A purposeful life is a happy one but plenty of people have no idea what their purpose is. Lots of people buy success books, write down their goals every day but then continue to live their normal 9-5 life and not much happens. The secret is to build your chi and your intent. Just writing goals down (intent) will often not create anything, nor will chi practices without intent. To really manifest, get up at 5am daily and do a chi practice. Also get yourself 3 whiteboards (or paper or electronic files of course!). One is for ideas, one for how to achieve them and one for ‘how good am I?’  Your body is the practice ground to build chi. Your whiteboards are your practice ground for building your intent. Combine both and you are in for a purposeful, fully engaged, awesome life.

Select an ideal spot to fix these boards to the wall. Ideally in your home office (if you work at home), or even in the dedicated space where you do your chi practice. The boards need to be visible so that you look at them all the time. The aim is for the writing on the boards to enter your subconscious mind and alter your programming in line with your goals, directions and dreams. Each board represents a part of your mind – your cosmic mind, your unconscious mind and your conscious mind. The boards also represent the initial idea, the formative process and then the action.

Whiteboard 1 is purely for ideas. Whatever comes to your mind write it down immediately and spontaneously. Use different colour markers to visibly separate your ideas. When the whiteboard becomes full either get yourself a new board to continue your ideas, or take a photo, print it out and stick the sheet besides the whiteboard.

Never ever wipe the board before you have taken a photo of your ideas or have written them on a sheet of paper. Regardless of how unrealistic your ideas appear to be, over time even the most unreachable goal becomes achievable, as long as you keep looking at them to process them unconsciously. The creative forces are within us and programming ourselves this way will tap into forces and unleash our powers.

Whiteboard 2 is only for application. On this board you write down what you need to do to realise your ideas. Once again do this the minute you think of them. Don’t question them, don’t judge – just keep writing and keep looking at them every day.

Whiteboard 3 is for doing. On this board you write down stuff you’ve done, as soon as you’ve done it. Don’t question, don’t hesitate and don’t judge just write it down. Over the coming weeks and months you’ll be amazed by how suddenly everything becomes possible. These boards program your unconscious mind, the part of your mind that arranges connections in the physical world.

As an example, say your dream is tap into the booming health movement by setting up a catering company offering nutritious, delicious foods. This would go on Whiteboard 1. On Whiteboard 2 you’d write down how to get there from where you are. Maybe this would include things like reading books on healthy foods, trying new recipes every week, subscribing to the best blogs on nutritious news, taking evening cooking classes, starting your own blog or even throwing in your job and becoming an apprentice chef. On Whiteboard 3 list all the things you’ve done from Whiteboard 2, as you do them.

Got Nothing? Try this: go outside for a few minutes, or onto a deck or balcony, and put yourself into the chi-gung posture of hugging the tree for a few minutes. Feel the chi in your abdomen and in your hips. After 3 to 5 minutes lower your arms while keeping your attention in the centre of your hips and belly. From within your core initiate a shaking of your arms and legs. Like a fishtail movement where your limbs follow the impulses generated in the center of your belly (also called your Dan Tien). Let the shaking become progressively more vigorous and more expressive. Feel pulsing waves of energy pounding through your body as if you were expelling something from within you.

If your chi is stagnant you can’t see anything and you’ll feel mundane. But if you shake your body and move your chi to expel stagnation, you can suddenly ‘see’ again; things that have value for you, things that inspire you, things that you want. So to clear out old stagnant chi get as wild and uninhibited as possible. You can even take this to the point where you stomp your feet, jump up and down, and free yourself of everything that limits you. Let it out, shake yourself free. Only 3 to 5 minutes of shaking are required. All up you are looking at only 6 to 10 minutes.

Then go stand in front of your cosmic or ‘ideas’ whiteboard, and write down anything that spring to mind. Don’t overthink it – just do it. You may need to make a bit of an effort to get the first words down, but once it is flowing you’ll be amazed at what comes out. Now look at your board for a few minutes. Have a green tea and let the words sink into your body. Remember, don’t judge your ideas. The goal is to constantly invigorate and move your chi in order to stimulate inspiring visions.  If the chi flows, you are always positive and you are always adventurous. So get out there and shake butt (literally!).

Your purpose and your heart

Your organs are involved in your purpose too. In TCM there is a ‘best time’ for everything and this is connected to the flow of chi through your organs. And 11am – 1pm is prime purpose time, because chi is in your heart.  You are not here randomly, everything has a purpose, nothing exists without meaning. Deep in your heart you know this. You know there is a plan, you know you have a purpose, you want to pursue it. We all do. This programming to follow a higher purpose exists whether you are aware of it or not. If you don’t connect to this, physical and emotional and even spiritual malfunctions occur on a very deep level. This sets imbalances in place that, over time will surface as physical symptoms, but the connection to the primary cause is long gone. It is the job of your heart aka ‘the Emperor’ to make you consciously aware of purpose so that you are healthy and happy and your life is of benefit to yourself and everyone around you.

The Emperor governs your blood; the elixir of life. Blood is loaded with information about your health, but this goes way beyond what shows up in a western medicine blood test. The information about your life, your mission and your purpose is encrypted (ancient Daoists referred to this as your ‘contract with Heaven’) in your blood and it requires a specific sequence of daily activities to unlock the keys and decode this level of information. Follow the chi-cycle sequence from early morning, start with exercise each day and your organs start opening the locks. You will get a constant access to information that slowly and steadily strengthens your sense of purpose and takes you closer to fulfilling your mission on earth.

You can only ‘see’ your purpose when you do it. It’s like one of those exercise bikes that don’t show data on the instruments until you start peddling. The key to finding purpose is ‘do it and you’ll see it’. Keep following the daily decoder sequence, the natural rhythm of yin and yang. If you live randomly though, the data disappears and you will become confused about life, seek other people’s advice, lose touch with your true self, feel vulnerable and in pain, and symptoms will appear. But if you just keep going, you begin to trust life and you’ll act on your dreams. Whiteboards and rhythm and you’re on your way!