Discovering Your Life Purpose - An Overview
Copyright 2005 So-lu'shunz Management Services
When you look in the mirror, do you see a purposeful,
productive, satisfied human being looking back at you, or do you
see someone who's caught in the grind, moving on autopilot, and
not having much fun in the process?
How long has it been since you opened your eyes in the morning
with a sense of anticipation, yes and even excitement? If you
haven't felt that sense of wonder and expectancy since you were
a child, you're not alone, read on!
If this sounds familiar, you're probably also wondering why
you're here, whether there is a purpose or if you're an
accident? Is there something you should be doing with your life
that you're missing? How will you know? And how in heaven's name
should you go about it?
Life with a plan is the answer. You're may be thinking, "Oh, no,
not that, not another plan!" Ah, but this is a grand plan, one
you can truly live by, a freeing plan, not another system to be
bound to. This plan works for you not on you!
Today we're introducing the concepts of PURPOSE, MISSION,
VISIONS & GOALS. These terms are often confused and mistakenly
used interchangeably, when in reality they're very different,
though definitely linked. An understanding of their meanings and
the part they play in moving us forward is vital to getting us
back to that place of excitement and anticipation we knew as
children.
PURPOSE & MISSION
These two terms are often used interchangeably, but what appears
to be a subtle difference is significant to your success. The
simple difference is that purpose is what you're made for and
mission is what you're meant to do about it.
Each of us has a purpose, a reason we were created. Discovering
what that is unlocks our greatest potential and catapults us
forward into our destiny.
Mission, from the Latin mittere to send, is the beginning of the
adventure. Once we know our purpose for existing in the first
place, we can begin the process of discerning our destiny, what
we're meant to do about it.
No one is here without purpose and each of us has a mission we
are meant to live out. Everyone has sensed at some time that
they were meant to be or do something bigger than themselves, a
reason for living beyond just getting by. No one is a mistake.
Whether you know it or are even able to grasp it, you're here
right now, at this particular point in history, for a reason.
No one on earth, from one end of time to another can fill your
spot exactly the way you can. You are unique. Even the marks of
your fingertips are unlike any that ever were or ever will be
again; you're "fearfully and wonderfully made" according to the
Book of Psalms. If your very fingerprints bespeak such
uniqueness, how much more your purpose for existing!
Once you are certain of your purpose, discovering your mission
is an adventure in itself, a journey into the realm of your
gifts and talents, a look at what excites you and where your
passions lie. It's uncovering and examining those markers that
have been there all along pointing the way to the answer to the
major questions of your life.
VISIONS
Webster defines vision as the act or power of imagination; mode
of seeing or conceiving. It is engaging the mind in
conceptualizing. And it's a great activity for the porch swing,
walking through the forest preserves, or floating in a boat,
loosely attached to a fishing pole.
Visions are the pictures of what you will do about your
discovered mission, your reason for being here. If mission is
the hub of the wheel, then visions are the spokes. Visions are a
lot like oil paintings, colorful, detailed, diverse and they
come in all sizes and styles.
They all have in common that they begin as a dream in the mind
of an artist and they only appear on canvas when they have
become life size on the inside of the visionary and they simply
must manifest! When the vision is so real on the inside that you
find you can almost operate from within it, it's time to make a
path for it into the physical world (see the author's article,
Birthing Your Dream).
GOALS
It's at this point that goals come into the plan. According to
Webster, one of the synonyms for goal is design, which implies a
carefully calculated plan. Goals are where the rubber meets the
road.
You may be thinking "oh no, not more goals. I get goals at work,
goals at home, on the school board, from the Chamber of
Commerce... No more goals!" But this is where the artist begins
preparation to bring the dream to life on canvas; building the
frame, stretching the canvas, applying the gesso, choosing and
mixing the paints, drawing preliminary sketches. Each step in
the process is necessary; each step pointedly bringing him
closer to the realization, in living color, of what until now
has been alive and vibrant only in his mind's eye.
It's at this point that she begins the visible work. The rest
has been an inner exercise, a function of the mind and heart.
Designing goals involves doing the research, getting out the
slide rule, making the Gantt chart, doing the sketches,
calculating the cost. But by this time the vision is so real and
the visionary is so ready to burst with it, that the goals are
no chore, but a welcome means by which to deliver the dream.
It's only when we confuse the process, mixing up the terms,
trying to do them out of order that life becomes a chore.
Discover your purpose and your mission, begin to create your
visions and design well-crafted goals to support them and bring
them to pass and before long you'll be the enthusiastic kid in
the mirror again, eager to get out and make a giant splash in
the world!