Do You Know Your Purpose? – Part II…

In the last issue, I shared some guidelines for assisting you in discovering your mission. These included:

      A) Your mission is not your job or business.
      B) If it has no passion, it’s not your mission.
      C) Your mission will help heal your wounds.

During a trip to Colorado several years ago, I got a phone call we all dread, hearing that shaky voice on the other end say “something terrible has happened.” At first, I thought it was my parents considering that they are both in their eighties.

Instead I found out that a family I grew up next to had a son that had committed suicide. I knew him from birth and babysat him until he was about 6 or 7 when I moved away. He was 20 when he took his own life.

As all the emotions washed over me, I had this thought pop into my head “He didn’t know his purpose.” I knew this young man had struggled in school, with authority, and with finding a place where he belonged. He had amazing gifts that he didn’t know how to use and anger he didn’t know how to resolve.

That’s why knowing your purpose can be so powerful. It can make sense of your challenges and suffering. Once you realize you’ve endured what you’ve endured in order to help others, it can give you a different perspective…one of appreciation rather than sorrow or regret.

I know that’s been true for me. I promised last time that I would share with you how discovering my purpose has helped me overcome a lot in my upbringing.

As you may know, I was raised in a very strict, religious, male-dominated family. I didn’t have a lot of control or freedom over my choices. Many things were decided for me. Who I could associate with, whether I could go to college (I couldn’t) and what career options were available.

Most decisions were based on the belief that the world as we know it is coming to an end. Armageddon is “around the corner” so pursuing college, a career, financial success, even having children was discouraged.

After high school, I was cleaning offices and homes for a living. I was to be content with “sustenance and covering” and wishing for more was considered vanity. And yet I can remember cleaning conference rooms in office buildings and daydreaming of myself teaching or training a group of people in those rooms.

After quite a few years and quite a few jobs later, I had the opportunity to take a position as an Office Manager for a small consulting company. One of their senior consultants, and my first mentor, saw potential in me that I barely saw in myself. She kept encouraging me to think about my purpose.

At first I thought my purpose was to have fun. That’s it. That’s what I want my life to be about. Then she asked me what the greatest compliment was I had ever received.

I told her that when my niece’s friends would meet me and say “Oh you’re the fun aunt” or “They always talk about how cool you are” that made me feel awesome. So that was it – being fun and cool, right?

Then she asked me to visualize my own funeral (here we go again). All my nieces are gathered around. When it comes time for them to share what I meant to them, they say “She was the best aunt. She was so cool. We always had so much fun with her.”

“That’s it? That’s all you want them to say about you?”

“Heck no!” I gasped. “I want them to say that I helped them, that I was there for them, that I inspired them to be more and do more than they thought they could. That I helped them overcome challenges so they could have amazing lives.”

“I think you just found your purpose” she said.

I eventually wrote my mission statement as “To inspire others to lead an uncompromised life”.

As you can see, it fits the criteria of “your purpose healing your wounds.” By helping other people shake off the limitations (self-imposed or otherwise) and challenges that have held them back, I continue to help myself do the same.

Here is more criteria for your purpose or mission:

• Your mission will encompass both your business and your personal life.
• You may already be living your mission at some level.
• Your mission is based in action and based on serving others.
• Your mission will force you to grow outside your comfort zone.

Why not set aside some quiet time, away from the hustle and bustle of your daily routine, to think about your purpose, what you think it is and how you could best express it right now. Remember, you mission doesn’t have to be fulfilled in any specific job, role, business, or location.

But it does have to be fulfilled. Your happiness depends on it!

This article is dedicated to “EK” Rivard, a beautiful boy and young man who definitely left this earth before his time.