What’s Your Purpose?

Do you lack purpose? Are you trying to find your purpose? Are you living a purpose-driven life? These are questions I hear all the time. It sounds a bit intimidating sometimes. In the midst of our lives we’ve picked up the belief that when we live with purpose it means to discover some spectacular calling to us that is life-changing. It’s like we should set out to build something that has never been seen before, or we need to accomplish something only very few have. In some cases we flip to our own mortality and begin to think about legacy – what are we leaving behind for others to follow? Is that what purpose means? Perhaps. But what if means something else? What if there are other versions of purpose that no one talks about?

For me, I have discovered to live purposefully is not necessarily about discovering that one enormous attainment that’s designed to put you “on the map.” I’ve found that it begins with becoming aware of who we need to be for the life we are so fortunate to have. Living a life of trying to a star made me lose presence for ordinary things like being fully present in a conversation rather than simply listening to respond. Can we choose to give kindness to others when being irritated and becoming angry is so much easier? Where others find stardom a purpose for being, sometimes there is purpose in our basic duties in living that matter just as much to others….and to ourselves. Raising children, for example, or caring for sick parents, or maybe finding words of encouragement to those who are down or are in need of something more than hanging out with you because of your all-access passes to events.

When I started digging deeper into purpose, what I found was something different and it sort of surprised me. But then again, it didn’t. I found honesty and hard work. I found dignity and integrity. These are things that build foundations and are done with little to no applause for a job well-done. Despite the absence of applause, these things matter. They matter a lot.

Mindful awareness is more than just focusing on the present moment with the intent on critiquing and measuring our place in society. It stops us and asks to not look to comparison as well as looking so far into the future that we lose what might be staring us right in the face. It asks us to monitor the time we spend on the things we enjoy and the time with those we love. What things do we give our attention to? And do those things really matter? I know, “what really matters” is relative and subjective. And you are your own judge of what importance is. With that realization, does our purpose really reflect that genuinely?

I thought purpose would find me and announce itself; it didn’t. It shows up on a boring Tuesday afternoon just after lunch when we start dozing off at our desks. It shows up in the middle of dentist’s appointments and while watching our favorite shows. At Kind Rebirths, I don’t ask you to look to discover a whole new life in either direction, chasing your purpose or the purpose you think others want from us. I just ask that you recognize the purpose you already have and are living in every day. I tell myself that I don’t need to change the entire world for my life to have meaning. Some may never feel my impact, but I do it with integrity just the same.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth