So…if you’re following along, you have the image of an umbrella of purpose over your life. It’s there when you’re small and when you are grown up. You may not know it when you’re little but God does. He planted it within you and it will be your guide.
I think we sense it as kids even if we don’t ask or plan or create around it. That’s nice, right? That it would be so much a part of who we are that we don’t need to to discuss it or proclaim it or have any angst over it…
Let’s go back there.
Imagine being young again. What did you love to do? What were you drawn to? What are some themes of your life?
If you ask someone who knew you way back when…what would they say? Ask them. Maybe they’ll say, “You’ve always made people laugh,” or “You’ve always brought joy and positivity with you,” or “You were always kind and caring for others”.
Maybe you were thoughtful, curious, bright, inquisitive, sensitive, outgoing, organized, justice minded or a leader. Maybe you haven’t ever asked anyone about this and maybe you don’t remember. Or it’s quite possible that what you were originally has been covered up by what you were told you “should be” or what you yourself decided “would be better”. Can you dig down beneath the layers and uncover your true self?
Did you have a chance to look in Scripture for verses about purpose? Have you felt God placing a purpose on your heart?
What are your core values? What do you believe?
I want to give you an example of what I mean by Purpose and what differentiates it from Calling, Dreams and Goals.
- My PURPOSE is to know God, love God, live free as His beloved and share His love with others.
- My CALLING can change but now it is to write and speak and share the love of God through Great Big YES.
- My DREAM can change and there can be multiple dreams but right now, it is to finally write a book.
- My GOAL is to write for an hour each day. Another goal is to figure out how to publish a book. 🙂
What I want you to see here is that they all build on each other but they are not the same. Once I reach my goals, they will change. Once I accomplish my dream, there will be a new one. God may call me to do something new in addition to Great Big YES or He may ask me to pivot or change my calling. But my purpose will never change.
Can you have more than one purpose? Is that what you are asking? Maybe. But as I flush it out, I find that the purpose stays the same but the calling/dreams/goals change. This is not scientific, but I think we have one overarching purpose. We can have several callings and millions of dreams and goals are never ending…so for the sake of clarity, let’s work on one purpose for now. You notice my purpose is long and includes 4 things. I could change the specific words and it will still mean the same thing. I can make it shorter or longer and say basically the same thing. Getting it exactly perfect forever and ever is not the goal here. Don’t think too much about it, just start writing out ideas and see what feels right. This is just for you. Get something in writing and sit with it. Don’t worry about anything but the PURPOSE piece right now.
The reason we do this is so that we can have clarity around our next steps. Coaching is about taking action but first, we need to know why we are taking action and what action we want to take. This process with help you make a plan that has purpose and meaning and will point you in the direction you want to go. Once you start taking action, things will become clearer (action brings clarity) and you may need to readjust so just remember, this is a process of discovery.
My purpose is the umbrella over my life because it’s not compartmentalized to only apply to certain aspects of my life. It is my purpose with my family, my friends, my marriage, everything. I don’t just share the love of God with people on Sunday or only when I’m writing…if this is my purpose, it is the reason I do anything and everything. Knowing it keeps me on track. It reminds me not just of what I want to do but of who I am.
(A specific, real life, timely example of how purpose keeps us on track…if my purpose is to know and love God and share His love with others, and I feel compelled to act snarky on social media, I can look at my purpose and revisit who God is and since I can’t find “snarky” in His attributes, I can say no to acting snarky on social media. 🙂 That’s just one small example.)
Now it’s your turn:
My purpose is _____________________________.
We will get into calling next but first, Who are you? What are you here for?