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
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