As you mature in living your purpose, a quality of choicelessness emerges. It hurts too much to do anything other than what you’re called to. Decisions that once required agonizing become simple — a million dollar opportunity gets an easy yes or no because you know whether it aligns. You stop worrying about consequences, about whether it will work, about whether it will go well.
“This choicelessness shows up where it just hurts too much to do anything otherwise. And so there’s no question left to be asked.”
Joe describes a time when he was completely clear he needed to do something, his wife and daughter both said don’t do it, and he did it anyway. It was challenging but right. That kind of choicelessness comes from having tried to manage or resist your purpose enough times to see that it doesn’t work.
This isn’t the beginning of the journey. The maturation goes: discovery and fighting against it → acknowledging and doing the scary thing → choicelessness. A woman at one of Joe’s early retreats saw it in him: “You don’t have any choice, do you?” He was dumbfounded that she could see something he hadn’t fully acknowledged in himself.
Related Concepts
- Purpose is recognition, not decision
- Follow your calling even when uncomfortable
- Living your purpose becomes non-personal
- Searching for purpose avoids it
- Purpose is lived in the present moment