Are You Accidentally Following Your "Programmed" Purpose?

If you’ve ever been to one of my retreats or been in a class that I teach, you’ll know that when someone gets a message, an inner knowing, or gets coached and resolves an issue – it is happening for everyone, not just the individual.

We are so connected that it really is, all for one and one for all.

In that spirit, I want to share a message I got this weekend. Here’s the back story: I’ve been working a lot. That means thinking and writing. You see I’m creating an on-line course and promoting it too.

Whenever I’m doing that, I’m a bit on high alert. I can overthink things, change directions on a whim and totally forget what my intentions actually were.

I know this about myself. I’ve prepared many, many courses because I used to teach university courses. I throw everything up in the air, question everything and then eventually it comes back down to earth and I can prepare my course. But the beginning part is very, very uncomfortable, very unstructured and I begin to doubt myself.

This is my programmed purpose showing up.

Your programmed purpose is how you’ve been socialized, the rules you’ve been following that help you to be accepted, that help you to feel that you belong. You come up with your programmed purpose in childhood and you can be unconscious to it for your whole life – but it is running your life and it blocks you from following your soul’s purpose.

Your programmed purpose is your belief system that was designed to meet your safety and security needs. It’s like computer programming – running in the background of your life until there’s a bug and things go haywire.

My programmed purpose has always been - to fit in. That kept me safe. That meant that I would be liked and accepted. And it kept me away from my passions and my real desires – because it was more important for me to be safe than it was for me to be who I was born to be and do what I was born to do (which I didn’t know – so it wasn’t a big loss).

Until I got so unhappy in my life and my work that I needed to find another way to live. That was the bug.

That’s when I had to stop trying to fit in. That’s when I had to not return to a secure government job – when I was downsized. In fact, virtually all my choices over the past 25 years have been based on my SOUL'S purpose NOT my programmed purpose.

But that doesn’t mean that my tricky programmed purpose doesn’t try to slip in and derail me.

Here’s what happens to me. I start creating a new program, x, based on what I really love and what’s really important to me.

Programmed purpose slips in and starts to tweak the program so that more people will like it. Programmed purpose dilutes the whole program and I get confused about what it’s about. I start to feel depleted.

I tell myself this is resistance.

It’s not.

It’s my soul telling me that I have veered off my path.

But I don’t get it. I can’t see it.

So I go for a walk (great strategy btw).

I have this urge to switch routes on my way home. I laughingly think that my soul wants to give me a message and that message will show up. I immediately forget that I thought that.

I’m looking at the trees and then I see a huge woodpecker.

He’s right in front of me on a tree.

I walk closer.

He is still there.

He flies to a spot almost directly in front of me, on a tree stump and sits there. I think, “Ok, I get it. This message is for me.”

I take a picture. 

I am filled with gratitude. I know I just got a personal message and now I just need to figure out what that is.

I look up woodpecker animal totem. This is what it says:

“The symbolic meaning of woodpeckers also point to a need for creative vision. Being opportunistic, woodpeckers can see value everywhere, even in dead trees. Have you ditched an idea or given up on a project? The woodpecker may be trying to tell you to breathe new life into your project, just as they build new homes into dead trees.

Further, the symbolic meaning of woodpecker indicates a return to our roots, or having trust in our basic (gut) feelings. Dr. Carl Jung observed the woodpecker as a symbol of a return to the womb of creativity. In this observation the tree is symbolic of a womb; earthy, grounded, sturdy and secure. The woodpecker's home within the tree is analogous of a fierce determination to return and protect that which is sacred to us.

When this bird comes pecking, it is a call for us to return to our roots, back to the womb of our ideas and use our intellect and discernment to follow through with our plans.”

I am being told to go back, to return to my roots, to the womb of my ideas. It totally makes sense to me. I know exactly what I need to do. I need to shift back to what I knew I wanted and to stop trying to please “everyone”.

Your programmed purpose is super tricky and it’s one of the things that keeps you from doing your real life’s work.

Here’s my question for you...

"Where do you need to return to the womb of your creative ideas?"

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