Last week when I was in Colorado, I got some tragic news. A family I grew up next to lost their son who committed suicide at age 20. I used to babysit him and spent a lot time with him when he was a young boy. While I was holding back the emotions (I was in a meeting with a client when I got the news), I had a strange thought occur to me. He must not have known his purpose.
I talk about life purpose and mission quite a bit. I have a philosophy that there is no greater happiness than to know your purpose and to be on the path to fulfilling it. Whenever I meet someone who is unhappy or struggling in their life, I wonder if they think about why they are here. Why did God put them on this earth? We all have very specific talents, interests and abilities and are meant to use them to their fullest – not only for our own fulfillment – but to benefit and bring enjoyment to others.
But the more we focus on our challenges, bad luck, or mistakes, the less we focus on the BIG picture – the purpose of our life. It seems like many people are sleep-walking through their life, just passing the time.
I realize this topic of purpose seems really heavy for a BLOG topic.
It happens to be the only way to live a joyous, fully expressed and adventurous life! I think about “EK” and how I wish I could have talked to him about all of this before he decided to end his life. But perhaps his death will wake someone else up.