Pursuing a Mission Towards Fulfillment

“Humans need a mission.”

I’ve heard or read this phrase multiple times from social media coaches, authors, and inspirational speakers over the years. And each subsequent time it rolled through my mind, my body language slowly evolved from rolling my eyes to flexing my abs with excitement. Why?

Formulating a purpose, a mission, funnels focus and brings order to your life. You can filter out the distractions, the unnecessary factors, and attract in a hierarchy of information and needs.

I use to roll my eyes when I heard people talk about developing a mission because I lacked the wisdom and experience to understand the quality of life it brings. When a great sense of purpose is assembled clearly, your daily life is filled with a greater will to act.

But this contrast of living a mission-filled life isn’t always apparent. There are things you can’t viscerally understand until time passes and retrospection is experienced. In the moment of struggle and disorder, you can’t see the clear message. But looking back, clarity can be extrapolated.

I’ve been able to compare the level of fulfillment I’ve felt throughout different phases of my life. Phases in which I was not aiming towards a mission versus phases in which I was. Can you guess which phase brought an increasing momentum of fulfillment?

I think you know the answer. The phase where I was.

And those phases in which I was not building towards something? Well, let’s say my way of operating on a moment-to-moment basis did not show as much proof of intelligent forms of order, passion, and enthusiasm (to put it lightly).

More than ever in the last year and a half, I have felt a great sense of drive and excitement towards building a mission. But… I’m now questioning the mission, hence why you’re reading these words that I am putting out. And if the mission is being questioned, then was it really a mission with a strong foundation?

There’s the billion dollar question.

So why am I questioning this mission I’ve created for myself? You see, a couple months ago I tore my achilles tendon. This is coming off the back of the past couple of years feeling the healthiest I’ve ever felt.

Cleaning up my nutrition, exercise and mobility every day, sweating in saunas, spending time in nature, finding friends with a connection that brings depth and truth, strengthening my mind, and feeling more confident after releasing unexpressed emotions from the past.

But now, I’ve experienced months with signals of degradation. And leading up to the injury and presently, I’ve experienced other stressors in my body from testing my limits within this path of sculpting my mission.

The silver lining in this injury is that I’ve been able to partake in a much-needed rest and recovery period. In retrospect, the aiming to optimize my health/longevity and building a mission, I realized that I was hammering a little bit too hard.

Many might agree that it's entirely reasonable to abandon your mission when faced with injuries or physical stress resulting from intense work. Choosing to relax and leave the mission for a more serene life can seem completely rational.

Developing your purpose often involves building resilience, pushing boundaries, self-evaluation, handling criticism, and navigating uncertainty, as opposed to a comfortable and predictable daily routine. It’s a lot more challenging than I expected, so maybe it would be best to sit this one out.

“All paths cause pain, so to chose the safe over the audacious will not give you less pain only less beauty.”

Allow me to provide context about a trip I had scheduled, explain why the foundation of my mission was shaken, and illustrate the importance of stillness and patience.

Back in January, I decided to book a trip to Oregon. A trip that my heart and soul was excited for. This trip consisted of another sit down with the powerful Mother Ayahuasca. The third time sitting alongside her in just about a year.

I was happily looking forward to this trip. Slowly, though, the anticipation evolved into somewhat of a quiet desperation. They say that when you sign up to experience an Ayahuasca sit, what may be one of the most powerful consciousness-altering substances out there, the journey begins as soon as you form that contract. Not just when you ingest the substance.

I can say that seems to be true from past Aya experiences. Things surface within your psyche, emotions flutter more rapidly, your imagination and thoughts triangulate in a different way. All of that being said, there’s a common conception known as, “They come in threes”. The months after signing up for this third Aya experience brought A LOT of stirrings from within.

I remember expressing to a mentor that I was experiencing a heck of a lot of trepidation. As my mentor has said, heightened internal trepidation, prior to an Aya experience, usually consists of deep healing and transformation ahead. The month prior to my flight to Oregon, I reflected that this trip couldn’t come soon enough.

And then… SNAP goes the Achilles. The trip was two weeks away.

A rational person may think, “Ok, Shane. You should probably sit this consciousness-altering experience out while you research whether you’ll need surgery and take some obvious time to rest and assess.” I didn’t do that, though. I took the flight and touched down in Oregon, sipping on some jungle tea for three days in a row. Immense lessons, immense releases.

I'm sharing this Ayahuasca experience to illustrate how things change internally when aspects of your identity, or coping mechanisms that you've clung to, are released and no longer form part of you. And if you haven’t partaken in consuming Aya, well… let’s just say the internal evolution can accelerate into hyper-speed.

With these internal changes, your motivations may shift. What drove you to become a productive machine may no longer be in the drivers seat anymore. Questioning the mission that may have stemmed from suppressed emotions. But the darkness of doubt may shift away when the unconscious mind unravels a new perspective of light.

My intention (mission) is to create an online platform. This platform will allow me to express the creative process of “Knowing Thyself”. Displaying this process through content creation in a digital format. I intend for the content creation to help others flourish with constructive insights. With the help of sponsors and creating my own products, I can generate financial freedom. At the same time, I am gaining freedom of expression, freedom to follow my natural curiosity, and pursuing my own razor’s edge of interests. From experience, this entrepreneurial freedom invokes a greater sense of fulfillment compared to following a company culture, even if I am aligned with that company’s values.

While writing and speaking about my journey of doubt and lack of clarity as I pursue a passion, the unconscious mind unwinds. Sparks of insights float from the unconscious to the conscious part of my mind, bringing a greater understanding. The foundation becomes stronger and clearer to me. And you can apply this to your own challenges.

Creating a podcast, business, or any other meaningful creation brings challenges in an evolving world. And your character, perspective, and goals inevitably evolve as well. Writing and speaking is an effective exercise for self-reflection and problem-solving. The internet is a goldmine of opportunity to create financial revenue from this creative process. You are upgrading your mind, body, and spirit like no human could do before while earning income. At the same time, elevating others who are digesting your creativity. Humanity has never had this type of opportunity.

Self-reflection isn’t always easy, but it is required for every human being. As I’ve created a podcast and found great fulfillment from it, I have also reflected on the fears that come up along the way. Am I crystal clear on my intentions? Because if not, there may be a lack of integrity and authenticity. Was the mission initiated from a weak place within? A mission created from a wound, suddenly realized in the midst of it? Is there something wrong with that?

It’s only natural for humans to make progress on their defects and weak points through time and action. So starting from a lower version of yourself is inescapable. Because you are learning and growing as the mission is being built brick-by-brick. The path to ‘Know Thyself’ is a constant self-evaluation process with consistent improvements.

As I self-reflect, my mind questions if the mission is tied to external validation or fear of judgement. These both can become social vices if you are not careful. I’ve observed this in my own circle. If these fears are overwhelmingly present, this will bring a losing outcome. All humans have a tendency to judge, so it's best to overcome that fear and move on. People will always form judgments. They just spend WAY less time thinking about you than you might believe.

Regarding external validation, all humans strive for connection. We are social creatures and desiring to be understood by the people you care about is natural. But if you are excessively relying on external validation by gaining status, this is a sign of a lack of self-trust. Someone who is not at peace with themselves. At the same time, there is nothing wrong with building status. The key is to cultivate conscious awareness to eliminate the negative effects of human nature that may develop while creating a mission.

External validation, seeking status, and judgement are all interconnected here and are a part of the human experience. What brings peace and eliminates the negative aspects of our human nature is the practice of meditation. By deliberately training my mind to focus on the present moment, recognizing when thoughts of the past and future arise, my body and mind becomes still. This brings peace. The practice of meditation also strengthens the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is a part of your brain that filters out unnecessary sensory information and attracts relevant information to reach the cortex, which enables the brain to focus on specific tasks and stimuli. When you buy a Jeep for yourself, you begin to observe more Jeeps as you drive on the highway. This is the RAS working.

By training your mind to focus on the present through meditation, the RAS muscle grows stronger. With intention, the RAS can also be utilized to focus on moments of beauty, strength, and gratitude. Training the RAS to stimulate a constructive thought pattern of, “How is this pain teaching me to become stronger”, fills life with more meaning and awe instead of dread.

With these powerful techniques, the self-evaluation process while building a mission can be put to the test. Through this inquiry, you question what can be amplified and what can be diminished. Do you have the strength to continue or do you retreat and wave the white flag? Every time I meditate, the space of mind brings insights I wouldn’t have been able to procure while busy. Helping me move forward.

On this long creative path, there are moments of restructuring your strategy. If you decide to pivot your strategy as you evolve your character, are you taking an intelligent approach by finding a truly better path up the mountain? Or is this “new” path a subconscious excuse to surrender in fear?

As time has passed, I’ve created the foundation of my mission, literally. I’ve built the skills to speak with podcast guests, created the product and service, used the online tools, and organized a command center.

Mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, this foundation is still being filled with wet cement. Most people won’t take the step towards an authentic path of creative expression because they may think they don’t have the strength, fortitude, and courage to do so. They won’t know where to begin. But these qualities are sculpted along the way.

“Your not lost, your just early in the process”.

Uncertainty and exploration is the name of the game. And the beginning is the most uncertain. Challenges will never cease. Fears will appear and dissipate all along the way. But you’ll sculpt and chisel the mind, body, and spirt so that the mission isn’t derailed. What I’ve learned throughout challenging moments of doubt and fear is that time, patience, and stillness brings clarity.

Do not react in fear. Instead, take a pause and reflect. Meditate. Reassess and learn how to improve. The mission goes on. Your spirit knows what to do.