Tune up your EQ

A Sense of Purpose Is Compelling

What’s more important to you? Ticking off the items on your to-do list , or taking steps to fulfill your purpose ?

To-do lists are deadly when you deal with them in isolation. Paying attention to your to-do list before you’ve considered your purpose is like starting a blog before you choose a blogging platform.

In this article in the Make 2008 Great series, I’m going to reveal how I discovered the purpose of my life. I hope that it will encourage you to consider whether knowing your purpose is important to you. Once you decide, you’ll become more focussed about what you must do to make 2008 your best year ever

How I Discovered My Life Purpose

In 1991, I reached my conclusion.

During a troubling period in my life, I read the book What Colour Is Your Parachute?, A Practical Guide For Job Hunters and Career Changers . Richard Nelson Bolles’ book stirred powerful emotions of hope and clarity in me. I felt that I could do anything I put my mind to.

Have you ever had that feeling?

As I worked my way through the exercises in the book, I remembered that I had first experienced that tremendous feeling of empowerment back in 1989. That’s when I attended a Senior Manager’s Training Programme provided by my then employers in England.

By the end of that course, I had developed a burning desire make a career out of giving other people powerful learning experiences. That fire within me has been quelled from time to time, but it’s never gone out.

Today, its raging fiercely

What Colour Is Your Parachute encourages you to write a series of personal stories. They help you uncover your values, identify your strengths and weaknesses and discover the kind of work environments that you most enjoy. You use this inventory to find your chosen job or vocation.

I followed Richard Nelson Bolles’ wise advice. It changed my life forever.

What I Learned

Here’s my life purpose:

“The meaning of my life is to fulfill myself by helping other people to achieve their potential”

It’s the reference point for everything I do. It’s burned in my heart.

What Colour Is Your Parachute? warns that sometimes you experience the exhilaration of reaching the mountaintop. At other times, you must labour in the valley. You can’t reach the mountaintop without applying yourself in the valley.

As the writer says:

“At some point in your life your Mission may involve some grand mountaintop experience, where you say to yourself, ‘This, this is why I came into the world. I know it. I know it’ But until until then, your mission is here in the valley, and in the fog, and the little callings, moment by moment, day by day……If you aren’t trying to bring more gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, honesty and love into the world each day, you can hardly expect that you will be entrusted with the Mission to help bring peace into the world or anything else large and important. If we do not live out our day-by-day Mission in the valley, we cannot expect we are yet ready for a larger mountaintop Mission.”

In a future Make 2008 Great series article, I’ll share my favourite mountain top experience of 2007.

3 Ways That Your Purpose Relates To Making 2008 Your Best Year Ever

1. A sense of purpose is like having a personal laser. The intense beam of light gives your life focus. You’re able to discern the steps you must take to make progress. You also decide what you must stop doing. Once you empty out the mental litter, you liberate yourself to make 2008 great.

2. It’s also a compass, because it gives you a sense of direction. It points you where you need to go, even when you’re full of uncertainty. True north never shifts. The device assures you that the fear, uncertainty and doubt that you experience when you don’t achieve your goal will soon fade away, just as the ice melts when Spring arrives.

Here’s a great question to ask yourself when concern and confusion kick in:

“Is the fundamental course that I’m taking correct?”

If it is, keep moving towards true north. If not, consider what adjustments you need to make.

3. A sense of purpose is like a powerful electrical generator. It produces power when the lights go out. When you plug yourself in, you’re able to bounce back and take positive action.

You experience deep joy when you move towards your purpose.

Next Steps

Whether or not you decide to develop a purpose for your life is entirely up to you. It’s not a competition. It’s all about how you choose to look at life

If you want to develop or re-discover your purpose, I recommend What Colour Is Your Parachute . I’m not affiliated with the author. My tip is based on my life experience.

Download How To Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever-22 Energizing Emotional Intelligence Tips

View the How To Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever By Managing Your Emotions Presentation

I’m curious to know. Is having a purpose for your life important to you? What books, tools and resources have you used to discover your purpose? Please leave details in the comment box below, or email me, using the contact form.

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