Moving Toward Purpose: Cheerleader Party of One?

As you begin to pursue your life’s purpose, you may find that you are the only one who believes in what you’re doing. This is 100% totally normal and you shouldn’t feel like a freak. Get your pompons out and get ready to cheer yourself on.
            Life purpose tasks often involve taking great risks and moving forward despite setbacks. Most people don’t have the tenacity to stick with life purpose tasks long enough to push through the tough times. Life purpose also involves believing the unbelievable. When Guglielmo Marconi discovered that you could send messages wirelessly through the air, his friends checked him into a psychiatric hospital because they thought he had gone mad. Louis Pasteur was denounced as a quack when he proposed that microorganisms or germs caused illness rather than evil spirits or the earth’s elements.
            When I had told my then husband that I was planning on studying yoga, meditation & Ayurveda with Deepak Chopra at his center in California and that I was going to make a career out of these three, he thought I was completely crazy. I think he said something to the sort of, “Good luck with that.” Yet I knew, deep inside my heart that I could make it work. The same thing happened when I sought to be a published author. When I told people about wanting to get my books published, people looked at me pitifully as if to say, “You poor thing. You have no idea how hard it is.” Yet, I still had to believe that it would happen.
            When you start living your life purpose, no one may believe in you. Most people will think you’re crazy. It doesn’t matter as long as you believe in you. You are your biggest fan anyway. Soon enough you’ll have another person who believes in you just as much. But meanwhile, you have to be enough to propel yourself forward.
            In my experience, I’ve found that if you have no supporters, it’s best not to tell anyone about your life purpose activities. It’s hard enough to be a cheerleader for yourself without cheerleaders for the opposing team drowning you out. People have various reasons for not encouraging you, including being disappointed in themselves for not pursuing their dreams. But most often, I’ve discovered that most people just live within their own limitations as well as societal limitations. And if they are “warning” you that you shouldn’t be doing something, they feel they are protecting you.
            But in the end, even though it feels lonely, stay strong. There are many of us out there working hard toward living a life of purpose without social support. Envision all of us cheering you on to a flourishing finish! J