[dropcap]I[/dropcap]magine this, you are in a restaurant, at a business lunch, you have some important matters to discuss and it was decided to do this over lunch. Then this happens, you order a plate of food, for example you asked for a ham and spinach omelette with onions and a side helping of chips. When the food arrives, it comes without the onions, and with mashed potatoes. What would you do? What are the factors that would determine how you act? Would you send the food back? What if the waiter was rude? What if your time was limited and the business matter was rather urgent? I think these would all be determining factors. If sending it back meant it was going to take another 20 minutes and this would impact on your conversation and as such the result of the business matter that needs determining. In the end my point is it comes down to priorities and which in turn are determined by purpose. Quite easy when we are talking about an innocuous little business lunch right? Thinking about this made me think about a saying I heard on a John Maxwell CD the other day:
“Purpose is the seasoning of life.
-John Maxwell
I heard this on an inspirational CD the other day and I thought to my self, wow what a way to put it.
This goes back to creating your life, having a purpose, one that is tailored to you and the way you want to be. Yet so many of us are just accepting of our lives, ‘our lot’ and to the bargain we should be grateful for it. We get bogged down by fear, by debt, by life and what we believe society expects of us. We go to work and give our best, knowing that mediocrity will not cut the mustard, but when it comes to us, our dreams, our lives our purpose its often on the back burner, why?
What would it take to make you no longer accept this as a norm? When will your priorities shift in favour of your own dreams, your desires, your purpose? You will know, you will understand when its time to seek out your purpose. This will inspire some changes.
If you have a purpose you will set meaningful goals, and will live a life that will make you happy. Now don’t get me wrong, there will still be lows, stumbling blocks etc, but what will happen is you will have a solid reason, to learn, dust yourself down and go again when this happens. Sometimes you will be in full swing in full momentum when this happens This is not really surprising, when you are on the path you need to know all of a sudden it can turn long and lonely. You may even wonder if you are on the correct path. Its good to know that the road to your purpose will not be straight, there will be kinks in the road, and sometimes you may even have to take a detour. This is where commitment comes in. Commitment can help you over these tricky times, allowing you to focus on your purpose.
An important thing here that I want to talk to about that in fulfilling your purpose, living your dream life, it is not a race. Your purpose is specific to you, and therefore should not be pitted against other peoples. If you do compare yourself to others your vision can become skewered, you can do emotional damage and you would be unnecessarily derailed from your own purpose.
Identifiers of not living to a purpose
- They often do not complete or come through on your commitments
- They drift in and out of lifestyles
- They are followers
- They remain in their comfort zone that is not comfortable, so they are complaining a lot.
- They are not open to new experiences
- They spend a lot of time on things that do not mean anything to them.
- They have negative attitudes, including envy, continuous self doubt, anger issues etc.