Living a Life Of Purpose

If I told you, that you were not placed on this earth just to get by, but rather to thrive in all areas of your life, would you believe me? What if I told you that your life is much more than a 9-5 job, a course of study or a title (son, daughter, child, parent, spouse, teacher, student, manager, etc) would you believe me? What if I told you that your life is much more than your past mistakes and that you can live a life of significant impact, would you believe me?

Well guess what, as cliché as it may sound, the truth is you were placed here on this earth to thrive.  Your life is much bigger than a job or a title; you are much more than your past mistakes and you can indeed live a life of significant impact. THERE IS A PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE! But you must first discover, accept, embrace and then fully step into it. Today, that’s what I am going to help you to do. I am going to help you to discover the keys that are needed, to live a purpose driven life.

I recently, was given the opportunity to present on the topic of purpose and after the workshop it was brought to my surprise the number of persons whose lives were impacted by the message. This has thus prompted me to share a few key nuggets and words of encouragement from the presentation, to help you to transform your life.

Who Am I?

But, before we address the topic of purpose, we must first have a clear understanding of who we are. In other words, we must understand our identity. Our identity is the core, root and heart of our very existence. Our identity makes up who we are and it’s similar to our DNA. We cannot see it physically, but it has an effect on all areas of our life. It is so powerful, that if we don’t have a clear understanding of who we are, then we would find it difficult to fulfil the purpose that is on our life.

I want you to take a brief moment to get into a comfortable, peaceful, quiet place and take a deep breath in and out. Now I want you to ponder deeply upon this question- who are you?

If I asked you to tell me who you are, would you tell me that your identity is linked to: your job, your qualifications, your achievements, the university or school you attend, a difficult situation you went through in the past, your age, the amount of money you earn or some other external thing? You see, many persons across the world, attach their identity to these external things.

But though all of those things may be a small part of your story, they don’t cover the full picture. What happens if those things were all taken away from you in an instant? So I ask once more, who are you?

Each day you have to remind yourself that you are powerful. You are a child of God. You are a special creation. Each day you must remind yourself that you were created with greatness and so much amazing potential within you. That is who you are.  Never confuse what people say you are with who you know you truly are.

Now that you have an understanding of who you are and whose you are, we can now go a step further and seek to unpack the topic of purpose.

The Importance Of Knowing Your Life’s Purpose

You may be wondering, well why is it important to know your purpose. Well I have concluded that:

·         Knowing your purpose gives meaning to one’s life - It motivates you to be intentional with what you do with your life, resources, time, gifts, opportunities and abilities.

·         It helps you to become focused and you have a clear sense of direction – Allow me to prove this to you by asking a question. Do you just leave home and randomly jump into your vehicle or the bus and start driving down the highway or the road with no idea of where you are going and with no reason for leaving? I am confident that you would say no to this question, because it would seem like a careless or unwise thing to do. If you do this, eventually you would recognise that some type of resource would have been lost or wasted. Whether the resource was the traveling time (spent on the trip) or money (for the gas or the bus fare).

Interestingly, some persons try to bring a similar approach to their life. They may not have a clear understanding of their purpose, and thus they are not sure of what to do with their life, resulting in them not living to their fullest potential. It was penned by an old philosopher that, “a man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder”. Purpose gives you direction.

·         It also develops and births a deep drive within you - This is what encourages people to keep on living and to keep on growing.

·         It helps you to prioritize your life - By knowing your purpose, it automatically reveals to you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. By knowing your purpose, it automatically reveals to you the environments you shouldn’t be in, the activities you shouldn’t be engaging yourself in and it shows you the things you must be doing in order to develop your character.

Things To Do In order to Discover Your Purpose

 But in order for us to discover our purpose in life, we must do the following:

1.      First look outward to our Creator/God

To understand why we are really here on this planet and what is our purpose, it first starts with looking to the one who created us. “Without God, life has no purpose, and without purpose life has no meaning. Without meaning, life has no significance or hope”.  We just can’t give ourselves our own purpose if we weren’t the ones who created ourselves. Therefore, start with God.

Take some personal time, in the midst of your day to be still and to seek your Creator and get to know what is the assignment that is on your life, whether that is through prayer, reading a Bible, meditating or whatever works for you. The way in which you communicate to God may vary from person to person. The important thing is to be still and listen.

In first looking outward to our Creator, He reveals to us both our overall purpose, as well as our individual and unique purpose. 

Now the way in which we fulfil our life’s purpose is through the unique, gifts and abilities which we have been given in our life. Our gifts were not given for solely our benefit, but rather to add value to the lives of others. What we must understand is, the gifts and abilities trusted to us will never be the same as someone else. This is why we shouldn’t compare our gifts, abilities or resources to another person. We are all unique and distinct from each other and we can all add value to others.

2.      We must look inward and evaluate ourselves.

While looking inwards, we are going to discover and even in some cases, learn new things about ourselves. During this process, we should seek to listen to our inner voice which may be trying to guide us.

In looking inwards we should start by asking ourselves and noting our responses to the following questions:

 ·         What are my values?

·         What is the impact I desire my life to have on the lives of others?

·         What gifts, resources, talents and opportunities has God made available to me?

·         What experiences have I been through which I can use the lessons learnt to help someone else?

·         Where do I see myself in the future and what is my vision? -

·         What resources will I need to get in order to reach the vision? (Time, money, skills, people, etc)

·         What are the things I am good at? (Singing, coaching, leading others, speaking, writing, managing a business, art, music, etc)

·         What are my weaknesses and things which I need to work on?

·         What will I need to sacrifice in order to take my life to the desired vision?

Allow me to ask you this question, if there was any place you can go in your life, and anything you can do with your life, what would it be? I’m not referring to a holiday spot. Rather I am referring to where do you see your life or where would you like your life to be in the future. What impact would you like to have? Your answer to this question will determine where you will steer/take your life. Having a clear specific vision for your life is vitally important. Your vision and your dream will guide the direction of your life. It will be the ultimate determinant between whether you reach your fullest potential at the end of your life or not. But, this vision must be in line with God’s plan for your life.

3.      We must design a strategy of how we will intentionally seek to maximize our life.

After conducting the self-analysis, you must now go a step further and ask yourself the question, “now that I know the impact I desire to have, how will I make it a reality?” In other words, you must now create an action plan/strategy of how to intentionally fulfil this mission and maximize your life.

Take for instance, if you think that you feel called to be a mentor to young men who may have no male figures in their life, and the desired impact which you wish to have on others is, to help young men to become confident in who they were made to be, so that they can be productive citizens, then a part of your strategy or plan may be to create a group, community or club where those men can come together and learn from positive, older, male figures. In creating this plan, you may recognise that you have certain skills to facilitate this venture or you may recognise that you may need to do more studying in a particular field in order to bring this vision into reality. If this is the case, you would also account for this in your action plan.

Whatever it is for you, and whatever you may feel called to do, you must be intentional about it. If you aren’t intentional about creating a strategy for your life, you can find it easy to sit back and let the opportunities which God has given to you, pass you by. If you aren’t intentional about serving others and growing to your maximum potential, then you would miss those key opportunities.

 4. Execute the strategy/plan.

The fourth key is to execute the plan. It’s good to know your overall and unique purpose in this life. It’s good to know the impact you would like to have on others and it’s good to have a plan on how to bring it to reality. But that isn’t enough. You must now go a step further and execute the plan every single day.

Having done all the above and having implemented the above steps in my personal life, I have been able to discover my purpose in life, which is to “lead, serve, inspire and positively influence a generation of persons to take their personal, spiritual and professional lives to the next level, while simultaneously honouring God in all that I do.” This clarity has led to me publishing a book, speaking to various audiences, writing blogs and many other amazing things.

 You may be created to do something slightly different. You may be called to be a voice and an advocate for women who may be undervalued. God may call you to be a leader at your school or college, you may be called to be a pilot, a musician, a business leader or you may be here, to be an example to your children or grandchildren.  I don’t know exactly what you may be specifically called to do. But, this I do know, it doesn’t matter how young or old you are, the very fact that you are still alive and breathing means that there is still a purpose for your life. You can still have an impact, right where you are. So it is time for you to live a purpose-driven life.

I therefore leave you with these words by the late Nelson Mandela: “there is no passion to be found playing small, and settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of.” You were created on purpose for a purpose.