Find purpose and meaning in life, How to live with a purpose

March 19, 2023 By archelys3@gmail.com 0

your life has purpose, discovering your purpose in life

I was awakened the other morning at 5.30 am with the following three statements beaming through my head over and over and over. They were three statements that I had written a number of years ago, but as I had been doing a lot of thinking on the subject of our purpose here on planet earth, these thoughts just kept on coming. So here they are… PEOPLE WITH PURPOSE ARE POWERHOUSES OF POSSIBILITY.

**Find purpose and meaning in life, How to live with a purpose**

BE EXPECTANT AND YOU’LL GIVE BIRTH TO A GREAT FUTURE.

THE GREATEST DISCOVERY ANY MAN OR WOMAN CAN MAKE, IS THE PURPOSE THEY’VE BEEN BORN FOR, AND THEN TO PURSUE IT WITH A PASSION. After I’d spent a wonderful morning with my family on Christmas Day, we headed for the beach. We were experiencing a heatwave and could smell the smoke from bushfires. The beach seemed to be the ideal place to spend the afternoon.

After enjoying the cool surf with my wife and children, we headed for the shore and opened up the esky to eat and drink more Christmas fare. It was at that point my eldest daughter Sarah discovered the following note, which had been stuffed into a crevice of the wooden table we were seated at. The note had the disturbing heading: ‘The Last Thoughts of a Fool’ scratched at the top of the page. Closer reading revealed that we had just come across a suicide note written by a young man.

I have recorded the suicide note exactly as we read it. The only thing that I have changed is the name of the young man’s son…

‘How does one become so alone and alienated from the world. Lonely is the most painful word I have ever known. It can tear your heart and soul into tiny pieces in the blink of an eye and make your whole life worthless. At this point you must look closely at life from start till now. Having done just that at great length I found the above to be very true.

Thirty-three years of loveless, lifeless dribble has made up every last minute of my existence. This will be no more. Today 25 December is the day I choose to oversee the demise of this pitiful life. To the mother of my child: may your heart be broken and abused forever and a day. To my family: may you reap everything you sow. To all the people who used my good nature: may karma play a big part in your lives.

To God (if there is one), you have a sick sense of humour. Hope you enjoyed it. To my extraordinary, beautiful, perfect son that I named Jonathon, my love for you has multiplied daily since your amazing birth and I’ve always loved you with all my heart and soul. I wish you every good thing left in this world. You are the only one I wish to see in the next life. Forgive me please. Goodbye son.’

So there you have it. Not the nicest thing to discover on such a day of celebration. While many of us were out celebrating with family and friends, here was one life despairing. Here was a prime example of a life that had lost all hope AND A LIFE WITH NO PURPOSE.

HOPE IS YOUR ANCHOR

Without hope your life will be a shipwreck. Goals give you hope and that’s why a fresh goal will always breathe fresh life and purpose into your life.

Anyway, my purpose was not to bring a spirit of morbidity across your path. The reason I’ve chosen to include this tragic event was to present to you the INCREDIBLE IMPORTANCE of HOPE.

I know for a fact that some of your goals, in the past twelve months, failed to come to pass. Now how do I know that? Because there are a whole bunch of my own goals that didn’t arrive in the given time frame that I set.

Now obviously, the more goals you set, the greater the chance of this happening to you at some point. But…

IT’S NOT JUST THE SETTING OF GOALS THAT COUNTS, IT’S THE STRIVING

There are two responses that we can have to UNFULFILLED GOALS.

The first is to be like the young man who wrote the above note. He didn’t plan to fall out of love with the mother of his child. I’m sure he didn’t plan to have trouble with his family. He’s allowed the failure of not meeting his goals to overtake his life and has given them permission to make him miserable, even to the point of taking his own life.

Failing to meet goals doesn’t make you a failure.

Just because we fail to achieve some goals, does that mean goal setting doesn’t work? Not at all.

I remember speaking to a multi-millionaire who told me that he’d NEVER reached any of his goals ON TIME. But as soon as he failed to meet a goal in a reasonable timeframe, he just set it again and went again. Didn’t seem to hurt his bank account.

WHEN YOU DON’T REACH A GOAL ON TIME, RESET IT

Goals are signposts that point us in the direction we wish to go. They’re not our jury, nor our judge. They’re not set to condemn. They’re put in place in our life to liberate. Don’t ever allow goals to bind you or chain you. They’re for your freedom and for your enjoyment.

People with goals, fulfilled or unfulfilled, should be the HAPPIEST people on earth. The reason being? They are GOINOMEWHERE. They have a plan and they have the courage to pursue a dream, whatever it might be.

So what am I saying? I DARE YOU to DREAM. I dare you to DREAM BIGGER than you’ve ever dreamt before. In fact, I dare you to set GOALS that may even give you the opportunity to fail miserably. Yes, a BIG GOAL.

Make this your year of the BIG goal.

Now I’m not encouraging stupidity. But what I’m trying to stir you up to do is to BREAK OUT of mediocrity and REALLY LIVE.

Get a GOAL, write it down, set a date for its completion, put in place a plan to achieve it and WORK HARDER than you’ve ever worked before to see it come to pass in your life.

And further to the suicide note, written by a man who wondered whether or not there was a God. It’s rather ironic that this little family who stumbled across his note, maybe only minutes after he’d left it at that table, took time to pray that God would intervene, restore his hope and refresh his dream and relationships. God only knows what came of that precious life.

The smartest thing I suppose that that ‘fool’ did, was to write down his thoughts on paper. But I don’t really think he was a ‘fool’ after all. Do you?

But here following are 7 powerful points, drawn from the greatest motivational book ever written, about how you can live your life on purpose with purpose.

‘I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.(1) When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.(2) Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.’ Jeremiah 29:11-14 (Message)(3)

GOD KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING

Tsunamis, wars, earthquakes, terrorism, 9/11, 6,000,000 Jews gassed and burned, millions dying from AIDS…God didn’t create those tragedies. He didn’t cause them. There’s a devil who’s good at only three things: KILLING, STEALING AND DESTROYING. And in John 10: 10 it reads: ‘the thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.’

GOD KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING. We must believe that. We must trust that. Because His word is true and he has already told us what is to come between the time Jesus first came to planet earth and until he returns for the 2nd time. God knows what he’s doing!

GOD HAS A PLAN TO GIVE YOU THE FUTURE YOU HOPE FOR

Hey…how about that? God is not a bossy boots who just simply tells you what he wants you to do.

He is open to your input. Remember that he is the one who created you and he wants you to use your brains. And that’s why he tells us that ‘we should make plans, counting on God to direct us’ Proverbs 16:24 and ‘in everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.’ Proverbs 3:6(4)

God has a plan to give you the future YOU hope for. So speak up and let him know what you’re thinking. He probably planted that thought there in the first place.(5) God has given you desires and gifts peculiar to you and he wants you to use them. Your purpose is probably right under your nose and you just haven’t seen it yet.

GOD’S PLAN FOR YOU IS GOOD, GREAT & MAGNIFICENT

But in order to receive it you must first believe it…

I was woken one morning by a song on the radio. The chorus went something like this: ‘Get a little dirt on your hands boy, get a little dirt on your hands.’ I can’t recall the words of the rest of the song nor the writer, but what I could gather was that it was a song that followed the path of a boy in his journey through to manhood and maturity. The lyricist BELIEVED that in order to travel that path, you were going to have to work hard or in fact get a little dirt on your hands. There was a lot of truth in just a few lyrics. So much so that I jumped up out of bed and wrote it down for future reference.

Those words for me were of EXTREME PERSONAL SIGNIFICANCE.

Some years ago I’d reached a point in my life where I needed to take charge. The end result was that my wife and I started up our own Domestic Cleaning Business. Simply with a DECISION, a few hundred dollars for advertising, a vacuum cleaner, some cleaning fluids out of our cupboard and a mop, we were in business. I designed my own letterbox drop leaflet and delivered them with my wife and kids into letterboxes throughout our neighbourhood, and before we knew it we were up and running and MAKING MONEY. My friends seemed to be AMAZED that I could do such a thing and that I had the courage to step out and take charge of my own destiny. I had no knowledge about the cleaning business, only a DESIRE to be in charge of my life and a refusal to be subject to the whims of employers or other people.

However, for a pair of EDUCATED people (we are both trained school teachers), to go and clean other people’s toilets, was at times humiliating, especially when some status conscious client made sure that we knew our place. However, when on the completion of a job and when cash was thrust into my hands for a job well done, I was filled with A SENSE OF GREAT PRIDE. It was my business, it had been my work and I’d been paid for doing a necessary task that would benefit another household. We worked hard and long because it was our own business. We needed to feed our family and carry us to the next stage of our lives. Even though we were doing what for many were menial and filthy tasks, I discovered this one thing:

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU DO IN LIFE THAT COUNTS, IT’S HOW YOU DO IT

The most important ingredient was: that no matter what task we were assigned to do, we did it with ENTHUSIASM and did it to the very best of our ability.

I remember the day when one of our clients, whom we regularly cleaned a house for, ASKED US to take over the cleaning of her husband’s factory. In order to do this, we would leave home late at night while our children were fast asleep and at times we would even have to take one of them along with us. This was after a full day of housecleaning, which at times required the cleaning of 5 to 6 houses a day. We would then head out to this cold and inhospitable factory in order to clean it. Not only all the offices, but also the numerous toilet facilities used by the male population.

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I will NEVER FORGET the seemingly long drive each night as we travelled out there. It was always very late and on many of those cold and bitter winter nights I knew where I’d rather be, warm and snug in my own bed. After a night of wading through the filth, the rubbish, the pornographic magazines, the putrid toilets and the chemical stench of the factory, we would return home in the early hours of the morning. I would then stand under the shower for what seemed like hours, scrubbing my skin so hard in order to remove every trace of the grease and dirt and muck from the pores of my skin.

There were times when my wife and I would look at each other and wonder how on earth we had found ourselves in such a position. But in the same breath WE WERE THANKFUL that we were willing to DO WHATEVER IT TOOK to get us where we wanted to go in the future.

During those three years that we owned the business, I NEVER STOOD STILL IN MY MIND, even though my life looked as though it was perpetually stuck in the mud. I can remember the pain, but I can also remember the INCREASING DESIRE to DO BETTER and to BECOME BETTER.

Why is it that we as humans can put up with pain for so long? Why is it that we fail to see opportunity staring us in the face? Why is it that we so often choose to walk through the wilderness, while surrounded by springs of fresh water? I don’t have an answer for that. But there is one thing I do know. When you’re there, the best thing to do in those times is to CONTINUE EDUCATING YOURSELF. That’s what I did and that’s why I now write books.

WE NEED TO COME TO GOD TO FIND OUT THE PLAN

God is the man with the plan. He designed the world. He designed us. He is the architect. So if we are to build the best life possible, isn’t it a good idea to go to the one who is holding the plans in his hands?

GOD’S READY AND AVAILABLE

God is ready when you are. But the fact is that sometimes we’re not ready. I look at one of my current businesses that I run where we design websites. Now in the year 2000 when we were struggling financially, I took nearly $5000 of our precious finances and poured it into a three-day seminar on Internet Marketing that was being held in Sydney.

I didn’t have the money to spend, but I knew the Internet holds the future for many businesses and so I needed to sit under an expert. I remember one thing and that was that the information I received in that weekend was too much for me to handle. But there was one thing that the seminar leader did say. You must learn HTML. Now I had enough trouble learning French, so when I came home I threw out a challenge to my kids to learn HTML. The seminar leader had given me the websites of some FREE HTML seminars. Well, Ben who was 13 at the time grabbed it and ran.

18 months ago with his skills in HTML plus more and my skills in sales and marketing we launched a business and just the other week, in addition to all the other websites we sell, we sold one website that was worth more than the seminar that I attended. God knew when we were ready to start such a venture. I had to wait for my kids to grow up to a certain age in order to launch a successful business. That was his time.

THE CRITERIA THOUGH TO GET GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE ARE THREEFOLD:

WE MUST COME TO HIM IN PRAYER

I remember when I was first really turned on to God. I would get up early every morning and shut myself away in my study. I would have a set program of bible study and prayer. I would have a map of the world on the wall and would PRAYER TRAVEL. I would pray for every country in the world and every leader in a systematic and orderly fashion. It worked for a while but then I got bored.

The thing though that has helped me now, is that I still get up early in the morning, aided by the alarm on my phone, and I still go and sit in the same place every morning. But I go armed with my bible, my journal, my diary and a pen. I often find that by writing in my journal, it helps me to keep focussed. Every morning is different. Some days I will sit and simply meditate on a scripture or think about what God has for me to do in the day ahead. It’s a time of peace and a time of solitude. It’s the time when he gives me the greatest ideas for my life, for holidays, for my business plus more. It is a very practical time where the plans are unveiled as I simply come and spend time with my heavenly father. It’s not religious. It’s fun.

And in order to plan my day I write in my diary the numbers 1 through 6 and fill out the 6 most important things that I need to get done to carry my business forward that day and I tick them off as they get done. If any of them don’t get done I simply transfer them on to the next day. These 6 points alone give me a sense of purpose each and every day.

WE MUST BE SERIOUS ABOUT FINDING OUT OUR PURPOSE

This is so important. If you’re not serious, then you are going to get zip bang nothing out of it. Serious people with a serious purpose will get serious life changing results. Henry David Thoreau observed that people live lives of ‘quiet desperation’ but today a better description by Rick Warren is ‘AIMLESS DISTRACTION.’

My advice to you is to turn off the TV, throw away the newspaper and magazines until you find out what God wants you to do with your life.

WE NEED TO WANT TO KNOW OUR PURPOSE MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE

A little while ago I started to write down a list of things that would fire me up to work harder. As my list quickly dwindled I suddenly realised that my WHY wasn’t big enough. I had lost my zest. I’d lost my bang. And I realised from past experience that this can happen at any time and anywhere.

So this is what I did. I decided to increase my WHY. So I took a Z3 for a spin and scared my daughter as she clung on tightly in the passenger’s seat. I checked out the latest Monaro in the car sales lot. I talked to the owner of some acreage that I want to purchase in the future and walked on the land and claimed it for our family. I planned a holiday like I’d never had before.

I started a vegetable garden. I sat in the foyer of the Sheraton Hotel and got a brand new idea for a brand new book. I redesigned a website that had grown old and mouldy. I cleaned out my wardrobe. I cleaned out my garage. I bought some new clothes. I stretched myself and expanded my business and the plans for my future business.

But most of all I spent more time studying the word and purchased more books written by winners in the prospective fields that I’m interested in being sales and marketing and how to motivate and manage a team. I sought out new mentors…and all of a sudden the fire was back again….

You have to get desperate. You have to find a BIGGER WHY. If you are bored with life then you have to find your WHY. Make it your first purpose to FIND YOUR WHY with God’s help.

WHEN WE DISCOVER OUR PURPOSE WE WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED

God’s purpose is a good purpose and if you’re serious about finding his purpose for your life, YOU WILL FIND IT.

One of the key realisations I have had is that you must establish good habits. They are vital if someone is going to fulfil their God-given purpose. The fact is that good daily habits will lead to a GREAT destiny.

The practice of regular reading, meditating, listening and studying on a daily basis are habits that need to become a natural part of your daily routine.

LET’S GET IT STARTED – MY CHALLENGE TO YOU

So as part of that idea, and as part of the kick-off for your purpose program, I want to encourage you to get a clear vision for your life.This is how I propose to do it, for this has actually helped me personally in the past.

I throw out a challenge that you write your perfect vision for your life. By doing this you will be in fact projecting your DESTINY… by faith.

So the heading for this project is: MY PERFECT VISION.

You are in fact going to go wild with your imagination and put pen to paper and write your perfect vision for your life in at least 500 to 1000 words. This is not a spelling or a grammatical test. Just write as you speak.

Within your description YOU will design in word pictures your perfect house that you would want to live in, the perfect car you would drive, your perfect role in your local church, the perfect state of your relationships, your lifestyle, the ability to give of your time and money to charity and those in need etc. etc. etc…..

But first of all, before you can unlock the key to your ultimate purpose you must start at square one. You must have a personal relationship with Jesus.

Motivational Memo: Lives lived on purpose with purpose are powerful, productive and perfect.