Photo by Trey Ratcliff

What is going to happen in 2012?

Have you found yourself or those around you asking this question lately? It seems harmless enough, but what if I told you that such a question is a massive mistake? And perhaps even dangerous?

Don’t get me wrong – I caught myself asking this after Obama signed off on the NDAA and basically nixed all our personal rights. However I find that as I begin to stumble down the rabbit hole of fear… around our economy and a failing US dollar… around a possible police state… around all the natural disasters that have become commonplace… I (and all of us) must remember one vital thing:

This year is marked with intense transition energy.

And energy is not good or bad. It simply is. What is done with it, where it’s directed and what it does, is up to us.

Transitioning also means that what came before must end, and what is coming must be created and built. Transitions always require destruction. They also require creation. And both require action if we want such destruction to serve us and such creation to reflect what we want.

So this is NOT a year where we can idly ask “What will happen?”

Because now more than ever, what will happen depends precisely on what we do, individually and collectively, right now. Transition energy means massive change, momentum and movement. Things will inevitably change this year, and change fast. How they change and to what end – isn’t a question, it’s a directive. Simply: It’s up to us.

Photo by Chris Halderman

Don’t call it uncertainty – call it wonder. ~ Osho

This article will first address the question of purpose and the natural fears that surround it. Then I will take you through the five basic steps you can take to live your purpose and profit from it.

Try not to skip the prior to dive into the latter… if you can help it. Of course I won’t hold it against you if you do.

At the end of life, we will often ask ourselves: “Did I matter? Did my living some how make a difference?”

For those of us who ask these questions sooner {like um… maybe now}, we find we are swimming in dark waters of insecurity and uncertainty. We sink into a fear that we won’t be enough, and such a fear can wear a thousand different faces.

At times like this Osho (a wonderful and slightly irreverent eastern mystic) celebrates, for he believes that we are not truly alive, cannot fully evolve, unless we are in the realm of the uncertain. “Don’t call it uncertainty,” he says. “Call it wonder.” This is where the magic happens. And you can absolutely do the thing you fear you cannot do.

This is also the realm of purpose. In many ways it is a call to step into the wild. And if you find your wonder clouded and stifled by stress, daily living and the grind of a job or duties you don’t enjoy…