On your quest to discover your Life Purpose, do not overlook the magic that is your Life Lesson.
Your Life Lesson Is What You Are Here to Teach
I firmly believe in the adage that “you teach what you are here to learn.”
Your Life Lesson is the perfect insight to exactly what it is that you’ve signed up to master in this lifetime.
The skills, knowledge, and training that you need to help you overcome your own bête noir will masterfully support you to help other people with their own struggles, whether you help them literally and directly as a teacher or through another means, like through your creative work and how that work affects and heals them.
Your Life Lesson can and should be a central part of your Right Work.
Use Your Life Lesson to Unlock Your Life Purpose
Understanding your Life Lesson is actually the secret key to “unlocking” your Life Purpose.
What does that mean, unlocking?
Each of us is born to a certain task — a certain way of being and taking action in the world. This is your Life Purpose — the Big Thing, that when fulfilled, puts you in a place of true alignment with yourself and your inner Essence.
Once you discover what that is, you can set out on a course of pursuing it, of making it a central theme in your life, and of organizing your Right Work around it.
But interestingly enough, you’ll find that your Life Lesson will keep cropping up along the way, tripping you up, causing challenges, and generally throwing you off course, but when you “exalt” your life lesson, which means that you treat it almost as if it is your life purpose, you’ll find that it can become your greatest ally.
In other words, you want to discover what the inverse of your life lesson would be, and do that.
Here’s an example:
Deborah‘s life lesson is “Time, Money, & Integrity Issues.” The exalted form of that lesson is to become a Businessperson.
Her life purpose is “Visionary Healer,” but in order to fully embrace and develop her vision and her healing ability, she will not only need to clean up her time, money, and integrity responsibilities, but she’ll ultimately also want to devote some energy to becoming a masterful businesswoman as well.
That’s when her visionary healing abilities will really take off.
Exalting your lesson is what truly allows you to embrace your life purpose.
Your Life Lesson Is Your Blind Spot
Anytime you find yourself faltering with achieving your purpose or your Big Dreams, look to your lesson.
Your life lesson is your blind spot. You won’t know you’re doing it to yourself unless you really learn to watch for the red flags and be alert to the signals that your life lesson is coming on.
Even advanced students of life are still working on their life lessons. (Remember what I said last time? If you were done, you’d be dead. 
)
Here are some general red flags for you:
- What do you often like to say you’ve already solved or mastered? Big red flag. “Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
- What do you find yourself getting pissed off at other people for? Again with the red flag. “You spot it, you got it.”
- What repeated challenges do you find yourself bumping into again and again (and again)? Look carefully, there are variations on the theme that can LOOK like something else, but then wham, turns out it’s that same old thing. Another red flag. “Here we go again.”
Once you’ve had your hands analyzed, you’ll discover the specific red flags that show up for your particular life lesson (or combination of lessons), and you’ll be able to pinpoint it with an eagle eye, for ease of transformation.
(For a list of the 10 primarily life lessons, red flags, and exalted forms, go here.)
Bottom line, remember the power and importance of your Life Lesson and how it can guide, impact, and unleash your life when given its proper due.
If finding your Life Purpose and Life Lesson interests you, I invite you to join me for one of my upcoming Life Purpose Breakthrough Groups or for a private hand analysis session.
The French phrase is “bete noir” (sorry, I’ve no idea where the circumflex is on my computer).
bête noir
I had to look up the meaning of this word and the literal translation is black beast and the definition I read is something that is disliked or avoided. When I thought of the Life Lesson as a beast I thought of the scripture from the Book of Thomas scripture “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” I was also reminded of my favorite Gemini Zodiac image that shows a woman in the stars holding a silver and a dark grey baby on her lap. I struggle to holding all aspects of lesson and purpose and alchemize the energies therin. I look forward to my hand analysis to assist me with this. Thank you for this post Jenna.
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Jennifer, Thank you for sharing that quote with us, that is a perfect illustration of what I’m talking about. I can’t wait to read your hands for you!
The French phrase is bete noir.
What I appreciated about your blog post is the counterinituitiveness of finding your life lesson–the one aggravating thing you spot in others or think you have eradicated in yourself is the very thing you are here to learn about. As you are learning it yourself, you pass along the lesson to others. You don’t have to be an expert in order to teach others. In fact you are a better teacher because you have experienced this challenge, whatever it may be, yourself and can pass long wisdom, not just book learning.
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Ann, Yes, I agree, it IS counter intuitive. And I LOVE your point about passing along wisdom and not just book learning. Indeed.
I can defenetely see that whenever I am doing something to help others overcome their bête noir, I am actually helping myself…
Thanks for another great post, it’s a wonderful way to start my week (I live in Israel, and foloowing your articles I managed to contact a HSP group here…)..
With love,
Karen
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Yes! That’s right — helping others we help ourselves. Win-win. A perfect model of true service. Thank you, Karen. And glad to hear you connected with an HSP group, that’s fabulous.
The phrase: bête noir
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Karen! Congratulations, you are the winner of the Spot the French contest this time. I’ll be emailing you with a gift certification coupon.
Jenna recently posted..The Secret Magic of Your Life Lesson
Bete Noir….
What inspired me most about your post is that what trips us up most is what we need to keep working on, in order to get to what it is we need to teach. That is a very clear guidance. My biggest struggles are those I want to run away from. I am MORE motivated to work on them, rather than run away from them (and say to myself, well that’s just the way I am), if it means I can finally find my life’s purpose. Thanks!
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Karin, Awesome — yes, working on them directly and consciously is the very best way to deal with them. And thus unlock your life purpose. Isn’t that cool?
bête noir – I always thought it meant inner demon, the thing that threatens to undo you despite your best efforts.
What struck me about your post is the importance we should give to our Life Lesson, instead of just dealing with (or avoiding, or resisting) the challenges as they arise. That there is a sacred value in the lessons, because facing them helps us to become more whole.
I also appreciated the reminder to look at what we are projecting onto others and own it in ourselves.
Happy Mother’s Day, Jenna!
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Hi Jen, how nice to see you!! I’ve missed you! Yes, I think of the bête noir the same. But when we welcome that inner beast it can become our ally.
I love what you said, “there is a sacred value in the lessons, because facing them helps us to become more whole.”
xoxo
Twitter: @giuliettaspeaks
says:
Hey Jenna,
I’m so glad you read my hands – finding my life lesson confirmed that I was indeed on the right rebellious path. Once we get on our right life lesson path, life feels easy and glorious and inviting. When I wasn’t on it, I spent all my time anxiously caught up in someone else’s life lesson brambles… Thanks j.
Giulietta Nardone recently posted..Do you try to control life’s flow
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Isn’t that just the best thing ever? (Well, maybe besides a fabulous sci fi movie.
)
Well now I’m REALLY curious what my hands say about my life purpose AND my life lesson….I just read your When the Going Gets Tough Part II post and of course, I could relate to ALL of them in someway…hmmm…Can’t wait for this reading next week!
Molly Yarrington recently posted..I Will Always Love You
Twitter: @JennaAvery
says:
Can’t wait to share them with you, Molly! I’m looking forward to reading your hands next week too.
Jenna recently posted..Is there a dark side to accountability?