Purposeful Living & Living Our Purposes

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this glorious, very hot and humid, Saturday afternoon in my Sweet Home Alabama! 😊

For last week’s Happy Friday, I found an old favorite book, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life by John O’Leary and shared a few excerpts. Any idea what that led me to do? Yes, I am now rereading this book and, as was the case the first time I read it, I am finding it very difficult to put it down! This book challenges and inspires me! I strongly encourage all of you to get it, read it, and apply the phenomenal wisdom that is within it!

I am going to start by sharing an excerpt from the book, a quote, and then I am going to share a few thoughts and a challenge.

From On Fire by John O’Leary:

“Words are cheap; actions are what matter. In life, it matters much less what we say than what we do.

When things get hot, when the fires of life rage around you and against you, you can pull back and retreat and let things be destroyed.

Or you can step back in and save what matters from the fires that are threatening to destroy your marriage, your career, your joy, your life.

The key to that choice, the only way to reengage in the fight, is in knowing, without a doubt, why you are doing it.”

A quote from Hindu author, mystic, and philosopher, Patanjali (Yes, John shares this quote in his book…that is how I learned about it! 😊):

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” – Patanjali

*Please note, everything hinges on being inspired by some great purpose!

A quick, rhetorical for the moment, question:

Are you purposefully living a life of purpose?

Purpose is defined as, “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.”

Let’s quickly unpack this and look both at purposeful living and living a life of purpose…

Purposeful living:

Are you doing things purposefully or are you just waiting to see how you will feel, what will happen, etc.? If we sit back and think about it, most of the meaningful things that have happened in our lives did not happen by accident, they happened purposefully. When we started dating our spouses, we thought about them and we were purposeful in calling them, spending time with them, and investing in our relationship with them.

If you have a college degree, you did not accidentally wind up at a college and somehow end up with a degree. No, you were purposeful. You applied to the college, you carefully chose the courses you would take, and you did the work required to earn your degree.

So, let me ask all of us; how are our spiritual lives? Our marriages? Our relationships with our children? Our relationships with our friends? How are things going vocationally? Are we being purposeful with each? We will not grow spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically if we are not purposeful with the things we do, nor will our relationships thrive if we ignore them or leave them to chance. Perhaps this is a wakeup call for us to become purposeful in all aspects of our lives!

Living a life of purpose:

What is your purpose? When you look back at the definition of purpose, purposeful living answers the first part “the reason for which something is done,” and living a life of purpose answers the second part, “the reason for which something is…created or for which something exists.” To say it another way, why were you created or why do you exist? My Bible tells me there is an answer to that question, that it has been ordered and ordained by God! Do you know it? If not, I want to strongly encourage you to spend time thinking and praying about the answer to that question because once you know why you exist everything changes!

So, I will go back again to our question and this time I am not asking it rhetorically, I want you to answer it for you; are you purposefully living a life of purpose? If so, good for you, good for all of us, and thank you so much…people and relationships thrive, and the world is radically transformed by people who are purposefully living their purposes! If not, today can be your inflection point as John O’Leary likes to say. Today can be the day that everything changes from this point forward. The choice is 100% up to you. I do, however, want you to be mindful that your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health, every one of your relationships, how & what you do, and in fact eternity hang in the balance.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev

Stretch

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! 😊

Over the last couple of weeks, I have thought a lot about growth, about being stretched, about leaning into to the difficult moments and learning, growing, and becoming all we are capable of becoming. Here is the thing, the fulfillment of the potential that we all want is often on the other side of challenging and difficult situations that few of us will choose to lean into and learn from. And as I thought of these things, I thought back to several things I had read in an excellent book titled, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life, by John O’Leary. I want to share several of these excerpts with you this morning.

“But when we try to stay safe, when we strive to stay comfortable, we miss the great opportunities in life.

We all face moments when we would rather stay where we are. Whether we are too injured, or it’s too late, or it’s too scary, those excuses arise because we have been trained to keep our eyes down, on the rocky soil in front of us, trying to make sure we don’t trip. We’ve got to stay safe, we think. Looking down is just practical. Don’t want to look stupid. Don’t want to fall.

But when we are staring down at where we are, we can’t look ahead at where we could go. We miss the beauty of what’s possible. And we certainly can’t see the path to get there.

What we need is to return to the mind-set that whispers to us, “Anything is possible.” What we need is the courage to go back to the drawer where we tucked away our cape. You know, the one you used to wear when you were little, when life was full of limitless potential? We need to find the courage to put that cape back on. To look up at the horizon. To climb back onto the couch. And to dare to fly.

It’s time to dare again.

It might be painful.

But it will be totally worth it.”

“…stretching is never easy. It’s unwanted. It’s painful. It’s hard on all parties involved and in all facets of life. It’s not pleasant to be stretched and it’s not pleasurable to stretch others. Yet the pain of today unveils the possibility of tomorrow.

Stretching leads to growth.

Growth is frequently painful.

But “growth is the only evidence of life.”

John Henry Newman was a wise theologian, incredible thinker, and prolific writer. That is one of his most remarkable quotes. Think about it. Growth is all about new beginnings, a different direction, a budding relationship, a big move, that new position, a bold conversation, the daring venture, the next chapter in your life.

Growth is the only evidence of life.

The opposite is true, too. Stagnation is the first step to your grave.”

“Death seldom occurs overnight. It’s a slow fade. The changes can be subtle, but make no mistake: in choosing not to grow, we choose to die.

In today’s culture when things get uncomfortable, we often see it as a sign that something’s wrong.

But I know personally that we’ve got to learn to see discomfort differently. It may be a sign that something is right. It may be proof that we are growing in a new direction.”

“Things that come easy are seldom worthy. Stretching forward may not be fun, but it may possibly be something much more significant: life-giving.

Real growth is often unwanted, extremely painful, and ultimately completely worth it.”

Finally, I want to share a few quotes for us to consider:

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

- Pablo Picasso 

“True success is achieved by stretching oneself, learning to feel comfortable being uncomfortable.”

- Ken Poirot

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

- Abraham Maslow

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.”

- Gail Sheehy

“Growth and self-transformation cannot be delegated.”

- Lewis Mumford

I get it, Friends! Stretching and growing is hard, scary, and often painful. My hope and prayer for all of us is that we will be willing to stretch and grow, that we will live this precious gift called life fully so that we can become all we were created to become.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev

There Is a Period There!

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having had a great Friday as this day draws to an end in my Sweet Home Alabama! What a beautiful day it has been!

I want to start off by sharing a couple of scriptures this week.

Mark 12:30-31

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”

Romans 12:10

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.

 Two profound, yet very simple verses, right? What do you note at the end? Anything? At the end there is a period! It is not a comma nor, I do not know what you call it, three dots that I will often use at the end. Plain and simple there is a period put at the end of each statement. Please, think about that for a moment… (there I go again!) 😊

So why is Kev all fired about there being a period there? Plain and simple because there is nothing more to add. It doesn’t say, “Love your neighbor as yourself, so long as your neighbor looks like you, acts like you, believes what you believe, has the same political affiliation you have, etc.” No, it simply says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It is a statement! It is not asking our thoughts or feelings about it. It is telling us what to do…Period! (I couldn’t resist!!!) 😊

Oh, you already know!!! “Be devoted to one another in love.” What would our world, our cancel culture, look like if we were truly devoted to one another in love? Period! And just imagine how boring news, social media, and, well, pretty much everything else would be if we truly “Honor one another above ourselves.” Period!

There is a period at the end of these sentences, Friends! We aren’t being asked if we like it, agree with it, or want to put any qualifications around it! We are being told what to do, whether we like it or not.

And right about now would be a great time to ask the question, “What part of the Bible do you believe?” Yes, the “Sunday School” answer is all of it however the reality is the parts of it that we believe are the parts we actually live out!!! Oh, I wish I could tell you I got this right all the time, however I would be committing another sin. In fact, I am pretty sure all of us struggle with these things. That, however, does not change the fact that there is a period at the end of the sentence and that we are being told specifically what to do. The only thing we all must decide is what our influence will be!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great evening, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well! 😊

Kev

What Will You Feed & Focus On?

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day has dawned on the Emerald Coast! This week is such a blessed time with family, and I plan to live this day to the fullest!!! 😊

Today’s happy Friday is going to be short, and I am going to use a few different quotes to tell the story…

Story of the Two Wolves

“There’s a story of the two wolves in Cherokee culture in which a grandfather teaches his grandson an important life lesson. 

The grandfather tells his grandson that there is a battle going on inside all of us. It is a battle between two wolves that live inside us. 

He says, “My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ that live inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith." 

The grandson thinks about it for a while and says, “Which wolf wins?”

The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.” – Unknown

“What you focus on grows.” - Robin S. Sharma

What we feed wins, and what we focus on grows. Seems we would be wise to intentionally, very thoughtfully, consider what we are feeding and focusing on!!!

Now, let’s look at a few more quotes…

“Reflect upon your present blessings – of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.” – Henry Ward Beecher

“This new day has greeted us with no rules; unconditional opportunity. Do not dilute the power of this new day with the hardship of yesterday. Greet this day the way it has greeted you; with open arms and endless possibility.” – Steve Maraboli

My sincere hope for each one of us, Friends, is that we would recognize and genuinely appreciate our blessings. I get that there are challenges and hardships…we all have them! At the same time, I know we all have blessings! What we will feed and focus on is the thing that each of us will decide today, and those choices will determine the quality of lives we will live!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well!! I am going to the beach!!!! 😊

Kev