"It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Marianne Williamson
Spiritual Author
Many of us have been told we need to “find our purpose”. But what is purpose, and how do you find it? It turns out that a more valuable question to ask is, “What gets in the way of it?”. In this article, you’re going to discover six key insights into the magnetically motivating power of purpose (by the way: this article has a number of links in it, so if you can make the time, I encourage you to read it slowly and explore the links so you can get the deepest possible sense of what I’m pointing to).
“What’s your life’s purpose?” I was attending a public speaking course back in 2007, and the trainer had invited us to turn to the person next to us and ask this question. When I was asked, I trotted out something I’d come up with a few months earlier, but it didn’t ring true any longer. I told my partner, “That doesn’t feel right, and I have to be true to myself.” I tried several times to get my “pre-prepared purpose” to fit, but each time it sounded hollow. Finally, I approached the trainer and told him there was something wrong; that every time I said my purpose, it didn’t feel right. “I have to be true to myself”, I repeated for the fifth time, and then I heard it…
In that moment, wisdom was saying, “This is your purpose now; to be true to yourself. To be guided by your own intuition and desires, rather than by other people’s ideas of what’s important.” I still marvel at how wisdom is constantly speaking to us and guiding us, if only we have the ears to hear its gentle urging.
It reminds me of the old Sufi tale about the wise man, Nasruddin, who was observed one day racing his donkey through the streets of Baghdad, frantically searching for something. The townsfolk called out and asked what he was looking for. Nasruddin replied, “I’m looking for my donkey!”
So I experimented with being true to myself. I tuned in to my wisdom. I got more connected to my authentic desires, and they led me through a variety of experiences. In April 2008, they led me to sign up for a retreat, where for one moment on the third day, I dropped out of my thinking and into the moment, where I was hit by an inspiring vision. I glimpsed myself teaching a group of people by the ocean on a gloriously sunny day. I experienced an incredibly deep sense of inner security, peace and wellbeing. I knew that this glimpse was somehow a “beacon” for me, guiding me forward. I only had one problem. It was rare for me to experience that sense of peace, security and wellbeing in my own life, never mind sharing it with others!
At the time I felt lost, with no real sense of purpose or direction (I wasn’t really counting “be true to yourself” – I wanted something more tangible, ideally with a letter from the universe guaranteeing it was going to work out!) But I had that beacon, that glimpse of the sunlight playing on the water. It stayed with me, but I didn’t know what to do with it. From time to time, I’d think of it, and I knew it had something to do with where I was heading. It showed up in a painting I made in 2008 (see photo) while spending an afternoon doing “drama coaching” with my friend Chris Davies of Bamboozle Theatre Company. I read books and went to workshops. I hired coaches and found mentors. Then, in 2009, I was attending a mastermind group in Los Angeles, and experienced the profound insight I mentioned in last week’s article (I realised in a flash that the inside-out understanding of life represented the future of psychology, and quite possibly the future of our species.) I fell out of my thinking and purpose found me. I suddenly knew that I was going to be spending the next 20 years learning and sharing an understanding of the inside-out nature of life.
Key Insight 1: You don’t find your purpose. Purpose finds you! And do you know what often stands in the way of purpose finding a person? Their frantic search for purpose… looking for their donkey.
Purpose found me in 2009, and I immediately organised my life around learning and sharing an understanding of the inside-out nature of life. I started telling people about my vision of a world where everyone has a practical understanding of these principles, just like everyone today has a practical understanding of germs. And as I shared my vision and pointed people in the direction of the principles behind clarity, something amazing happened. People started approaching me, asking how they could get involved and help.
Key Insight 2: When you authentically share your purpose with others, it’s like you become a tuning fork. People who resonate with you are drawn to you and your message.
Living from this sense of purpose and getting a deeper understanding of the principles behind clarity led to me training professional change workers (I.e. coaches, therapists, trainers and consultants), business leaders and private individuals in the principles behind clarity. One of the people who attended The Certified Clarity Coach Training Programme in the first year I ran it was Donna Churchman. Donna had a huge insight on the first weekend, and was freed from a lifelong terror of public speaking (she’d been paralysed with fear when faced with a group any larger than 5 people, and had organised her work around avoiding having to do that). Donna suddenly found herself able to speak to groups from a place of clarity and connection, and within weeks was speaking to audiences of 60 and 70 people!
In fact, as I write this article, Donna and Clarity Coach Ian Webster are doing a talk at the Promax European Conference, one of the leading events for people in the media world. She and Ian are running a session for over 300 creative industry professionals, called Creative Flow: Can Understanding How We Think Make Us More Creative? You see, as Donna got clarity, purpose found her, and she discovered that she’s deeply inspired to share these principles with people in the creative industry (Donna was an award winning designer and had her own design agency before she paused her career to be a mum).
Key Insight 3: When you live your authentic purpose and share it with others, it starts awakening them to the source of purpose and direction in themselves.
Donna was one of the people who came to me after resonating with my purpose and asked “How can I help?” As a result, Donna now plays a key creative role in more and more of what we’re doing. She’s the creative vision behind our beautiful new pages for The Clarity 1:1 Intensive and The Clarity Life Transformation Retreat.
Key Insight 4: Purpose is one of the most powerful “selectors” there is for helping people choose whether they want to be on your team, and helping you decide whether or not they’re a good fit.
So at the beginning of this year, I suddenly knew that I had to put a timeline on my vision (Vision: The first global generation of “clarity natives”; a generation of children born into a world where understanding of the inside-out nature of life is normal and commonplace.) That’s how I came up with the goal of the global eradication of chronic psychological suffering by 2030.
Reality Check: I'm fully aware that this sounds like an insanely massive and in achievable vision, but I just knew it was the right thing to do. As Peter Diamandis says, every crazy idea looks impossible right up to the point where someone accomplishes it.
So Donna got to work, and the results are the www.WorldClarity.com website. We released the website early to coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness on March 19th, so please pardon our dust 😉 The website will be evolving in the months to come, and we’ve got some amazing stuff planned.
Now here’s where it starts to get spooky. A few weeks ago, I was watching the video of a workshop of “big thinkers” that happened at the start of the year. The group was run by Peter Diamandis (creator of the X-Prize), and was exploring this domain of purpose. Some of the participants were invited to share their purpose with the group, and I recognised the first person to take the microphone, Joe Polish. Joe’s a legend in the marketing world, and is extremely “in demand”. Joe shared his massive transformational purpose: "The curing of addiction of all forms, behaviour and chemical reliance, as a way to soothe mental and physical pain and suffering."
I started getting shivers up and down my spine! I suddenly knew that I had to speak with Joe, so I emailed my friend Dean Jackson explaining how my purpose aligns so closely with Joe’s, and asking if he’d be willing to send an email to Joe introducing us (Dean and Joe do a fantastic podcast called “I Love Marketing” that gets downloaded by 300,000 people per month.) Dean replied saying he could do better than that; that he and Joe wanted me to do an I Love Marketing episode to get the word out about Clarity!
When I read Dean’s email, I was blown away. We scheduled the interview, and Dean, Joe and I ended up spending two and a half hours diving into the principles behind clarity. It ended up turning into a double-episode, and the first one was released last week, Jamie Smart And The Truth About Feelings: How To Reduce Worry, Overwhelm Or Stress. Dean and Joe will be releasing part two of the interview in the next few weeks.
Key Insight 5: When you’ve got clarity of purpose and you share it with others, despite your fears and insecurities, amazing things can happen.
Here’s the thing: It took courage for Joe to stand up in front of 300 of the world’s most innovative entrepreneurs and share his purpose. He may have felt insecure or fearful of criticism, but he shared it anyway. It took courage for me to commit to my 2030 mission and speak publicly about it on www.WorldClarity.com, but I’m doing it anyway.
And here’s the icing on the spooky-cake. After our interview was finished, Joe said he’d love to interview me about how the principles behind clarity play out in the healing of addictions. I explained that I was about to travel to the USA, so it might be difficult to find time for a few weeks. Joe asked where in the USA I was going, and I told him Phoenix, Arizona. When Joe told me he lives in Phoenix, my jaw nearly hit the floor! So on Sunday morning, Joe Polish and I are going to be filming an interview where we explore addiction and the principles behind clarity.
Key Insight 6: When you get clarity, and allow purpose to find and guide you, you clear the way for extraordinary things to happen.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself. I experience more peace, inner security and wellbeing in the average week than I used to in the average year. I experience deeper connections in an ordinary day than I used to in a month! And my clients report the same thing. And that “shimmering waters” vision I had back in 2008? I’m now able to share that with my clients because I actually have it for myself.
By the way, we have 3 places left on this year’s Clarity Life Transformation Retreat, and I’ve had an idea. If you’d like to come on the retreat AND the Clarity Coach Training Programme, we’ll give you a special price of £10,000 + VAT for both of them if you book by Friday, March 27th. If you want to get clarity, and get deeply connected with your own purpose, this is going to be one of the most powerful and enjoyable ways you can do it. We can offer generous payment terms if necessary, so all you need to do is reflect on whether this is a good fit for you. If it is, we can almost always find a way to make it fit financially, so if you want to be one of those 3 people, get in touch with Nikki@JamieSmart.com or book online to secure your place.
Thanks as ever for all your love and support
To your increasing clarity
Big love
Jamie
PS The early booking discounts for the Clarity Coach Training Programme and The Clarity Life Transformation Retreat both expire this coming Friday, March 27th when the price goes up at midnight. If you want to save money and avoid missing out on the special rate, book your place now
>> book your place on the certified clarity coach training programme
>> book one of the last 3 places on the clarity life transformation retreat