The 28 Attraction for Living Life on Purpose
by Dr. Brad Swift
1. Become Incredibly Selfish.
Spend your days with "in the beam" activities—those activities that are full expressions of your life purpose—and delegate "out of the beam" activities to other people who will find those activities to be "in their beam.”
2. Unhook Yourself from the Future.
Have your life purpose shape your life today. Do not relate to it as a “someday phenomenon.” Express your life purpose today; do not wait until you have your act together.
3. Over-Respond to Every Event.
In each situation, express your life purpose fully. Do not hold back. To “over respond” means to come fully from your Created Life Purpose. Reacting is a product of an Inherited Purpose.
4. Build a Super Reserve in Every Area.
It is difficult to completely give your life over to the expression of your life purpose if your basic needs aren't being met. Lessen the pull of your Inherited Purpose by building up super reserves. Here are some of the things you want more than enough of: love, companionship, quiet time/solitude, money, purposeful projects, energy, and health.
5. Add Value Just for the Joy of It.
Value for the joy of it comes from the natural expression of your life purpose. Unhooked from the need to survive, we are naturally self-expressed.
6. Affect Others Profoundly.
The more you touch others, the more attractive you are. When you express your life purpose you naturally touch and affect others.
7. Market Your Talents Shamelessly.
Your talents are the gifts given to you by God so that you can fully express your life purpose. Marketing God's gifts is attractive and allows you to play full-out in expressing your life purpose.
8. Become Irresistibly Attractive to Yourself.
Living true to your life purpose requires that you become increasingly attractive to yourself. When you find yourself attractive, others will too.
9. Get a Fulfilling Life, Not Just an Impressive Lifestyle.
A fulfilling life comes from…you guessed it, knowing your life purpose and living true to it. Great lifestyles are fine and can be a lot of fun as long as they do not interfere with your life purpose. They also become less important.
10. Deliver Twice What You Promise.
There are two parts to this: First, quit promising the moon. Over-promising is a product of self-doubt and ego. When you know who you are and have the experience of living true to yourself daily, over-promising isn't necessary. Second, delivering twice what people expect is fairly easy when you are expressing your purpose naturally.
11. Create a Vacuum That Pulls You Forward.
Create games and Purpose Projects that are larger than you are, or than you think you are, then let the vacuum such a project creates call you to be that new person.
12. Eliminate Delay.
Why would you want to delay expressing your purpose? It is like waiting to live. The more your life is a full expression of your purpose, the more reason you have to eliminate delay in expressing yourself.
13. Get Your Personal Needs Met, Once and for All.
This is related to building a super reserve. Unmet needs attract others with the same unmet needs. Many needs are based in the survival mode of your Inherited Purpose. Identifying these needs is the first step to handling them once and for all. The more of them you handle, the more room you have in which to express your life purpose.
14. Thrive on the Details.
In the context of life purpose, the details to thrive on are the moment-by-moment expression of your life purpose. Thriving comes from the awareness of the moment and being grateful for each moment. "God is in the details." You may never get all the details right, but when you realize that a life lived on purpose comes from each moment, it is a lot more fun to play with details.
15. Tolerate Nothing.
That is, nothing that's inconsistent with living a Life on Purpose. To do this, you must first identify what you are currently tolerating, and then systemically eliminate each of those things one by one.
16. Show Others How to Please You.
People are pleased when they are living their life purpose, so showing others how to please you starts with sharing with them who you are and what you are up to. Then, it is a natural step to let them in on what they can do to help you express that purpose.
17. Endorse Your Worst Weaknesses.
This means to fully embrace your Inherited Purpose as an integral part of who you are. Remember, you're not trying to get rid of your Inherited Purpose. As far as we know, it will not go away anyway, so just embrace it. Embracing your Inherited Purpose helps to further distinguish it, bringing it from the background to the foreground of your life. Owning your Inherited Purpose allows you to share it authentically with others, which even makes it possible to have your Inherited Purpose forward your true purpose.
18. Sensitize Yourself.
The more in touch you are with your purpose, the more awake you become to life and to the rich bounty of resources all around, just waiting to be utilized for the expression of your life purpose.
19. Perfect Your Environment.
Your environment is an important facet of what calls you to be. It is either calling you to be your Inherited Purpose or your true purpose. An integral part of your environment is the people in your life. Surround yourself with people who know you as your purpose and who endorse and support your expressing it fully.
20. Develop More Character Than You Need.
See the movie Les Miserables for a demonstration of character. Jean Valjean takes living a life of integrity to the next level—the level of character.
21. See How Perfect the Present Really Is.
Those moments when it looks like the present isn't perfect are rich with opportunities and unrecognized resources. In a "there-are-no-accidents” universe it is our job to recognize the perfection of those imperfect moments.
22. Become Unconditionally Constructive.
A life purpose based in possibility, with no need to fix anything, makes it easy to be unconditionally constructive.
23. Orient Exclusively Around Your Values.
Since values are an integral part of your purpose, orienting yourself around your purpose works as well. You can start by making a list of activities that are fully "in the beam" of your life purpose, and a second list of activities "out of the beam," or which are not full expressions of your purpose. Then fill your life with "in the beam" activities and delegate the rest to others who will find those activities in the beam for their purpose.
24. Simplify Everything.
Two natural byproducts of knowing and living your life purpose are focus and simplicity. Keep whatever is needed to help you live your purpose, and get rid of everything else.
25. Master Your Craft.
Be the best at the God-given skills and talents that allow you to fully express your life purpose.
26. Recognize and Tell the Truth.
Develop the skill to be able to tell the truth in a way that it can be heard. Orienting yourself around telling the truth allows others to get in touch with their own truth and purpose, and it is a great way to express your own.
27. Have a Vision.
A life purpose that expands beyond you is really a vision for the world.
28. Be More Human.
When you are genuine, you are attractive. When you are expressing your life purpose, you are genuine.
*These principles are based on the Attraction Principles articulated by Thomas Leonard, www.attractionu.com. Adaptation by W. Bradford Swift, founder of Life on Purpose Institute, Inc. Excerpted with permission from Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life (Elite Books, 2007) by Dr. Brad Swift.
Dr. Brad Swift is the author of the Life on Purpose: Six Passages to an Inspired Life (Elite Books) and the founder of the Life on Purpose Institute (www.lifeonpurpose.com).
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