How to Live Life on Purpose With a Purpose

Motion Leads to Emotion

What do you need to do to be fully alive? I don’t know. Only you can know what your purpose is. However, I hope that I can help you discover your purpose. The good news is that we have everything inside ourselves today that we will need to live a full life. We only need to discover what we need and then develop it.

Purpose is like a muscle. We need to exercise it to fully develop it. Just like a muscle, our purpose will respond to the amount of activity we engage in and grow accordingly. The meaning in our lives will depend on our ability to discover our purpose and to develop it. We must always look inside to find purpose and meaning in life. Too often our society teaches us to look outside ourselves for meaning. By looking outside ourselves I mean that people turn to food, alcohol, drugs, sex, or other crutches to get meaning. They don’t work!

I want to encourage you to live life on purpose, with a purpose. The Greek philosopher Socrates said:

The unexamined life is not worth anything.

I would say instead, “The unexamined life was not really lived.” This is true if we exist through life but take no positive action to make it good. We are given a limited time on Earth, it may be five years or seventy-five years or one hundred and five years, we can’t know. No matter how long, life is a gift from God, and it is wonderful. We can waste it or have a rich meaningful life. We must decide to live life to the fullest to be happy.

How do you approach life?

• Do you approach life in a passive, reactive way?
• Do you approach life in a positive or proactive way?
• Do you think about your life, what it means, and what you want to do with it?
• Do you live each day as it comes with little thought about what you want to do?
• Do you find yourself tired, bored, and unmotivated?

These are all signs of an unfulfilled life.

Guess what: it’s your life; you can do almost anything that you want with it. If you feel lethargic, you can change that with some physical exercise. If you’re bored, you can change that with some mental exercise. If you’re unmotivated, you can change that with some Spiritual exercise.

A simple plan:

I would like to present to you a simple plan that anyone (and I mean absolutely anyone) can use to change their life from something less than dynamic to a life that is full of energy, meaning, purpose, fulfillment, and personal satisfaction.

Too often we want to take shortcuts in life. For example. we may set a goal “to be happy.” We tend to believe that happiness is some magic state that we can reach and live in without doing anything. So how do we try to get there? Drugs, alcohol, sex, love, work, money, you name it. But what happens? Do these factors give us lasting happiness? No, they give us only short-term pleasure followed by a period of greater unhappiness than we started with. Life becomes like a roller coaster. The higher the highs, the more excited and happy we are. However, these highs don’t last and are followed by lows, so we feel worse. The lows drive us to seek higher highs. This pattern leads to destruction and despair, not lasting happiness. I believe that this is how many addictions begin.

Think of the amazing paradox: if we seek a shortcut to freedom, we will become a slave to that shortcut. But if we take the right route, we will truly be free. For example, when Fred was a teenager, he always studied and worked hard at various odd jobs. His friends were always out playing and drinking and doing drugs. At the time he envied them because they were having fun and seemed happy while Fred was stuck working and studying. However, many of his friends ended up addicted to drugs and alcohol, but Fred continued on to college and a good career. Therefore, their shortcuts to freedom led them into the bondage of addiction, but his sacrifice led him to a life of freedom.

Real lasting happiness comes not from instant gratification; it comes from doing what we were designed to do. Remember, you were designed for a particular purpose. All of us have our own unique purpose. It was inside of us the day were were born. The choices we make in life either lead us closer to that purpose or further away from it. The closer we get to that purpose, the better our lives will be and the more fulfilled we will feel. But to find that purpose in life, we must look inside ourselves, not outside. We must get in touch with our bodies, our minds and our Spirits and listen to what they tell us.

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This is an excerpt from my book Attitude Determines Destiny. In it you will learn how to get the most out of life by changing your attitude and making personal changes…changes that can lead you down a life-long path of personal growth.

As a motivational speaker, I conduct seminars and workshops based upon the ideas in my book. I will entertain and inspire your audiences, and I can customize my topics to fit your needs and desires.

Contact me for your next event