This post’s title may seem alarming, but in our cookie cutter/make it easy world it would be dangerous to use any other.
As I mentioned in last week’s post (How To Know If You’re a Corporate Slave), lack of purpose (specifically life) will create a condition that leads to enslavement to your career. If you’re not careful you’ll wake up and find yourself dead…even if you’re still breathing.
The following outlines how (mistakenly) purpose became the food of mystics, preachers, artists and the like:
- As information began to flow more rapidly, we got bored. Yes, bored! We now have so many choices and it leads to…well…life surfing. Life surfing is not to unlike channel surfing, since it is the sad practice of jumping from one thing to another. Two years of this, three years of that, but nothing sticks, and nothing grows.
- We fell in love with celebrity. Idol worship is another term. We not only became interested in where Tom Brady spent the holidays, but we anointed him to hero. And since he’s our hero we don’t need a purpose. Why have a purpose if Tom can live it out for us-on the field and off.
- We’re too comfortable. One of the most lethal poison pills is comfort/ease. Sadly, we’ve come to expect it, and many would have it no other way.
Now here are my recommendations for turning around:
- Identify what makes you come alive/what breaks your heart/what you’d be willing to give your all too. Now go pursue it! You can do this in many ways, but you must pursue it.
- Become an alien. I’m serious…start being different. If you continue to act and think like the herd, you’ll be just like them; an unspoken statistic. You were created uniquely (no DNA like your’s) so live accordingly. Yes, it will be painful in the short run. However, your concern should not be on the short term pain.
- Get a coach, advisor, guide, etc. You’ll need people that will help, especially when you feel like giving up.
- Stop fighting God. He has the keys to real purpose, and he’s not your enemy.
- Give your commitment time (lot’s of it). Change is a process not momentary event.