This is perhaps Joe’s most paradoxical and powerful teaching in this session: the very act of searching for purpose is how we avoid it.
“Your purpose is being presented to you and you keep on avoiding it by looking for it.”
The Mechanism
When we search for purpose, we:
- Place purpose in the future (something to find)
- Leave the present moment (where purpose lives)
- Engage the mind (which cannot find purpose)
- Avoid the direct experience of “I am”
The search feels productive. It feels like we’re doing something about our purposelessness. But it’s actually the sophisticated way we stay purposeless.
The Client’s Insight
Even the client recognizes the pattern:
“I feel like I know my purpose and I’m trying to get to it in my head.”
Joe’s response is immediate:
“Yeah. That’s your way of avoiding it.”
She knows her purpose. She’s trying to think her way to it. The thinking is the avoidance.
What This Means
Every time we ask “What is my purpose?” we’ve already left it. Purpose isn’t an answer to be discovered—it’s a way of being in this moment.
The question isn’t “What is my purpose?” but “How do I live my purpose right now?”
When you ask the second question genuinely, from the body rather than the mind, “there it is. Boom. Easy peasy.”
The Uncomfortable Truth
This teaching is uncomfortable because it removes all our excuses. We can’t say we haven’t found our purpose yet. We can only acknowledge that we keep avoiding it by looking for it.
Related Concepts
- Purpose is lived in the present moment
- The mind cannot find your purpose
- The expansiveness of I Am
- Say yes to what intrigues you, then filter for joy
- Wanting is aliveness
- Grief of self-abandonment