“The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.” – Thomas Carlyle
Like many aspects of personal development and growth, discovering your purpose in life sounds easy. Well, It’s not! If you are finding yourself recently feeling down, or like you’re parked in the wrong parking spot as you approach each new day, know that you are not alone. And it’s not too late!
Building on who you were called to be and knowing what makes you tick in a world that’s full of constant advice, that’s overflowing with self-help, and where competing to win suggests you have to succeed according to a set of rules made by others, is tough.
In my current journey of life and leadership, across all areas, I interact with hundreds, if not thousands of people. Whether it be from a podcast I was a guest on, an event I spoke at, a person under my charge at Atlas, a member of our church, a friend, or even just somebody I found myself in a conversation with on the soccer field watching my son play, there is a trend. Many people are at the point in their lives where they feel they have lost their purpose. Just recently I was in a conversation with a gentleman that retired from his work after 35+ years. I could see it in his eyes as he about broke down telling me he struggles just to get out of bed in the morning as he doesn’t know what to do with himself. His work was his life. His identity. He didn’t know anything else! He’s now keeping himself busy working around the yard, and is debating getting another job, but as somebody who I could clearly tell wants to live out a bigger purpose in his life, he felt empty. I left the conversation encouraging him to pray about God’s calling over his life, and to be sure he seeks that clarity!
Now, you don’t have to be going through such a life event as retirement to feel like you are not living out your days to their best. Not at all. Trust me, I’ve been there. You could be experiencing that in your work today. As you’re reading this blog!
The first stage of discovering your purpose involves working through your life to locate common themes that reflect your core strengths (your superpowers), your values (those things you turn to when making very difficult decisions) and passions (those activities that give you the most return on energy).
If you are struggling right now with your purpose, It’s best that you partner with your spouse, or your closest peers, or the closest people to you to help you dial in your calling. Do NOT go at it alone. They know you best and can help set your direction. If you are a praying person(or even if you’re not, just spend quiet time without distractions seeking clarity), make sure you are spending time with Jesus and praying on your direction.
Remember this – Every minute you spend thinking about what you don’t want in your life is a second denying focus and energy from getting what you do want. Every minute you worry about what’s not working is a minute drawn away from being your very best. And every hour spent reflecting on the disappointments of the past is an hour stolen from seeing the possibilities that your future holds with your inner potential.
What I’ve discovered in my own life is that I see more of what I look for. Clarity precedes mastery, and the more clearly I look for what I want out of my earthly life, the more powerfully I generate that result in my own life. This gives me a drive each and every day to get my butt out of bed at 4:30am and go to work on myself and fulfill my purpose of helping grow others. By setting clear goals in the important areas, I see more of what I’m searching for. By looking for the best in others that I lead, coach, and mentor, I generally find it. And by looking for the good things in my life and expressing gratitude for my many blessings (rather than thinking about all the problems I have), I see more of what’s good. Because one of the things I’ve noticed is this — There are too many amongst us walking the planet today who are sort of in a “sleep walking mode”. They have lost the sense of who they truly are.
Your life will never be lived out to the fullest if there’s a huge gap between who you are and the person you know you’re meant to be. Your life will never be flooded with energy, passion, creativity, productivity, and true happiness if there is a large space between your life right now and the life you have yet to open up. My encouragement and challenge to you my amigos is truly that you make things happen so that the leader you are going to start being today is more of who you know you truly are!!
Don’t postpone it for next month. Don’t make this a 2025 goal.. Start being that person, that human being, that creative force, that leader, that mom or dad, that husband or wife, that friend, that force of good that you have always wanted to be, beginning right now! If you need help gaining clarity in this arena, let’s connect. I live for this stuff!