In helping hundreds cross The Bridge, I’ve found that there is a direct connection between our pain and our purpose and/or passion. Clearly, since people are different, this may not be true for every person. It would be foolish for me to think that I have the solution for every person. But I know this: if we are attentive students, pain is a powerful teacher, and if we listen and learn the lessons we will be guided to exactly where we are meant to be.

My experience tells me that our purpose is our pain turned inside out. I’ve seen many people connect with and release their pain, enter into a new space, and focus their attention on providing a blueprint for others that heals a condition that once haunted them for years. The passion they have is unmatched. Conceivably, it’s because their painful experience robbed them of so much that they are driven to break its destructive power over others.

This is evident in the lives of people such as Oprah, Lady Gaga, and Suze Orman. By Oprah removing her own layers of family dysfunction and extreme poverty, as one of the richest and most recognizable persons in the world, she now helps others bring healing to themselves and creates ways to let their lessons help others. Using many gateways—television, radio, magazines, Internet, and philanthropy, she says of her venture to open a school for girls in South Africa, “I wanted to educate girls because I was a poor girl. A poor girl who grew up with my grandmother as so many of these girls do because of AIDS, now left to be raised by their grandmother. This has been a long time coming. This is not just for me some small idea; it is a supreme moment of destiny for me. I’ve been coming to this moment my entire life.”

©2011 All rights reserved. This is an excerpt from a chapter in The Bridge to Your Brand Likeability, Marketability, Credibility called Is Your Pain Your Purpose which is  available in paperback.  You can preview The Bridge at http://srenee.com/books_journals.htm.