Purpose
Nothing can be more Empowering than to have a Purpose, and Nothing can feel more hopeless than to think that we do not have a Purpose; or not knowing what our Purpose is.
In Eric Greiten's book, Resilience, he writes; "When I was twenty, I lived and worked in a Bosnian refugee camp. All the refugees had seen brutality and destruction. They had lost everything they ever owned. Many had lost friends and family. And now they were trapped in a camp, living in shacks, feeding on bread and rumors. Everyone suffered."
"I was struck by one thing. It seemed that the people who were doing best in the camp were often the parents and grandparents of very young children. They knew that they had to wake up every day and be strong for someone else. The people who had the hardest time were the young adults and older teenagers. They felt that their lives had been cut short. They woke up everyday with no prospects for a job or for school. " "The war had made them aimless, and aimlessness hurts. The teenagers who were doing the best were often those who found something else to do. They volunteered in the kindergarten or coached the younger kids as they played soccer. The people who did the best in other words, found a way to live for something at a time when a lot of people around them didn't know why they were alive at all."
The people Eric witnessed doing the best were the ones that knew they had a Purpose. It’s not that the ones he witnessed struggling did not have a Purpose, they did. We all do…, but sometimes we get lost and forget.
Purposes come in many shapes and sizes. Some may seem very big: "My Purpose is to stop world hunger" Some may seem small: "My Purpose is to smile at a stranger today" Some may take time to complete, and others only seconds. Some may take a lot of effort, while others may be effortless.
Big or small, every Purpose we set has tremendous power. What is important, is to Believe in ourselves enough to set a Purpose. We must believe we are important and that we can make a difference no matter how big or small it may seem.
As you begin to consciously dedicate yourself to set a Purpose, you will find that other Purposes will crop up. Before you know it, you will be flowing through a Purposeful and Powerful life!
Having a Purpose is the spark that inspires us to get up each day to better ourselves and to improve the life around us.
Dedicate the Month of April to wake up each day . . . on Purpose!
Smile, Wade