Purpose
Where the Life Forces give us motivation for what we do in life, this motivations takes it’s meaning and shape from what we call in CT Purpose. This Purpose is what we activate to lead us into our future. Our life has meaning on many levels because we have purpose. In CT Purpose is a set of concepts that relate to our future through something we call Feelings of Accomplishment.
FEELINGS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT (or FOA's) are defined as our feeling that we have accomplished something that is satisfying to us. These FOA's are crucial to our daily well-being and energy. It is extremely important to be able to distinguish between the FEELING of accomplishment and the ACCOMPLISHMENT itself. Although both are important, they are not necessarily the same. Here we are looking at our feeling about the accomplishment not at the objective value of that accomplishment. For example, where a minor task may make us feel great, finishing a huge project may leave us feeling exhausted. In CT FOA's are seen as a stimulus to joy and satisfaction in life. Without FOA's we experience problems and our behavior can become hurtful and destructive. With FOA's we have energy from which we can make nourishing contributions to our lives and the lives of others. These Nourishing Contributions help us to heal from the hurts of our life.
THE THREE LEVELS OF PURPOSE AND SOURCES OF FOA'S
1. SUPERFICIAL PURPOSE arises from activities that are fun, restful and may be important, but ultimately are not terribly consequential. With Superficial Purpose the FOA's do not accumulate over time. As a result, the satisfactions of Superficial Purpose although considerable may be transitory. Anything can give us Superficial Purpose as long as it provides pleasure and satisfaction. What might be very important for one person might simply provide no more than a Superficial Purpose for someone else. Imagine singing a song as someone in the shower vs. on stage as an Opera Star. A last thing to remember: there is no secure source of FOA's in Superficial Purpose.
2. UNDERLYING PURPOSE is found in the important stuff of our life. It consists of the purpose we feel coming from our relationships with family, school, friends, and from our creative endeavors and jobs. In time Underlying Purpose may come through things like career, marriage, family and building a home. In Underlying Purpose the FOA's add up over time. The good feelings that we derived from what we did with our writing group last year (for instance) are still with us when we write the essay for Judith this year. The strength of Underlying Purpose is that it provides a steady stream of FOA's. The weakness is that something that has Underlying Purpose for us now can come to an end through sources outside of our control. Our children grow up and leave home; our careers may change focus; our art may be unable to provide us with a steady income. When Underlying Purpose for an activity comes to an end the FOA's, at best, become a trickle whereas before they flowed as a steady stream. When this level of meaning leaves, we may become anxious or depressed.
3. SUSTAINING PURPOSE may be found through a lifelong interest or activity, and may even come from a passion. In Sustaining Purpose we have a steady and secure stream of FOA's that does not have to come to an end. Sustaining Purpose can take many different forms: from a pursuit of religion and spiritual study, to politics, sport, art, conservation, nature, or a large and extended family. What provides Sustaining Purpose for one person might only provide Underlying or even Superficial Purpose for someone else. What matters is that we recognize these abiding interests, give them the attention they deserve and need, and let our fulfillment carry us through life.
It is extremely important when considering the power of Sustaining Purpose to use some CT tools that are still to be presented. One such concept is Evaluating in terms of Hurt and Purpose. When we are deciding to pursue an activity or passion we must look at the consequences of that choice in the context of the larger picture of our life. If we undertake running for president of this country, for instance, what will the cost be to our relationships with family and our life partner? Is the price worth the risk we are taking in seeking this goal? Another consideration to weigh in looking at the concept of Purpose is the basic CT assumption that present in any positive situation or feeling there is a layer of negative and likewise with any negative there is a layer of positive. As an example of this, Sustaining Purpose can be one of the most healing and energizing forces in our lives: on the other hand, within Sustaining Purpose can lay the roots of true fanaticism.
We need a balance of all three Levels of Purpose when we seek to have a rounded sense of meaning in our lives.
SUPERFICIAL PURPOSE gives us fun and rest on a daily basis.
UNDERLYING PURPOSE provides our life with an ongoing solidness.
SUSTAINING PURPOSE ensures we can always have zest and meaning in our life even after the loss of those who are dear to us, and the end of our careers.
FEELINGS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT (or FOA's) are defined as our feeling that we have accomplished something that is satisfying to us. These FOA's are crucial to our daily well-being and energy. It is extremely important to be able to distinguish between the FEELING of accomplishment and the ACCOMPLISHMENT itself. Although both are important, they are not necessarily the same. Here we are looking at our feeling about the accomplishment not at the objective value of that accomplishment. For example, where a minor task may make us feel great, finishing a huge project may leave us feeling exhausted. In CT FOA's are seen as a stimulus to joy and satisfaction in life. Without FOA's we experience problems and our behavior can become hurtful and destructive. With FOA's we have energy from which we can make nourishing contributions to our lives and the lives of others. These Nourishing Contributions help us to heal from the hurts of our life.
THE THREE LEVELS OF PURPOSE AND SOURCES OF FOA'S
1. SUPERFICIAL PURPOSE arises from activities that are fun, restful and may be important, but ultimately are not terribly consequential. With Superficial Purpose the FOA's do not accumulate over time. As a result, the satisfactions of Superficial Purpose although considerable may be transitory. Anything can give us Superficial Purpose as long as it provides pleasure and satisfaction. What might be very important for one person might simply provide no more than a Superficial Purpose for someone else. Imagine singing a song as someone in the shower vs. on stage as an Opera Star. A last thing to remember: there is no secure source of FOA's in Superficial Purpose.
2. UNDERLYING PURPOSE is found in the important stuff of our life. It consists of the purpose we feel coming from our relationships with family, school, friends, and from our creative endeavors and jobs. In time Underlying Purpose may come through things like career, marriage, family and building a home. In Underlying Purpose the FOA's add up over time. The good feelings that we derived from what we did with our writing group last year (for instance) are still with us when we write the essay for Judith this year. The strength of Underlying Purpose is that it provides a steady stream of FOA's. The weakness is that something that has Underlying Purpose for us now can come to an end through sources outside of our control. Our children grow up and leave home; our careers may change focus; our art may be unable to provide us with a steady income. When Underlying Purpose for an activity comes to an end the FOA's, at best, become a trickle whereas before they flowed as a steady stream. When this level of meaning leaves, we may become anxious or depressed.
3. SUSTAINING PURPOSE may be found through a lifelong interest or activity, and may even come from a passion. In Sustaining Purpose we have a steady and secure stream of FOA's that does not have to come to an end. Sustaining Purpose can take many different forms: from a pursuit of religion and spiritual study, to politics, sport, art, conservation, nature, or a large and extended family. What provides Sustaining Purpose for one person might only provide Underlying or even Superficial Purpose for someone else. What matters is that we recognize these abiding interests, give them the attention they deserve and need, and let our fulfillment carry us through life.
It is extremely important when considering the power of Sustaining Purpose to use some CT tools that are still to be presented. One such concept is Evaluating in terms of Hurt and Purpose. When we are deciding to pursue an activity or passion we must look at the consequences of that choice in the context of the larger picture of our life. If we undertake running for president of this country, for instance, what will the cost be to our relationships with family and our life partner? Is the price worth the risk we are taking in seeking this goal? Another consideration to weigh in looking at the concept of Purpose is the basic CT assumption that present in any positive situation or feeling there is a layer of negative and likewise with any negative there is a layer of positive. As an example of this, Sustaining Purpose can be one of the most healing and energizing forces in our lives: on the other hand, within Sustaining Purpose can lay the roots of true fanaticism.
We need a balance of all three Levels of Purpose when we seek to have a rounded sense of meaning in our lives.
SUPERFICIAL PURPOSE gives us fun and rest on a daily basis.
UNDERLYING PURPOSE provides our life with an ongoing solidness.
SUSTAINING PURPOSE ensures we can always have zest and meaning in our life even after the loss of those who are dear to us, and the end of our careers.
Purpose and the Life Forces
The aim of CT is to learn to get our needs met in nourishing ways and to learn to make those nourishing contributions that give our life meaning and purpose. The Life Forces will direct our Purpose. In other words, our particular/unique combination of Life Forces in many ways defines how we are in the world. In a sense Purpose provides the meaningful structure and the three Life Forces direct the content. There are different characteristics of each of the Life Forces and these lead one to create different Purposes. Since there are three Life Forces and three Levels of Purpose we see a lot of individual differences in what is meaningful.
As we have discussed before, Purpose is the source in us of Feelings of Accomplishment (FOA's)
• People with a predominance of the Performance Life Force will need Underlying and Sustaining Purposes that involve creativity, risk taking and having a product, performance or success to show as a result of the Purpose-full activity. Trust for the Performance Life Force is in the product not the person. Trust lies in what has been produced, what the performance is like, what the result of the gig, the match, or the election is. Trust is established by the result.
With the Performance Life Force there can be a sense of boldness at the beginning about approaching all levels of Purpose. Over time Performance Life Force dominant people can become bored with their Purpose. Another way of looking at this boredom is that FOA's become “conditioned” and routine and lose their power to excite. At this point the sense of Purpose may be in jeopardy. This is true of all three levels of Purpose for persons dominant in the Performance Life Force.
People who work primarily from the Performance Life Force can be scared of undertaking a commitment to a relationship as an Underlying Purpose. Because for these people trust is in a product, and the payoff is applause not intimacy, there is less comfort in intimate relationships that require trusting another person.
• People dominant in the Material Life Force often have steady Pendulums and can therefore be steady about Purpose. They can lack the boldness to experiment or make a commitment because they need to be able to calculate the results and the rewards of the Purpose activities before taking risks.
The Purposes they activate will center themselves around possessions, finances and the physical world. Saving, accumulating, acquiring and organizing will be central to the Purposes that will work for them. They will take up careers like bankers, managers, engineers, computer programmers, trade unionists, and conservationists.
Trust will be in the possessions and in the financial results. Trust will be in having saved the lake from developers. They may have difficulties with close interpersonal relationships as these relationships demand feeling contributions and have results that are hard to “measure”
• People with a predominance of the Caring Life Force may have extreme pendulum swings around being loved and accepted. The negative Pendulum swings will be about being rejected or the fear of being rejected. Because of this fear they work in fields where they will be accepted in a personal way. The issue of Trust is centered in the person.
The Underlying Purpose energizing these people will lead them to choose careers in the helping professions, teaching, medicine, social work, counseling, psychology, etc. Their sense of Purpose will involve making a difference to people individually and in small groups. This is where the FOA's will be found for them. Sustaining Purpose will also be about making this difference, but will not be confined simply by a career. These folks also will choose study and projects that make a difference to people, often those in the world who are less secure.
As we have discussed before, Purpose is the source in us of Feelings of Accomplishment (FOA's)
• People with a predominance of the Performance Life Force will need Underlying and Sustaining Purposes that involve creativity, risk taking and having a product, performance or success to show as a result of the Purpose-full activity. Trust for the Performance Life Force is in the product not the person. Trust lies in what has been produced, what the performance is like, what the result of the gig, the match, or the election is. Trust is established by the result.
With the Performance Life Force there can be a sense of boldness at the beginning about approaching all levels of Purpose. Over time Performance Life Force dominant people can become bored with their Purpose. Another way of looking at this boredom is that FOA's become “conditioned” and routine and lose their power to excite. At this point the sense of Purpose may be in jeopardy. This is true of all three levels of Purpose for persons dominant in the Performance Life Force.
People who work primarily from the Performance Life Force can be scared of undertaking a commitment to a relationship as an Underlying Purpose. Because for these people trust is in a product, and the payoff is applause not intimacy, there is less comfort in intimate relationships that require trusting another person.
• People dominant in the Material Life Force often have steady Pendulums and can therefore be steady about Purpose. They can lack the boldness to experiment or make a commitment because they need to be able to calculate the results and the rewards of the Purpose activities before taking risks.
The Purposes they activate will center themselves around possessions, finances and the physical world. Saving, accumulating, acquiring and organizing will be central to the Purposes that will work for them. They will take up careers like bankers, managers, engineers, computer programmers, trade unionists, and conservationists.
Trust will be in the possessions and in the financial results. Trust will be in having saved the lake from developers. They may have difficulties with close interpersonal relationships as these relationships demand feeling contributions and have results that are hard to “measure”
• People with a predominance of the Caring Life Force may have extreme pendulum swings around being loved and accepted. The negative Pendulum swings will be about being rejected or the fear of being rejected. Because of this fear they work in fields where they will be accepted in a personal way. The issue of Trust is centered in the person.
The Underlying Purpose energizing these people will lead them to choose careers in the helping professions, teaching, medicine, social work, counseling, psychology, etc. Their sense of Purpose will involve making a difference to people individually and in small groups. This is where the FOA's will be found for them. Sustaining Purpose will also be about making this difference, but will not be confined simply by a career. These folks also will choose study and projects that make a difference to people, often those in the world who are less secure.