Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash
Your life is a reflection of the choices you make each and every day. If you choose to walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator, you are making a small daily choice which, over time, can make the difference between being fit and trim or being overweight with heart problems.
Choosing to read this article and ones like it over a tabloid magazine will, over time, mean the difference between developing a success mindset and mediocrity.
If you’ve taken the time to consider the purpose of your life and committed to living it out, the next step is to start making the small daily choices that move you closer to your goal.
Have you ever watched honey bees making honey? Their ultimate purpose is to make food for the hive. Yet they don’t wake up one day with a hive full of honey. First, the scouts fly out looking for promising flower beds. Then they return to the hive to perform a peculiar “dance” which communicates to the worker bees where the flowers are located. The worker bees head out to collect the nectar which is returned to the colony.
Upon returning, the nectar is transferred to another bee within the hive for processing within their stomach by the addition of certain enzymes.
The bees don’t just expect honey to appear. They each do a little piece every day in the steps toward producing their food.
Pursuing our life purpose is much the same. We have to make the choice every day to do those little actions which gradually add up to the desired result. It seems fairly obvious for a bee to make honey first the nectar must be found and gathered, and then the processing steps have to happen. Yet when we set a goal or decide to work toward our purpose, we seem to ignore this principle of daily actions.
Once we uncover our purpose, there is still some work to be done to identify the goals we must set to achieve our purpose and then decide on concrete action steps to take each day to move us toward our goals.
Perhaps someone discovers their purpose is to support educational opportunities in third world countries and then sets a goal to start a home business which will generate enough income to provide for a school. Now what to do? They would have to make a plan of action that includes concrete daily steps toward the goal of starting a home business. Things like investigating possible businesses and identifying the abilities and resources they have to use in building the business would be the foundation for daily steps that need to happen toward the goal.
Every day there will be choices. Choices to watch TV or to work on a business plan. Choices to read People magazine or Success Magazine. Choices to work on marketing materials or go shopping with a friend. Living your purpose means making the daily choices to do the things which move you closer to your goals.
It takes a good bit of planning and determination to guard your time and focus on your priorities. If you don’t, the people and events in your life will make the choices for you and you begin to live re-actively instead of pro-actively.
A person who lives a re-active life, is pulled this way and that by every demand that is made upon them. How they spend their days is completely determined by outside events and people instead of by their own internal compass. Learn to pause between a request and your response. Memorize these words:
I WILL HAVE TO CHECK MY CALENDAR AND GET BACK TO YOU.
Give yourself some time and space before answering. If you are to live your purpose I guarantee you will have to say NO occasionally, even to good friends.
Do make sure your priorities are balanced however. You cannot work all the time and ignore your need for rest, relaxation and socializing. Decide what is most important in ALL areas of your life: Spiritual, Relationships, Business/Career, Health, personal Growth and Finances, then set priorities that are in line with your purpose for each area. Then do those things! Anything which draws you away from your purpose gets a NO.
Do you know what your purpose is? Do you know why you are here and what special equipping you’ve been given to use in fulfilling that purpose? Do you know how to set goals which are in harmony with your purpose and will move you toward a life of meaning and fulfillment?
Check out my newest (and best yet) ebook “Fashioning Your Best Year Ever” for help in identifying your unique life purpose (I call it finding your “why”), uncovering your exceptional gifts and talents, and putting those talents to work toward your dreams