are you balking?
• How are you attacking or defending your current position?

Write these thoughts down and begin to trace their motivation.

These particular thoughts are simply the form that ego is attempting to use to maintain control in your awareness. You don’t have to agree with them. You have a choice. Seeing this choice is how you begin to shift from self-interest to service.

Becoming aware of this choice is what positions you as the observer of your ego versus the experiencer of it. This is how you begin to bring it under your control instead of being at its mercy. This may seem difficult at first, but it will get easier.

Be willing to commit to this challenge so that you can do your soul work…your contribution to the world’s healing. You’ve got this. I have faith in you.

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As always, the journey continues…

With love,

Shanna