It’s “back to school” time. In the frenzied midst of buying backpacks and lunchboxes, highlighters and notebooks, or stocking your dorm room, it’s time to get your head wrapped around getting back to the classroom.
Often there’s anxiety mixed with excitement about returning to school. Yet if you’re struggling with making serious decisions about what to focus on with your studies – whether you’re in high school or college – it can feel daunting if not downright overwhelming.
And if you’re a parent – are you concerned that your student is waffling about what they want to pursue as electives in high school or as their major in college?
Why not add the tool of Numerology to your “back to school” must-have list?
How Your Life Path Number Reflects Your Life’s Purpose
When you know your numbers, you can gain a tremendous amount of insight into your over-all purpose in life and how you’re meant to go about achieving your mission. And that includes providing validation about what you’re innately good at doing – even if you can’t quite admit it yet. And it also includes some great ideas about the tendencies and obstacles that might be standing in the way of moving forward and making your dreams into a future reality.
It’s simple to look at your Life Path number and see what you’re over-all life’s purpose is all about. I would also recommend knowing your full chart – including the Destiny/Expression, Soul Urge/Heart’s Desire, and the Birthday number. Yet just for starters, let’s focus on your Life Path number to see how to optimize your brilliance at school.
Here’s how to start.
1. Calculate Your Life Path Number
Calculate your Life Path Number. It indicates your life’s purpose – what you’re here to develop, learn, and act upon in order to feel the most purposeful and satisfied.
Remember: What you came here to do will always be the most difficult thing for you to do. That’s why it takes time, practice, and tenacity. Yet when you know your Life Path, you can make decisions that are in alignment with your over-all purpose.
My personal disclaimer: When I mention “possible areas of study,” the emphasis is on possible. Please don’t think these are the only areas of study suitable for you or your student. These are suggestive of what might fit well with the over-all Life Path purpose. Each person is incredibly unique and brings individual passions and talents to the table. So please keep this in mind as you read these short descriptions.
Calculate the Life Path Number:
Take your date of birth, or the date of birth of your student or child.
Example: November 11, 1996
Add it together this way:
- Calculate the month: November = 11; 1 + 1 = 2
- Calculate the day: 11 = 1 + 1 = 2
- Calculate the year: 1996 = 1 + 9 + 9 + 6 = 25; 2 + 5 = 7
- Now add it all together: Month + Day + Year = 2 + 2 + 7 = 11
- Continue to add until you get a one-digit number: 1 + 1 = 2
The Life Path Number in this example is 11/2 or 2. 11 is also seen as a Master Number, but in this case, we will reduce master numbers.
2. Compare Your Life Path Number With Your Current Situation
Number 1: The Leader
Your ultimate purpose is to develop creativity, confidence, independence, originality, and achievement. You’re here to learn how to individuate yourself from others, develop healthy independence, and get on the road to attainment and achievement.
In Alignment: Innovative, energetic, original thinker, leader, determined, inspired, courageous.
Out Of Alignment: Narcissistic, self-important, domineering, intolerant or insecure, helpless, victimized, wishy-washy, lacking self-respect & esteem.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to act upon your creative ideas and to be a leader. Any area of study that can give you knowledge and skills to fall back on in the arenas that you have an interest or passion about is perfect. You’ll go through a period of rebellion – so you can create your own sense of independence. Yet don’t linger in rebellion forever. Get on with it! The key: What are you totally passionate about? With a 1, it’s not so much what you study. Rather, it’s all about believing in yourself in terms of what you’re passionate about – not what other people think you should be doing. Then dive in with gusto and trust your creativity, innovation, and uniqueness. Your success resides in taking some risks and trusting your weirdness. You’re not meant to color inside the lines. Don’t shy away from being an entrepreneur, yet you need to develop foundational skills to have success. Get out there, take charge, and don’t be a slacker. You’ll have failures and must learn to fail forward. You’re an innovator.
Possibilities: Business, Fine Arts, Communications, Medicine, Political Science, Speech and Debate, Entertainment, Applied Art.
Number 2: The Mediator
Your ultimate purpose is to develop love, harmony, balance, cooperation, and diplomacy. You thrive when serving the needs of a group and making things happen behind the scenes. You can be detail-oriented and extremely emotionally sensitive. You’re all about love, partnership, and service.
In Alignment: Sensitive, intuitive, supportive, detail-oriented, patient, cooperative, diplomatic.
Out Of Alignment: Resentful, narrow minded, childish, manipulative or
indecisive, self-centered, dependent, overly sensitive.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to act upon your diplomatic skills and to be the “power behind the throne.” You’re also learning how to stand up for yourself and not be a doormat. Intuition is part of your gift and you have a way of naturally keying into others’ emotions. This is both a blessing and a curse. Your life-long lesson resides in caring for yourself as much as you care for others. The key for you: How can you find a career where you work in a group that you feel in simpatico? With a 2, it’s all about feeling needed, loved, and that your contributions are respected. You blossom when you’re talents are being used to serve the greater good of a group, so stray away from career choices where you’ll be working solo. You have a big heart, so you need an area of study that leads you to a career where you can be of service to other people.
Possibilities: Interior Design, Education, Nursing, English, Marketing, Humanities, Culinary Arts, Accounting, Management, Make-Up Designer, Hair Stylist, Costume Designer, Personal Assistant.
Number 3: The Communicator
Your ultimate purpose is to develop creative self-expression, emotional sensitivity, joy, and inspiring communication. You thrive in the spotlight with performance, entertainment, or any creative and communicative endeavor having to do with the spoken or written word.
In Alignment: Expressive, artistic, creative, communicative, joyful, witty, optimistic, intelligent.
Out Of Alignment: Superficial, emotionally volatile, inappropriate, prone to exaggeration or depressed, self-doubting, inarticulate, fearful, insincere.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to embrace your creative self-expression and communication skills. The key is to have faith in your abilities and trust your creativity. And then commit to it. The tendency is to fall into self-doubt at the slightest hint of criticism. Don’t allow Uncle Jack to tell you when you’re 8-years old that acting is stupid – taking that to heart so much that you cast aside your dreams of being an actor. Forge through and follow your creativity with focused abandon. The key for you: Can you move through your self-doubt and commit yourself to developing your amazing creative talents? With a 3, you might feel that everyone can do what you do (because you find it to be oh-so easy). Yet let me tell you: Not everyone can drink from the fountain of creativity as readily as you. The trick is to develop the verve to know that you can make a living at it. And side step the naysayers or those who wish you’d choose a more mundane path. You can be scattered and lacking follow-through. It’s up to you to not flit through and be a novice. It’s your challenge to dig in and become an expert.
Possibilities: Theatre or Film, Music, Journalism, Communications, Broadcasting, Psychology, Sociology.
Number 4: The Teacher
Your purpose is to develop process, security, stability, and hard work. You’re the “slow and steady wins the race” person who thrives when you know the rules, use your systems-building skills, and have a sense of routine in your life. You’re all about hard work and meeting goals.
In Alignment: Dependable, stable, productive, conservative, loyal, trustworthy, hardworking.
Out Of Alignment: Rigid, bulldozing, bossy, blunt, martyr about work or unorganized, careless, distracted, idle, irresponsible.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to be a hard-working systems builder and to spread your vast knowledge to others. The key for you: Can you decide upon a field in which you allow yourself the permission to pursue with passion? With a 4, you ultimately seek a sense of stability and security. You’re a literal thinker and thrive when you’re using your amazing process-oriented brain. You make a superlative teacher – whether you end up being a teacher or not. You’re apt to excel in management. Don’t count out engineering or device building. Work at thinking outside of your own box. Also know that following your true passion is all-important for you. Often you’ll struggle with defaulting to the more mundane or practical path rather than doing what you truly love. The 4 is the number of the architect and you excel in creative fields where technical skill is required. Anything having to do with animals is also favored.
Possibilities: Education, Architecture, Engineering, Drafting, Photography, Fishery & Wildlife, Sports Medicine, Construction, Real Estate, Veterinary Science, Library Science, Athletics.
Number 5: The Freedom Seeker
Your ultimate purpose is to develop fearlessness, adventurousness, resilience, and the constructive use of freedom. You’re an agent of change and the master of progressive thought and action. You’re here to experience all the material and sensual world has to offer – within healthy and focused perimeters. Your mantra: “Don’t fence me in!”
In Alignment: Freedom-loving, adventurous, fearless, resilient, agent of change, flexible, fun.
Out Of Alignment: Indulgent, excessive, restless, high emotions, addiction or fearful, dependent, depressed, stagnant, procrastinator, erratic, easily overwhelmed.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to develop a constructive and disciplined use of freedom and be an agent of change. The key for you: Can you embrace the fact that you really aren’t meant to settle down immediately? With a 5, it’s all about experiencing the world in all of its glory. You’re at your best when you can tap into a fearless sense of adventure, use your versatility in a focused and dynamic way, and see the world as your big adventurous oyster. Usually being a bank teller or any 9-to-5er just won’t cut it for you. Anything where you can act on your adventurous spirit is perfect. Just give yourself permission to experience the world before you settle down – that can come later. Caution: Beware of going way overboard in the party scene. I’m not suggesting being a wallflower – just make sure you reign in it or it’ll be a struggle to gain the success you want to have in school when you overdo it in the party department. The key for you is the focused use of your amazing skills and talents.
Possibilities: Sales/Business, Metaphysics, Nutrition, Journalism, Hospitality, Travel Industry, the Arts.
Number 6: The Nurturer
Your ultimate purpose is to develop nurturing, balanced responsibility, acceptance, service to others, and visionary pursuits. You’re the “home and family” person and often thrive when working with justice-related issues, in the creative arts, or anywhere a sense of beauty is required.
In Alignment: Family-oriented, romantic, responsible, artistically creative, supportive, devoted, loving, sensible.
Out Of Alignment: Perfectionist, critical, idealistic to a fault, self-righteous, meddling or irresponsible, indulgent, non-committal, self-absorbed.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to balance your sense of responsibility and to do loving service with and for others. The key for you: Is there a way for you to key into your visionary capabilities? With a 6, you’re a “big picture” kind of person. Ultimately, you’re meant to be your own boss (re: you don’t like be told what to do). So pay close attention and learn how to build your own business in an effective way. You can be a natural entertainer – creativity is a forte. You’re also a natural counselor, lover of beauty, and cultivator of loving service. Anything in the justice field is enticing. Home and family are important for you, so you might lean toward anything that enriches that aspect of your life. You’re such a perfectionist and an idealist, so you’re hard on yourself and others when you aren’t performing at extremely high-level standards. Cut yourself – and others – some slack.
Possibilities: Business/Marketing, Landscape or Interior Design, Beauty/Cosmetology, Counseling Psychology, Sociology, Medicine, Police Work, Firefighting, Music, Art, Theatre, Political Science, Law.
Number 7: The Seeker
Your ultimate purpose is to develop spirituality, data-driven analysis, intuition, trust, and openness. You’re on an internal journey seeking to know who you really are – deep down at your core. You’re here to master both the analytical and the spiritual and intuitive nature of life. You need “alone” time. You thrive when you specialize in something.
In Alignment: Data-driven & analytical, refined mind, knowledge-driven, intuitive, wise, truth-seeker, spiritually centered.
Out Of Alignment: Critical, obsessive, secretive, distrustful, pessimistic, intimidating or superficial, overly trusting, ignorant, easily frustrated.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re a truth seeker – your life is spent developing and acknowledging both the left/right brain continuum within yourself. When you tap in to both your analytical brain and your intuitive brain, you’re at your most powerful. The key for you: Can you accept that you’re both an intellectual and highly intuitive? With a 7, you’re always seeking answers to life’s big (and small) questions. You live in your head and tend to over-intellectualize everything. You’re learning how to manage and understand the emotional side of life. You’re actually quite a sensitive and emotional person, yet that part of you feels foreign. Understand that you’re on a different wavelength than most people. You’re great with any career in which you can work alone for part of the time – research, science, data collecting, computers. Yet you can also feel the pull of your more intuitive side and be drawn to the healing arts, metaphysical thought, and self-exploration.
Possibilities: Philosophy, Sciences, Engineering, Computers, Religion, Nutrition, Healing Arts, Massage Therapy, Food Industry, Fashion, Acting, Applied Art.
Number 8: The Powerhouse
Your ultimate purpose is to develop a positive relationship with money, power, control, and authority. You’re here to experience the satisfaction that comes with financial abundance and material achievement.
In Alignment: Financially abundant, authoritative, powerful, in control, influential, giving.
Out Of Alignment: Egotistical, controlling, opinionated, materialistic, forceful, bully, rebellious or passive, victimized, powerless, insecure, fear of financial success, blaming.
Choose Your Area of Study:
You’re here to master the art of success in the material world. The key for you: Can you accept the fact that you’re meant to think big and be a financial success? With an 8, you’re destined to make a big splash in the world of money, power, control, and authority. Yet it won’t be an easy dash to get there. You need to key into your sense of personal power – and that will be tested from early in your life. Once you get a handle around that, then it’s off to the races. Yet know that you have authority issues that you need to balance. And know that it’s up, down and all around for you – not this linear path to riches. You must be resilient. You must focus on your goal and move toward it with good management, organization, fortitude, heart, and most of all, integrity. You excel in an arena where there is already an established entity as opposed to creating your own business, even though that’s not out of the question. You’re best as the manager, the boss, the CEO. Yet you have to learn by trial and error – and by having some very challenging authority figures in your life – how to be a heart-centered and effective leader.
Possibilities: Business/Management, Engineering, Real Estate, Entertainment, Music, Banking/Investing, Medicine, Publicity.
Number 9: The Humanitarian
Your ultimate purpose is to develop spirituality, humanitarianism, creativity, wisdom, and integrity. You feel fulfilled when serving a humanitarian service – large or small. You’re creative, compassionate, and giving.
In Alignment: Humanitarian, compassionate, magnetic, charitable, romantic, creative, generous, idealistic.
Out Of Alignment: Lacking integrity, resentful, holds on to old “stuff,” hostile, arrogant or close-minded, submissive, emotionally unavailable, drifter, liar.
Choose Your Major:
You’re here to use your creativity and make a difference in the world. The key for you: How can you go with the flow of your creative impulses? With a 9, you’re versatile and unusual. You can be successful at virtually anything for which you feel passion. It’s through creativity and helping others that you find your groove. It’s only a lack of concentration that can keep you from enjoying the success of your projected goals. Understand that you’re challenged with asking for support or help, so the sooner you can learn to ask, the better. A lesson you’re learning is how to both give and receive. Know that you might have a propensity to devour information focused on spirituality or psychology. Overall, you’re working on learning how to express and understand your own feelings. Tap into your creativity and into something that you feel gives back to others and you’ll be living your dream.
Possibilities: Business, Medicine, Music, Humanities, Real Estate, Non-Profits, Entertainment.
Numerology As A Life Map
Understand that Numerology gives you an amazingly accurate imprint of how your life is designed – what your purpose is, how you’ll go about fulfilling that purpose. It also gives you a great map as to what you’re being presented with and learning during specific stages in your life.
Often the descriptions of the Life Path numbers seem to hit on just a little of who you are during your high school and college years because – let’s face it – you’re still quite young! You’re truly in the developmental stages of your life where you’re having experiences that’ll be guiding you into your purpose.
It’s a rare 18 to 24-year old who knows exactly what they want to do in life. And what I find is that we’re really not meant to be doing just one thing all of our lives. We’ll shift, grow, evolve, and change as years and experience move through us.
And yet having your Life Path purpose as a “through line of action” – as your stake in the ground that you can align yourself with over and over again – can truly support you as you make decisions about the particular area of study you feel most passionate about.
