Wrap Up and Where To Go From Here

Posted on September 16, 2017 · Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe, but we’ve come to the end of our 30 Day Living With Purpose Challenge. Time flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it? I hope you’ve enjoyed our little journey towards living a more intentional and purpose-driven life as much as I have. More importantly, I hope the daily blog posts have inspired some serious thought and discussion.

Here’s what we covered over the past 30 Days.

  1. Welcome And What Does It Mean To Live With Purpose
  2. Why It’s Important To Find Your Purpose
  3. What Is Your Purpose?
  4. The Connection Between Purpose and Happiness
  5. Why What You Do For A Living Matters
  6. How To Find Your Calling
  7. Your Purpose Doesn’t Have To Be Huge To Make A Difference
  8. Small Things You Can Start Doing Right Now To Make A Difference
  9. Do You Know What’s Sucking Up Your Time
  10. Going From Existing To Truly Living Life
  11. Let’s Talk About TV And The Like
  12. How Much Time Are You Spending On Facebook
  13. Embrace Your Hobbies And Interests
  14. Never Stop Learning
  15. The Big Benefits Of Traveling The World
  16. Creating Purposeful And Meaningful Relationships
  17. When You Have A Purpose, You’re Taking Action And Aren’t Afraid Of Failure
  18. Living With Purpose Is Good For Your Spiritual Health
  19. Guess What? Money And “Stuff” Doesn’t Make You Happy
  20. Living With Purpose Makes You A Kinder Person
  21. When You Live With Purpose, You Don’t Have Time To Worry
  22. When You Live A Purpose Driven Life, Your Values Are Clear
  23. You Realize The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You
  24. Aligning Yourself With Your Purpose Through Meditation And Prayer
  25. Avoid Temptations And Wrong Paths Along The Way
  26. Living With Purpose Is About Serving Your Community
  27. Your Loved Ones Will Benefit From A Purpose Driven Life
  28. Your Purpose May Evolve And Change As You Do… And That’s Ok
  29. What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?

The next question is of course where you go from here. Frankly, it’s up to you. I’ve given you a lot of ideas, tools, and suggestions to craft a more purposeful life for yourself and your loved ones. What you do with that information is up to you. I hope you’ve been following along, doing a lot of thinking, and have started to implement. I encourage you to continue on this journey. Keep bringing more meaning and purpose into your life. Keep reading, keep learning, and keep on making progress.

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What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?

Posted on September 15, 2017 · Leave a Comment

Here’s an interesting question for you. What do you want to be remembered for when you’re gone? Since our life on this beautiful earth is limited, it’s only natural that we want to leave some sort of legacy. What’s yours going to be? What do you want to be remembered for?

Living a purpose driven life makes this a lot easier. You know what you want to accomplish and what impact you want to have on your family, your loved ones, your friends, your community, and the world at large. If that sounds a little overwhelming right now, don’t let it intimidate you. You’ll get there. Living with purpose starts small for most of us and grows exponentially as we notice the effect we can have on those around us when we start to live intentionally and with an open heart.

Even small changes and accomplishments are nothing to laugh at or dismiss. Raising your children well is an amazing feat and a wonderful legacy to leave behind in the world. Or maybe you will be remembered for the small community garden you started that will long outlive you and show others how tasty and rewarding it can be to grow carrots and tomatoes.

As you start to live with more purpose, you may get to a point where you’re wondering what else you can do. You may be asking yourself how you can help people around you and how you can make the world a better place. Asking yourself what you want to be remembered for and what your legacy will be is a great way to figure that out.

Here’s a little exercise you can do today. Get out a piece of paper and write down what you would like your eulogy to be. It will condense what you want to be remembered for and what values are important to you. Set it aside for a little while, then come back and read it. As you do so, compare it to the life you’re leading right now. What do you need to change? What do you need to work on to make sure your life aligns with the eulogy you wrote for yourself? That’s your game plan. It may take a while and it may change over time, and that’s ok.

What’s important is that we live our short lives with purpose and make the most of the years we’re given on this earth. Remind yourself of this and live a life full of things that you’ll be proud to be remembered for.

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Never Stop Learning

Posted on August 31, 2017 · Leave a Comment

As children, learning is an important part of our lives. We continue on as young adults through college and learning on the job. But then, by the time we hit our thirties, many of us stop learning on a regular basis. We may pick up something new here or there, or learn a new piece of software or equipment at work. But for the most part, we feel that we’ve acquired all the knowledge we need in life. While that’s technically true, there is a lot to be said about lifelong learning.

Does this mean that you should go back to school as an adult? Not necessarily. While that’s certainly an option, formal education in a school or university setting isn’t the only way we learn and there’s a lot of advantages to self-learning in a variety of ways. Lifelong learning keeps your mind strong, helps you stay up-to-date on technology in a fast paced and ever changing world, and improves quality of life.

Independent or self-paced learning can take a lot of different forms. You might simply decide to read up on a particular course through a variety of google searches. You can teach yourself a new skill through online articles and YouTube videos. Listening to audio books or formal lectures like those available at the “Great Courses” website are another option. And of course there are plenty of online and local courses you can take on all sorts of topics. Take a workshop, learn a new language, or find a new hobby that requires new skills. There is an almost unlimited about of knowledge out there that you can learn.

Learning is wonderful because it keeps us curious and our mind active. There’s a lot of pride and confidence that comes out of mastering a new skill, or figuring out a tough problem. Think of learning as a way to exercise your mind. Continued learning helps us understand the world around us, and the people in it better. That in turn will make us more compassionate and of course well-informed individuals. As an added bonus, self-paced learning is a great way to practice self-motivation, a skill that will come in handy throughout life.

Think about what you’re doing already that is part of lifelong learning. What are some things you would like to learn? Start making a short list of knowledge and skill goals and then start tackling them one a time. Maybe you’ve always wanted to learn how to knit, or you’re interested in medieval history. Maybe you want to build your own computer, or learn how to operate a lathe. Make a plan and start making life-long learning a habit.

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How Much Time Are You Spending On Facebook

Posted on August 29, 2017 · Leave a Comment

In yesterday’s blog post we talked about the time we spend vegging out in front of the TV or computer and how that time slips away from us. Today, I want to tackle another big time thief – social media. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an amazing tool, but it can also be quite distracting. It doesn’t matter if it’s Facebook, Pinterest, Tumbler, Instagram, or your social media platform of choice.

The biggest problem with social media is that it’s everywhere. We check in from our computers, tablet, and of course the ever-present smart phone. We get alerts, we check in when we’re bored, or have a couple of minutes to kill. Before we know it, thirty minutes or more have gone by that we’re not getting back.

Here’s an eye-opening exercise for you. Carry a pen and paper around with you, get a click counter or an app on your phone and start keeping track of how many times you access social media per day. Include any and all devices you use and add to the running total even when you’re just looking at it “for a second”. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be a bit shocked by how high that number actually is. This is one distraction that isn’t usually caught by the time log we talked about a few days ago since the social media interactions are so quick and frequent. Trust me though, no matter how briefly you access each platform, it all starts to add up and distracts you from other things.

How often do you miss part of a conversation or a fun moment with your kids because you were busy commenting on a Facebook post, retweeting something, or pinning a fun craft idea that you likely won’t get around to trying? Is it worth missing all those important little moments in life? And think about what you would have time and mental energy to do if you weren’t constantly distracted by social media?

The goal is to live more intentionally and do things with purpose. We don’t want to let social media posts distract us from that goal. I’m not saying that there isn’t a time to use social media, far from it. They are a wonderful tool and a great way to connect with people. But they are also dangerously addictive. Don’t believe me?

Here’s another exercise for you. Commit to not using social media at all for 48 hours. Turn off or ignore the alerts on your phone and don’t allow yourself to go to the sites on your computer. How does that feel? Do you miss it? Does it make you nervous or anxious?

It’s time to take control over social media instead of letting it control us. What can you change starting today to make that happen?

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