Living Your Life on Purpose

Living Your Life On Purpose: Finding That Luster by Rory Kelly Connor

You hear it all the time. “I want to discover my life’s purpose.” Or “You were born with a purpose.” And “Your Soul has a mission.” You hear these things all the time because they are true. Whether you are a believer in a higher spiritual Universal force or not, everybody has a purpose in the interconnected network of beings on the planet. And that purpose is all in their perspective.

For most of my life, I was certain I had a purpose, a reason for being born, a calling my Soul was longing to discover. It was one of those spiritual concepts I carried on a shelf in the closet of my mind, figuring that one day I would get around to figuring it out. In the meantime, life took over and carried me away.

Years later, after many successful and sometimes agonizing years living by the world’s rules, I began a search for clarity and meaning, a deeper sense of myself and my truth. I uncovered a longing to discover my Soul’s mission, my human life’s purpose. And, in my own search, I started to think about other people’s purpose, especially people close to me and people I cared about deeply. I was in search of the Souls’ code.

Diamond in the Rough

In my search, I came upon the following quote by Daniel Defoe: “The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear.” It became clear to me that I was going to have to do the work to uncover the sparkling brilliance of my purpose. Yet, never knowing was unacceptable to me. I wanted to uncover my diamond. I wanted to touch it, see it, taste it, and hold it. It was a bit of heaven, priceless and uniquely mine, to share with the world, if only I could uncover it.

Thinking about diamonds and purpose, I hit another birthday. With loving certainty, I received a call with birthday wishes from my dear friend John Hatleberg, who rang every year since we’d stopped dating moons ago. One of my absolute favorite people, John is an international gem artist and diamond counterfeitor. For security and historical purposes, his clients – including museums, jewelers and collectors from around the world  –  commission him to create exact replicas of gems. He has notably been privileged to work with some of the world’s most famous and infamous jewels, such as the Hope and Koh-i-Noor diamonds.

Focused on purpose, his birthday call reminded me of our time together. I remembered visiting his studio and reveling in the piles of pearls scattered about the rooms. His artistic creations, all made with gems and minerals, adorned every corner of his apartment. Paintings made with gems. Jewelry he had designed. Artistic abstracts like nothing I’d ever seen anywhere. A photo he’d orchestrated of a nude woman decorated entirely in gems, head to toe.

I also remember receiving a lovely letter from him in the mail while we were dating, a missive sprinkled with more than 30 little gems, amethyst and topaz, my favorite colors. And he is the only person I have ever known who decorates his Christmas tree with strings of real pearls. He is a man who has lived his entire life completely on purpose. And I love that about him.

To Be or Not To Be On Purpose

During a recent visit with John at his studio in New York City, I asked him about his life’s purpose and what he felt was crucial to his discovery of that purpose. His answer was that he was lucky enough to have “incredible parents.” Ever since he was a child, he was fascinated by geology. His mother, who worked at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, and his father had always been incredibly supportive of this interest. So when he expressed his desire to learn to cut gems, they purchased a cutting machine and enrolled him in a gem-cutting course, an endeavor which continued until he entered college.

After earning his Masters in sculpture, he then continued to manifest his life’s purpose as an artist and expert gem counterfeitor. He then moved to New York with its abundant diamond district and began working with jewels located in some of the most important diamond cities in the world, including Singapore, London, Geneva and Paris. “I am so much meant to be doing what I am doing,” John told me.

Let the Beauty of What You Love Be What You Do

As a parent, I am well aware that it is a privilege to be a shepherd to my son on his journey. I am dedicated to supporting him in finding his life’s purpose, just as I am dedicated to supporting my clients in their search for purpose. That is my purpose: to support other Souls in finding their purpose. Working with them to remove impediments to that lightness of being, so they might find the beauty of doing and living on purpose.

With loving support from incredible parents, John was fortunate to discover his life’s purpose early in life. For whatever reason, my pathway to discovering my purpose was a multifaceted journey that carried me to that discovery later in life, to the perfect time and place in which to manifest it. Do I wish I had known earlier? Yes. Yet, maybe I wasn’t ready yet. What is important to me is that I finally know.

I have found my diamond. A precious gem of brilliance. My own little bit of heaven on Earth.

Based in New York and New Jersey, and serving clients worldwide, Rory Kelly Connor is a Peak Potential Coach, Certified Life & Career Coach, and Business/Branding& PR  Strategy Expert. For more information, please visit www.canyouimaginelifecoaching.com.

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