“The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are, for what we could become.” Charles Dubois
Do you feel stuck where you are now? Wish your life had turned out differently? Would you be willing to make sacrifices to find your purpose in life and become who you want to be?
Most people compromise on their goals, saying “these are the cards I’ve been dealt”, even though they know they are not satisfied or happy with their life. They feel it is their ‘lot’ and lack the ability and the will to work hard and change their ‘lot’. The Office of National Statistics found that working age people in Britain are generally not happy. It doesn’t have to be like this.
3 examples of people with purpose
Let me tell you about three people I know who have striven to achieve meaning in their life and how they inspired me to take action. I hope these examples will convince you to make changes in your life to fulfill your potential too.
Barbara and Chris
First let me introduce you to Barbara and Chris, her daughter. Chris was born with little muscle tissue and is unable to do anything for herself. The most movement she has is a little in the arms. She is intelligent and understands conversation, but can’t speak or write. Despite this, Chris is one of the happiest children I know, she rarely has temper tantrums and copes with her ‘lot’ remarkably well. People take to her very quickly and she makes friends easily. Despite her severe limitations, she focuses on living her life to the full and bringing joy to others.
Barbara is never willing to give in to the wall of indifference and inability that is bureaucracy and has fought hard to get Chris into suitable schools. She pushes hard for support from the local authority and has achieved real results that mean that Chris has benefitted from full support educationally and physically. Barbara even appeared on TV, interviewed about a local support group she started to keep a special school open. It would have been so easy to give up the fight, there are countless times when it looked hopeless, but Barbara kept going.
I’ve learnt from Chris to make the best of what you do have, and from Barbara to fight for what you value and believe in and never give up.
Geoff
Geoff was a successful businessman and a mentor to me, supporting me to build my business in Kenya. He was always available and willing to listen and offer ideas and advice, introductions and even business. Geoff gave with an open heart and his reward was to see people flourish. His generosity worked well as I wanted to reciprocate and put the effort in to achieve the results – it was a real win/win.
From Geoff I learnt that giving is what life is about and having the grace to receive is essential to this. Your life only has meaning in relation to others.
So what have these influences meant to me?
They gave me the courage to address what it is that gives me real satisfaction in life, to identify when I’m at my best and to think about my goals in life. I discovered that I love it when I can help others to achieve a sense of fulfilment. When I can help another to overcome barriers and achieve a goal, I feel that this is what I’m on this planet to do.
I took action on this discovery. I trained as a coach and added coaching to my portfolio of services. My purpose is to help my clients to achieve their goals and to grow as a person and experience fulfilment. I also joined the Association for Coaching and volunteered for a Council role. Over 8 years I worked hard to help build the coaching profession, seeking to establish coaching standards and promote coaching in organisations, so more people can have access to this most effective form of development.
Even writing about it I feel the buzz!
How to find your purpose
So what about you? Are you ready to think about your goals and purpose in life? To identify or confirm what you were put on this planet to achieve?
3-step process:
1. Look around you … who is doing things that inspire you? What can you learn about yourself from those role models?
2. Look inside yourself… what is important to you? When are you at your best? How could you be that person more of the time?
3. Understanding what is important to you and when you are at your best will help you to identify your purpose in life. Then you can seek out opportunities to fulfil that purpose.
You could tweak your career to start doing work that you love.
Maybe you want to balance your life, so you can support your family and loved ones more actively.
Perhaps you have a personal goal you want to achieve.
Or you want to be your own boss and start a business…
Whatever it is that will deliver purpose to your life, you have it within you to make it happen. Grasp the opportunity with both hands and act on it! I can assure you, the rewards are amazing.
Take action
Let Michael Angier convince you to take action tomorrow.
“Believe that you have a unique purpose and potential in the world. It’s not so much something to create as to be discovered. And it’s up to you to discover it. Believe that you can and will make a difference.”
When you want help with finding your purpose, contact Amanda