One of my favourite items in the kitchen is the ice cream scoop. What an incredible invention! I don’t know how many bent spoons scattered the planet before some genius came up with this idea. It’s designed NOT to bend and to scoop out even the hardest ice cream effortlessly.
Now there are a lot of other things you could use this item for. You could dig out weeds in your garden with it. You could hammer a nail in. You could use it as a paper weight. Yes, there are multiple uses for an ice cream scoop BUT it functions best when used for the purpose its designer created it for.
In the same way, I believe YOU were created for a purpose. No one is an accident.
Your purpose is your why – why you get up in the morning, why you do what you do … the way you do it. Every human being has an innate longing to be useful – to do something meaningful with their life. Our soul has a need for contribution – a inner yearning to make a difference somehow.
And I find that your why is something you discover as much as something you decide.
You night have heard the motivational statement, “You can be anything you want to be!” Really?? Come on, that’s not really true, is it. I’d rephrase it to say “You can do anything you were created to do!”
As we think about our life it is vital that we realise we have one life to live. This is it. It’s not a dress rehearsal or practice run.
If you’ve ever been to a cemetery and looked at the tombstones, you will have noticed that most people get their name, their birth date, their death date and a little hyphen or dash in-between those two dates. That’s all you get for your entire life! But in many ways what you do in time echoes into eternity. So make this the very best DASH you can!
One simple way to discover your purpose is to ask yourself three questions:
- What you are good at? Think about your strengths, your talents, your life experiences, and your unique skills. We can’t do everything but we can all do something.
- What you care about? Consider your interests, your concerns, what you enjoy, what excites you, and even what annoys you or makes you angry.
- What are the needs of the world? Reflect on the changes that need to be made, the problems yet to be solved, the challenges still being faced.
At the intersection of your answer to those 3 questions is your purpose – your mission, your WHY. It’s worth taking the time to discover that … because when we are living with a sense of purpose we are most effective and most joyful. When we are not pursuing a worthwhile purpose, we are just going through the motions … without really living. We end up being ineffective and frustrated.
Think about your life. What are you living for? Why do you get up in the morning? What’s it all about for you? What’s the dream you are pursuing? What has value and meaning for you?
Let’s recap our main points:
- You were created for a purpose.
- Our purpose (or our why) is something we discover as much as something we decide.
- We have one life to live – let’s give it our best shot!
- Living with a sense of purpose increases our effectiveness and our joy.
That’s all for today.
See you next week!
You can watch a video of this episode on the Soul Food YouTube channel.
Recommended Reading: Know Your Why by Ken Costa and Start With Why by Simon Sinek