Find Your Life’s Purpose
I heard somewhere your life’s purpose is to find your life’s purpose,
Why were you put on earth? Why do you exist?
Sarah Jakes, daughter of Bishop TD Jakes, said in a sermon of hers,
……..Why Was Your Spirit Chosen To Be Wrapped in Flesh?
That’s deep.
We are not here by mere accident. Similar to projects assigned in school, we have life assignments to complete. A purpose not only in our living but in our dying. Our death does not stop our purpose. Our legacy lives long after us.
The Reverend Dr. MLK, Jr comes to mind for me. He has been dead for years but the contribution his life and others made to the civil rights movement is still evident today. Because he lived and pursued his calling I’m benefited from his purpose. I didn’t know him or his family.
Do you get the seriousness of being here on earth? Finding and living our purpose can have an effect on millions of people, people you don’t even know.
Maya Angelou told Oprah, You have no idea what your legacy will be because your legacy is every life you touch. How you are using your life to be a light to someone else.
Every day is wasted time if we’re not actively and intentionally going after our purpose.
Why is our purpose often called our calling?
Your purpose calls you
…… internally and externally.
It knocks at your door like a Jehovah’s Witness (JW). No offense to Jehovah’s Witnesses. I always answer the door when you came knocking.
When they come knocking, we have two options to either answer or hide until they vanish from our front door and return tomorrow or sometime next week.
Please believe the JW is coming back. So many of us are ignoring the call or not answering the door to our purpose.
Take myself for example, since elementary school some teacher has expressed to my mother and me that I was exceptional in English.
Finally in high school with my mother’s permission, I was promoted to Advanced English. Well, I rebelled because my friends were not in that class so my grades suffered.
Life lesson: In order to find your life’s purpose, you may have to leave people you’ve probably known all your life behind or bring them along.
In junior college, my writing skills were brought to my attention twice at two different educational institutions. I was a career college student then with no major. One instructor suggested I enter a class paper I wrote in the school’s magazine. I did not take her advice.
Despite my disobedience, God was still trying to reveal my gifts and talents to me.
A year after my decade stunt of higher learning, I obtained a job as a Real Estate Appraiser/Compliance Specialist with a government agency. During seven years of employment, I appraised one property. Instead, I wrote six to ten-page narratives for audits. I created course manuals and powerpoint presentations for the classes I taught.
The signs are subtle but always present.
Another passion rediscovered — public speaking.
I was so terrible in my first few classes. The students didn’t hold back on the evaluations. They let me have it. Their criticism forced me to join the company’s toastmaster’s club.
I was in heaven. Speaking was truly my first love. Anyone who encounters me personally would testify to that.
Public speaking was apart of my calling from the beginning. I regularly spoke at church as a child. I was in beauty pageants in elementary school which required speaking.
One of my most memorable moments was from high school. I took a brick masonry class. Yes, I can lay bricks. LOL! We had to go to middle school and recruit students for the next upcoming school year. We didn’t realize we were going to talk to an auditorium full of students (over and over and over again). My fellow classmates wimped out. When I saw the bleachers full of students, I was game.
I led the way with a Good Morning.
I can’t hear you. Let’s try that again. Good Morning!!!!! The kids went wild.
I can feel the adrenaline rush through my body.
From childhood to adulthood, I’ve been ignoring blatant signs.
My life’s purpose it to uplift, inspire, encourage, exhort through speaking and writing.
Chase the dream and not the things
In this world, we’ve been programmed to put a lot of emphasis on the acquisition of tangibles ( house, car, clothes, latest gadgets, jewelry) instead of intangibles ( self-awareness, experience, character, growth). Oftentimes the tangibles can be a deterrence to find your life’s purpose. They tend to keep us trapped and provide a false sense of identity.
There’s a biblical quote, “Forget about the temporal things of the world.”
In the grand scheme of things, they don’t matter if eventually, we are going to die.
If money is an issue, find a way to live a minimalist lifestyle so you can put all your focus on growing your craft.
Many successful people had periods in their lives, where they were homeless or near homeless. Steve Jobs dropped out of college, slept on the floor in a friends’ rooms, returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and walked 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple.
You can’t worry about what you will eat, drink, or wear. When you need them, they will somehow appear.
My husband moved to another continent with $50 USD in his pocket to pursue his dreams.
That’s either faith or stupidity
Well, it’s been six years since he initially arrived in the UAE which has led to five years of playing as an amateur and one year of signing with three different professional football teams.
….he went back to Ghana because he had no place to stay? …..surrendered because he didn’t know where his next meal was coming from? ……he gave up because he had no solid football contacts? ……fell victim to his ego because he was demoted from a professional in Ghana to an amateur in the UAE for five years?
He probably wouldn’t be profiting from his talent. That goes to show money should not be your aim but your passion should be the target.
As the saying goes “your treasure is where your heart is.”
The money bags are waiting for you at your place of purpose.
Success is not an overnight thing.
Once you find your life’s purpose, put it to work.
For a long time, I thought faith alone would give me whatever outcome I was seeking.
When I was given an idea, thought, or vision, I would apply no effort. Thinking the thought would just work itself out for my good. I would write down the vision and a plan but I never worked the plan.
A part of my morning routine, I listen to a TD Jakes sermon called It Shall Come To Pass.
He said something that resonated with me.
It will work if you work it.
In other words, D-I-L-I-G-E-N-C-E
The truth of the matter, success is not an overnight thing. People that ‘just so happen to become famous overnight’ have worked years to become masters at their craft. Those people were living in obscurity — developing and growing.
The Bamboo Analogy is True
The bamboo tree is considered the world’s fastest-growing plant. In the initial years, like three to five years, it only grows underground but still requires care. It seems like out of nowhere, exponential growth (success) occurs.
Take, for instance, J.K. Rowlings, author of Harry Potter, first conceived the idea of the book in 1990. She wrote every spare moment (gradually, gradually, gradually). Seven years later, the book was published in 1997. It goes without saying the book was a success.
Plain and simple, action needs to be taken every day to find your life’s purpose sometimes not seeing tangible results.
Writing is an enjoyable form of expression. Speaking is easy for me as a conversationalist. But I need to hone my love like any artist or entertainer or athlete. In the past, I invested insurmountable time in my job, church, relationship, family, etc. I’m not sure why I wasn’t willing to invest time in me.
I eventually learned to become a better me helps all those aforementioned things become better.
In the Alchemist there’s a quote “when something evolves, everything around that thing evolves as well.”
Another Day, Same Stuff
A self-help author and motivational speaker, the late Dr. Wayne Dyer asked himself a question as he was contemplating accepting tenure as a professor at a university. Am I going to live for 90 years? Am I going to live for one year 90 times?
Day in and day out, we subscribe to a mundane existence, sleepwalking through life, sleepwalking through our full potential, sleepwalking through our God-given talents, gifts, and abilities.
We wake up at the same time, we wear the same clothes, we rock the same hairstyle, we live in the same neighborhood, we talk to the same two neighbors (the one on the left and right), we take the same route to work, we work in the same position, we go to lunch at the same time, we leave work at the same time, we make it home at the same time, we eat the same meals. I’m sure some of you frequent the same restaurants, on the same day at the same time. Before we know it 5, 10, 20, 30, 35 years have passed.
Living in mediocrity not only affects the individual but others. If President Abraham Lincoln did not reach his full potential, we would not have the Emancipation Proclamation. What if Thomas Edison did not reach his full potential? We would not have the light bulb. If the Wright brothers didn’t reach their full potential, we would not have airplanes. What if Steve Jobs did not reach his full potential? We would not have the iPhone, Mac, iPad. If President Barack Obama did not reach his full potential, we wouldn’t have universal health care. What if Mark Zuckerburg did not reach his full potential? We would not have Facebook.
Wake up and begin the search to find your life’s purpose.
F.E.A.R. holding you back from living your best life? Download 7 Practical Steps To Overcome F.E.A.R.
Join me in “finding yourself”, and take a leap of faith to think, live and work differently. You’re invited!
Originally published at https://findingchalandamichelle.com on November 14, 2019.
