Finding The Treasures For Your Purpose In The Shadows

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Since listening to "10X Is Easier Than 2X" by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, we've become hyper-focused on 10x-ing ourselves and lifepurpose.com. We realize that for us 10x our life's purpose, our psychology needs to change and for us to change our psychology we need to look at what's stopping us from 10x-ing. Achieving 10x first begins in the mind and to cultivate a 10x mind, we need to address and let go of the things that have limited us from going 10x: our shadows.

In today's podcast episode, "Finding The Treasures For Your Purpose In The Shadows," we talk about cultural shadows and the expectations that the outer world has imprinted onto us, confining us into roles and ways of living that aren't the truth of who we truly are. For one to 10x, they must address their shadows to find the treasures they'll need to fulfill their life's purpose.

Listen to the podcast episode "Finding The Treasures For Your Purpose In The Shadows" here 👇:

What Time Tells You About Your Purpose

I had an autistic cousin who passed away from heart failure at the age of 24 in 2023. He had the mind of a five-year-old his entire life and spent his time playing video games and watching kid's movies with his twin brother (also autistic). No one could have definitively said he was going to die when he did and how he did. When I think about his death, I can't help but be reminded that death will come for me just like death will come for you, but we don't know when that time will come.

In today's podcast episode, I told Hemma about how quickly time passed for me as I backtested and analyzed the crypto markets. I mentioned how hours had passed, yet it only felt like I was studying the charts for a few minutes. This experience led me to reflect deeper on the connection between what we spend our time on and when we know we're spending our time fulfilling our purpose.

Time, according to Dr. Helmenstine, "is not something we can see, touch, or taste, but we can measure its passage" (Helmenstine, 2019), and because it's a unit of measurement between one event to another, why does time fly when we're having fun?

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain, influences our perception of time. Scientific research discovered increases in dopamine when engaged in enjoyable activities and decreases in dopamine when engaged in non-enjoyable activities (Saplakoglu, 2019). So basically, when you're having fun, your brain gets more dopamine, which makes time feel like it's going faster than it is.

This is important to highlight because if we're going to spend the majority of our lives doing things, then the things we do should be enjoyable to us. Our perception of time gives us a BIG insight into what we find enjoyable or boring. Adding onto this, living our purpose (whatever that is) should be enjoyable to us and distort our sense of time because we're getting a dopamine release by doing it.

I can only write on what I've observed and when I observed my cousins, they seemed engaged in playing video games and watching movies. That was their thing and perhaps their purpose (or a BIG part of their purpose).

Do you spend your time getting absorbed in what you're doing or are you constantly looking at the clock?

Do hours feel like minutes or do minutes feel like hours?

What are you spending your time on and why?

If you find that you're spending your time doing things you don't enjoy, why?

Are you living your life or are you living someone else's?

Your limitation is your shadow.

Your Limitation Is Your Shadow

On last week's podcast episode, Hemma and I spoke about the messages your shadow has for your purpose 👇:

In that post 👆, I wrote on the importance of our shadow based on what I researched from Dr. Carl Jung and other psychologists who contributed to the topic.

I've come to understand that our shadows are here to help us fulfill our life's purpose, but it does it in a weird and non-obvious way. The shadows are trying to get our attention because they need something from us, but if we continue to ignore our shadows, we'll continue to experience the same reality.

We all have a shadow.

Shadows aren't necessarily a bad thing, they're more like aspects of ourselves we've ignored or repressed.

For example:

As a kid, you had a unique talent. One day you decided to show your friends or parents your unique talent, but when you did, they laughed at you or judged you for it. Feeling hurt, you decided you'd never do that talent ever again because what you experienced hurt your feelings so badly. It was at that moment that a shadow was created.

The story of what I mentioned happened to lots of us, but the thing to be aware of is how that shadow limits us throughout the rest of our lives.

What if you have a talent and that talent is what you're supposed to be doing for your life's purpose? If you ignore your shadows, you'll likely do everything you can to avoid reliving any pains you experienced at the time your shadows were created. Instead, you'll find something else to do with your time to keep you from reliving the hurt you experienced and this is a BIG mistake.

Jung emphasized that acknowledging our shadows is important because when we acknowledge and integrate our shadows can we remember the truth of who we truly are. Jung believed that by reconnecting to the positive side of our shadow, we'll become whole (Academy Of Ideas, 2023).

The wholeness concept Jung theorized is necessary for owning yourself so you can be the BIG ONE you know you were destined to be and fulfill your life's purpose.

Getting back to the example of repressed talents: if you repressed a talent at any stage of your life, that's a part of you that you're pushing away, which creates a shadow. You'll continue to push this part of you away (and other parts) until you acknowledge the shadow and own yourself.

Shadows will limit you from being who you truly are and living the life you truly want to live. When you have shadows, you'll likely work jobs that aren't aligned with your talents, have relationships that trigger you, have financial, behavioral, or health problems and most importantly, you likely will NOT be living your purpose.

To connect with your shadows, you need alone time. You need to get to the root cause or origin of the shadow and ask what it needs from you. Shadow work is a process of self-awareness and self-exploration.

Shadow work is not just an individual responsibility, there are cultural shadows that have been imprinted onto us which stifle our collective purpose.

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The Cultural Shadow Stifling Your Life's Purpose

One time in elementary school, a teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up and gave us four options to choose: doctor, lawyer, police officer, and firefighter.

As a teenager, I observed and understood deeply the importance of money and the emphasis the outer world placed on having money.

These ideas of who we should be, how we should think, and what we should do create cultural shadows, which stifle us from living our purpose.

In today's podcast episode, Hemma talked about her experiences working in the nightclub industry, the expectations placed on women, and the psychological consequences they had on their sense of self.

Cultural expectations create shadows when not met and keep us mind-controlled if we continue giving our power to them. Acknowledging cultural shadows allows each of us to see the outer world for what it is and regain our sovereignty.

Most people conform and that's their choice, BUT if your choice is to be a BIG ONE and live your BIG purpose, at some point you have to look at the shadows like we did, see where you've been mind-controlled and unstifle yourself so you can do what you came here to do.

We´re afraid that if we fully surrender to our darkness, we´ll never come back from it. We´re afraid our darkness will go on and on and on, that there is no end to it and that we will get lost in it. We´re afraid that if we show these ugly, unpalatable parts of ourselves, it will be too much for others; that nobody will love and accept us, and we´ll be left alone with only the worst parts of ourselves for company.”
― Evanna Lynch