Napra Trade Journal, Holiday 1993
Best-selling author Millman invites readers into the world of The Life Purpose System, a method of life-purpose analysis that is similar to numerology yet more practical, using the time of our birth as the indicator of right livelihood. Millman doesnt stop at discussing the eleven basic life paths or their several variations, but has much to say about the influence of spiritual laws, from flexibility and balance to discipline and perfection. Issues of relationship and the cycles of life complete this ambitious work.


J. Renee Lobenfeld, Whole Life Times, November 1993
There's no doubt I'm a Dan Millman fan - I've reviewed his last three books in the pages of this magazine. His latest book, The Life You Were Born to Live, is by far the most comprehensive and helpful primer for changing non-productive patterns of behavior. Millman's Life-Purpose System is designed to help you find new meaning, purpose and direction to your life. As a student of numerology, at first glance I thought it might just be an advanced numerological textbook, but upon further study I discovered a deeply-rooted tool to self-analysis (10 years of psychotherapy in 422 pages). By first calculating your Life Path number, (I'm a 24/6) you can determine your life purpose. Mine is Vision and Acceptance. Others might have to work on Trust and Openness, or Expression and Sensitivity, but Millmans book makes you realize that no matter what your life purpose is, you can attain it. My life purpose is to accept myself and others for their imperfection. When I read the description about myself, I was shocked. It told me everything that I often feel about myself but have not understood before. Instead of doing my best and letting it go, I often get bogged down in the process. As a result, things, and sometimes people, never quite come up to my expectations and I am always disappointed. As with all of Millman's books, there are only positive affirmations and ways to improve your feelings and actions. For each number combination, Millman helps you to understand your life purpose by working on health and relationship issues and determining your talents, work and financial abilities, as well as keys to fulfilling your destiny. All come together to allow you to truly understand yourself and the laws of spirituality that can change your life for the better. Like all regimens of study, Millman's Life Purpose System has to be practiced to be effective. In my case I saw that part of my problem is wanting things to happen immediately, and not wanting to wait for the process to take effect. I think I have taken the first baby step in trying to change, first by reading Millman's book and then by writing this review without worrying about whether is was perfect or not. (Well, maybe worrying a little)


Liz Bob, New Leaf Magazine, January/February 1996
The book is irresistibly accurate and helpful. Liz Bob says check it out.


Book Description
Dan Millman presents an entirely new way of understanding life and the forces that shape it. The Life-Purpose System, a modern method of personal growth based on ancient wisdom, had helped thousands of people find new meaning, purpose, and direction in their lives. The Life You Were Born to Live features the thirty-seven paths of life, how to determine your life path and the life paths of others, core issues, inborn talents, and special needs of each path, including health, money, and sexuality, guidelines for finding a career consistent with your innate drives and abilities, the hidden dynamics of your relationships, how to live in harmony with the cycles of life. The Life-Purpose System explores key spiritual lawsuniversal principles specific to each life paththat help you clarify the past, understand the present, and shape the future. It can generate a quantum leap in self-understanding and may even change the course of your life.


From the Publisher
To our readers: The books we publish are our contribution to an emerging world based on cooperation rather than on competition, on affirmation of the human spirit rather than on self-doubt, and on the certainty that all humanity is connected. Our goal is to touch as many lives as possible with a message of hope for a better world. - Hal and Linda Kramer, Publishers


From the Back Cover
Best-selling author Dan Millman presents the Life-Purpose System, a modern method based on ancient wisdom that has helped hundreds of thousands to find new meaning, purpose, and direction. The Life You Were Born to Live, describes the thirty seven paths of life: a precise method to determine your own life path and the life paths of others; the core issues, inborn talents, and special needs related to each path, including areas of health, money, and sexuality; guidelines for finding a livelihood consistent with your innate drive and abilities; the hidden purpose of your relationships; how to live in harmony with the cycles of your life; key spiritual laws to help you understand your past, clarify your present, and empower your future. "The Life-Purpose System as expressed in Dan Millman's new book is absolutely amazing in its predictive value. It will help you sort out the conflicts in your life and guide you on the path of fulfillment." (Deepak Chopra, M.D., author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind) Dan Millman has served on the facilities of Oberlin college, U.C. Berkeley, and Stanford University. His books have been read by more than three million people in sixteen languages. His writings and trainings blend spiritual laws, perennial wisdom, and mind-body disciplines into a approach to life he call the way of the peaceful warrior.


About the Author
Dan Millman is a former world trampoline champion, student of the martial arts, as well as coach and faculty member at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, and Oberlin College, and was recently inducted into the U.S. Gymnastics Hall of Fame. Now a best-selling author and popular speaker, he presents practical ways to transform our daily challenges into vehicles of spiritual growth. His eight books, including Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Sacred Journey, No Ordinary Moments, The Life You Were Born to Live, The Inner Athlete, and The Laws of Spirit, have inspired millions of people in twenty-two languages worldwide. For nearly two decades, Dan Millman's work has influenced leaders in the fields of health, psychology, education, business, politics, entertainment, sports, the arts, and those from all walks of life sharing a common interest in the fields of personal growth and human potential. He and his family live in northern California.


Excerpted from The Life You Were Born to Live : A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose by Dan Millman. Copyright © 1995. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
The entire birth number indicates, in pure mathematical form, the particular blend of energies comprising each individual's life path. This path does not just lead us forward; it leads us upward and represents the mountain we are here to climb. The final or right-hand digit or digits of our birth number indicate the summit of this mountainout primary life purpose. In order to reach this summit and experience the fulfillment of our personal destiny, we need to pass through the left-most digitswith their associated issues and energiesand bring them to maturity. Viewing our life's journey as a mountain path leads to an important discovery, our life purposewhat we're here to do is not what comes easiest. This statement, which I will repeat as an emphatic reminder throughout this book, suggests that although life itself doesn't have to involve unnecessary struggle, this world does involve challenges and tests. In particular, on the mountain path of personal evolution, as we work to fulfill our life purpose, we engage in a creative struggle with negative or undeveloped tendencies related to our life purpose. Climbing up a mountain path and rising to greater heights requires courage, commitment, and directed effort. If we have prepared well for our climb, it will be less difficult than if we are unprepared; but either way its still a climb. We don't begin our climb at the summit; we begin down at the base, and as we ascend through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, we encounter a period of preparation, initiation, and trainingincluding challenges through which we come to recognize and improve our weaknesses and to appreciate our strengths. Those of us who become disheartened or discouraged when life feels like an uphill climb have forgotten that its supposed to be a challenge; the effort creates fires that temper us and strengthen our spirit. The paths of life hold adventure and danger, pleasure and difficulty. Our own path may seem clear and direct for a time, then turn sharply in a surprising direction. At certain points on our journey, the road forks and we make choices that influence the rest of our life; we may choose to push onward and upward, to coast downward, or to remain where we are. Each path has its own challenges, each challenge contains a lesson, and each lesson leads toward the summit of the mountain we were born to climb. Although our path may feel very difficult at times, the higher we climb, the better the view. Our life purpose represents the summit, and our birth number points the way. What we do with our potential, however, is largely up to us. The extent to which we fulfill our potential depends upon how we respond to the challenges we meet on our path. We may, at times, slow down or stop to gather our strength (or our wits) before pushing on; some of us may abandon the climb for lack of confidence. This choice is our own business and our own right, but the saying Do it right or do it over may also apply to lifetimes. We cannot fall off the path. Whenever we step, it appears beneath our feet. It may twist or curve, but it will eventually lead us upwards, because that is the clear call and direction of our evolutionary journey. This metaphor of a mountain path allows us to reconcile an ancient paradox about whether we truly have free will or whether our life is somehow predestined. At the moment of birth, we are each given a specific inner mountain to climb, reflecting the force of predestination. How we climb and the time we take are up to us, reflecting the power of free will. In other words, were given the playing field, but we choose how to play the game. We always have the power of choice, discipline, responsibility, and commitment. No life path is harder or easier, better or worse, than any other, except to the degree we make it so. Supporting, teaching, or guiding others who are facing the same or similar issues helps us to progress on our own path. We know this subconsciously; thus, we often teach what we most need to learn. Finally, when we reach the summit of our mountain, we make a wonderful and startling discovery that its not the end of the journey. We are not just here to achieve our life purpose; we are here to transcend it. In other words, when we reach the top of our mountain, we keep on rising. What the numbers mean: The Life-Purpose System, like any new way of seeing, may take a little time to learn, so we begin gradually, with a summary look at the life issues associated with each primary digit that makes up the birth numbers. 1:Creativity and Confidence 2:Cooperation and Balance 3:Expression and Sensitivity 4:Stability and Process 5:Freedom and Discipline 6:Vision and Acceptance 7:Trust and Openness 8:Abundance and Power 9:Integrity and Wisdom 0:Inner Gifts When I write about 1s, 2s, 3s, and so on, I am referring to the individuals working that particular energy as their final, right-hand number (their primary life purpose. For example, the primary number 3 represents both the major challenge and the deeper purpose for 3s, who include 12/3s, 21/3s, 30/3s, and, to a lesser degree, all those with a 3 in their birth number.

ANNOTATION

The author of Way of the Peaceful Warrior, Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior, and No Ordinary Moments presents his Life-Purpose System, a modern method based on ancient wisdom for finding new meaning, purpose, and direction that has been taught to thousands and can generate a quantum leap in self-knowledge.

FROM THE PUBLISHER