Title: The Four Purposes of LifeAuthor: Dan Millman (American, 1946- )
Originally published: 2011
Page count: 142
Dates read: 4/13/2020-4/15/2020
2020 book goal progress: 11 out of 20
Reading category: TBR Shelf
Read my other book reviews for my 2020 goal HERE.
Description on back of book:
For many of us, life seems like a puzzle with missing pieces. We form plans and change them; we choose one path and then another, trying to find the right mate and career, hoping that we've made the right decision and that it will all work out. At some point, we ask ourselves the central question: What is the purpose of my life? This book is for anyone seeking deeper insight into themselves and their lives, but especially for those at a crossroads, facing a challenge or change, when past approaches no longer work.
First sentence(s):
"With the pace of life accelerating, in a world of change, it's not easy to maintain our balance and sense of direction. Yet we strive to do so, because a sense of direction, toward a meaningful goal, may be the better part of happiness. In this pursuit, the journey may indeed matter more than the destination - but without a destination to aim for there is no journey; we can only wander."
Favorite quotes:
"As we learn to let intuition become reason's trusted adviser, we integrate reason and faith, building a bridge to wisdom and a new way of sensing our world."
"What you do matters, but how you do it matters even more. Fulfillment lies not in the work itself but in the quality and care you bring to it. So bear in mind that you don't only find a fulfilling career; you create it."
"No matter what role you play at work or at home, you influence people around you - you teach and lead by example - because people notice what you do. Therefore, leadership is a universal calling that has nothing to do with one's status or level of authority in an organization."
Review:
There wasn't really anything new in this book (except in purpose 3 - I'll get to that later). I already knew everything, but sometimes it's nice to have the jumbled up thoughts in your head laid out simply in a book. The Prologue is titled Living on Purpose and it can be summed up in the first sentences quoted above.
Purpose 1: Learning Life's Lessons
"Earth is a perfect school, and daily life is the classroom. There is no way to fail as long as you continue to learn."
The curriculum of life includes 12 required courses: self-worth, discipline, well-being, money, mind, intuition, emotions, courage, self-knowledge, sexuality, love, and service. This is nothing new, but it's good to have a reminder to keep an open mind and always try to learn from your circumstances.
Purpose 2: Finding Your Career and Calling
"The primary difference between a career and a calling is that we pursue a career primarily for income and a calling for innate satisfaction (through serving). But if you love your career so much that you'd do it for free (if you could afford to do so), then it has likely become a calling as well. And if a calling begins to produce a good income, then it has also become a career."
Three qualities to consider in your career and calling: talents, interests, and values. Three career criteria: satisfaction, money, and providing a service. A calling is about serving others in some way - a hobby is not a calling, but when you share it with others (through performing, teaching, or others means) than it becomes a calling.
This was by far the longest portion of the book and I got a lot out of it. I've always felt like my career and calling had to be one and the same - but it's really freeing to know that it doesn't have to be that way. I'm taking prereqs to get into an MA program, which I hope will then lead into a career that will turn into a calling... but if that doesn't happen, then I'll probably have a career solely for income and then a calling that I work on at home.
Purpose 3: Discovering Your Life-Path (or "hidden calling")
This is where it gets weird. I didn't know the book had this when I bought it, otherwise, I probably would have gone with a different book instead. At this point, Millman describes his numerology system of adding up the numbers in your birthday to find your hidden calling. No big surprise - the descriptions of the 9 different life-paths are so generic that pretty much all of them would have some resonation with any person. To me, I saw this more about understanding your motivation for making the decisions you do - instead of a calling. The life-paths are interesting to think about in regards to how each is reflected in my life in its own way - just as different aspects of my life and not as some hidden calling, though.
For those interested, the 9 life-paths are creativity, cooperation, expression, stability, freedom, vision, trust, recognition, and integrity.
Purpose 4: Attending to this Present Moment
"Past and future are both happening now. There is only now. Wherever we go is now. Past is memory; future is imagination. Nice places to visit, but you don't want to live there. Purposes tied to past or future have no reality; they are phantom concepts conjured by the mind. Handle just what is in front of you. By attending to this arising moment, you find the simple life. Reality is where you are now - moving in stillness, floating with the current in the river of time, resting in the eternal present. Refrain from comparing this moment with memories of the past or an imagined future, and you find contentment - here and now."
This is pretty straightforward: instead of dwelling on the past or daydreaming about the future, we need to learn to live in the moment and appreciate the here-and-now.
Epilogue: Our Spiritual Purpose
"Seeking the transcendent (spiritual purpose) does not mean rejecting our conventional world but rather embracing it fully, releasing our resistance, attachments, and expectations. As we do, we experience a lighthearted wisdom; we take ourselves and our dramas less seriously. A momentary glimpse of the transcendent can restore our humor and refresh our spirits, which is why many awakening individuals consider our spiritual purpose the ultimate quest even as we do the laundry, care for children, and work for a better world."
The epilogue was pretty weak, but, if I wanted to read up on spiritual purpose, I would have read my Bible or found a Christian author to get insight from. I intentionally found a non-Christian author when I bought this book, just to get away from what I tend to read and to challenge myself... though the whole numerology thing was a bit far for me. (As I said, if I had known that was part of it, I wouldn't have gotten this book.) Overall, this was an OK book - you could just skip the third purpose altogether if that's the only thing from keeping you from reading it yourself.
Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Dan Millman have the last words:
Purpose 1: Learning Life's Lessons
"Earth is a perfect school, and daily life is the classroom. There is no way to fail as long as you continue to learn."
The curriculum of life includes 12 required courses: self-worth, discipline, well-being, money, mind, intuition, emotions, courage, self-knowledge, sexuality, love, and service. This is nothing new, but it's good to have a reminder to keep an open mind and always try to learn from your circumstances.
Purpose 2: Finding Your Career and Calling
"The primary difference between a career and a calling is that we pursue a career primarily for income and a calling for innate satisfaction (through serving). But if you love your career so much that you'd do it for free (if you could afford to do so), then it has likely become a calling as well. And if a calling begins to produce a good income, then it has also become a career."
Three qualities to consider in your career and calling: talents, interests, and values. Three career criteria: satisfaction, money, and providing a service. A calling is about serving others in some way - a hobby is not a calling, but when you share it with others (through performing, teaching, or others means) than it becomes a calling.
This was by far the longest portion of the book and I got a lot out of it. I've always felt like my career and calling had to be one and the same - but it's really freeing to know that it doesn't have to be that way. I'm taking prereqs to get into an MA program, which I hope will then lead into a career that will turn into a calling... but if that doesn't happen, then I'll probably have a career solely for income and then a calling that I work on at home.
Purpose 3: Discovering Your Life-Path (or "hidden calling")
This is where it gets weird. I didn't know the book had this when I bought it, otherwise, I probably would have gone with a different book instead. At this point, Millman describes his numerology system of adding up the numbers in your birthday to find your hidden calling. No big surprise - the descriptions of the 9 different life-paths are so generic that pretty much all of them would have some resonation with any person. To me, I saw this more about understanding your motivation for making the decisions you do - instead of a calling. The life-paths are interesting to think about in regards to how each is reflected in my life in its own way - just as different aspects of my life and not as some hidden calling, though.
For those interested, the 9 life-paths are creativity, cooperation, expression, stability, freedom, vision, trust, recognition, and integrity.
Purpose 4: Attending to this Present Moment
"Past and future are both happening now. There is only now. Wherever we go is now. Past is memory; future is imagination. Nice places to visit, but you don't want to live there. Purposes tied to past or future have no reality; they are phantom concepts conjured by the mind. Handle just what is in front of you. By attending to this arising moment, you find the simple life. Reality is where you are now - moving in stillness, floating with the current in the river of time, resting in the eternal present. Refrain from comparing this moment with memories of the past or an imagined future, and you find contentment - here and now."
This is pretty straightforward: instead of dwelling on the past or daydreaming about the future, we need to learn to live in the moment and appreciate the here-and-now.
Epilogue: Our Spiritual Purpose
"Seeking the transcendent (spiritual purpose) does not mean rejecting our conventional world but rather embracing it fully, releasing our resistance, attachments, and expectations. As we do, we experience a lighthearted wisdom; we take ourselves and our dramas less seriously. A momentary glimpse of the transcendent can restore our humor and refresh our spirits, which is why many awakening individuals consider our spiritual purpose the ultimate quest even as we do the laundry, care for children, and work for a better world."
The epilogue was pretty weak, but, if I wanted to read up on spiritual purpose, I would have read my Bible or found a Christian author to get insight from. I intentionally found a non-Christian author when I bought this book, just to get away from what I tend to read and to challenge myself... though the whole numerology thing was a bit far for me. (As I said, if I had known that was part of it, I wouldn't have gotten this book.) Overall, this was an OK book - you could just skip the third purpose altogether if that's the only thing from keeping you from reading it yourself.
Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Dan Millman have the last words:
"Insight isn't enough. At best it provides a map, but we still have to make the journey. Just thinking about something is not the same as doing it. We know we've learned a lesson in the school of life only when our actions change."
"Much of the time, we humans are bored with the present. So the prime difficulty of learning to live in and attend to the present moment is that we don't really want to. It doesn't seem enough for us, because we're not really paying attention."
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