Purpose

Happy Friday, Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this glorious 1^st Friday of February in my Sweet Home Alabama! 😊

John Wooden, the legendary UCLA Men’s Basketball Coach, famously defined success this way:

“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

As I continue to read The Complete 101 Collection: What Every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell (I told y’all you would be hearing a lot about this book! 😊) he defines success this way:

“Success is…

Knowing your purpose in life,

Growing to reach your maximum potential, and

Sowing seeds that benefit others.”

What I would like to do this morning for a few minutes is discuss our purposes. I would like to start off by sharing a few excerpts from Mr. Maxwell's book. The excerpts come from Chapter 7 which is title, “What Is Success?” and it is in the section titled, “Knowing Your Purpose” on page 69.

“Nothing can take the place of knowing your purpose.”

“I believe that God created every person for a purpose. According to psychologist Viktor Frankl, “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life. Everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is as unique as his specific opportunity to implement it.” Each of us has a purpose for which we were created. Our responsibility – and our greatest joy – is to identify it.”

I would also point out that Ephesians 2:10 states, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Like Mr. Maxwell, I too believe that God created every person for a purpose. There are two challenges I would like to offer to each one of us this morning:

If you don’t know your purpose, please pray, make the time, learn…do whatever you need to do to determine what you believe your purpose to be. As Mr. Frankl accurately pointed out, you cannot be replaced, and your life cannot be repeated. You and your purpose are far too valuable to not know it.

Knowing your purpose, please relentlessly pursue it every day for the rest of your life! This world needs the you that you were created to be being who you were created to be! You are unique, an original – beautifully so!!! Do you want every day to be meaningful? Pursue your purpose!

Please, don’t criticize others who are pursuing their purposes. Let’s put away the “they should” or the critical spirit of finding whatever fault or failure we perceive in another. How would we know anyways? It is their purpose, not ours. Just as your purpose is unique to you, their purpose is unique to them. You and I don’t like it when someone does this to us, and it is neither right nor Biblical to do so. Why in the world would we want to do this to another?

I am going to close this Happy Friday by sharing several quotes about pursuing your purpose. It is my hope and prayer that they will inspire you to find your purpose, pursue it, and to encourage one another in doing the same.

“I believe purpose is something for which one is responsible; it’s not just divinely assigned.” - Michael J. Fox 

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.” - Winston S. Churchill

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“The two most important days in life are the day you born and the day you find out why.” - Mark Twain

“You were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously.” - Steve Maraboli

“The person without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder.” - Thomas Carlyle

“Figure out what your purpose is in life, what you really and truly want to do with your time and your life; then be willing to sacrifice everything and then some to achieve it. If you are not willing to make the sacrifice, then keep searching.” - Quintina Ragnacci

“There is no greater gift you can give or receive than to honor your calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive.” - Oprah Winfrey

“Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement.” - W. Clement Stone 

“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.” - Margaret Atwood

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” - Howard Thurman

“Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.” - Jalaluddin Rumi

“Perhaps the single most important ingredient in all of life for achieving happiness and fulfillment: Purpose.” - Harvey Volson

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 family, please stay well, and please pursue your purpose! 😊

 

Kev