What Are You Here For?

“To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

We do not all have the same abilities or opportunities but we all have the privilege of determining the purpose to which we will dedicate ourselves. A wise man once told me that there were only three big decisions that most of us will ever make in life; who are you going to live your life with; what are you going to live your life in; and what are you going to live your life for? It’s that third question that seems to stump most of us. What are you living your life for?

As a college student, I worked for a time in an automotive plant to fund my schooling. It was a very routine job that I found unfulfilling. Most of my co-workers hated their job and talked all the time about how they would live out their retirement doing what they really wanted to do. Unfortunately most folks don't fulfill their dreams in retirement and more importantly - why would we want to wait? I determined right then and there that I would seek to find a purpose for my life that I could live for each day. I wanted something that made me wake up every morning with thankfulness that I was alive.

Have you found a worthwhile purpose for your life? Success has been defined as: “the progressive realization of a worthwhile, pre-determined goal.” Establish a handful of worthy goals in your life and give yourself fully to accomplishing them. In establishing your life-purposes, start with your relationship with God, your family and your work. These top three areas of your life need the most urgent attention.

“Settle on your life-purposes and sell out to accomplish them each day.”

The Choice Is Yours

“It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” - J. K. Rowling

You choose what kind of person you will become through thousands of little decisions you make every day. Your choices have a lasting effect on who you will become. Even when bad things happen that are beyond your control, you have a choice as to how you will interpret and respond to the situation and whether or not it will make you better or bitter.

In the coffee shop of the Atlanta airport Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World – Kenny Norton, sent an autograph seeker away with the terse remark – “Get out of here, can’t you see I am eating!” The dejected sailor turned and walked away from his hero and straight toward me. I felt compassion for the navy seaman dressed in his white uniform so I tried to encourage him. As we talked over a cup of coffee, he opened up and our conversation went quickly to a much deeper level than either of us had expected.

That seaman had started out seeking his hero’s autograph and meeting disappointment; he ended up talking to someone just as ordinary as he was and making a new friend.

I was very unimpressed with the boxer that day and very pleasantly surprised by the sailor. In the eyes of many, the boxer had made all the right moves but I saw something else. I was looking at a man who had made some choices that had given him a black eye – at least in the mind of two people I knew. He had fought for fortune and fame and lost his compassion for others. Whether or not to devalue others is a choice we all face at one time or another. Choose carefully, your choice will either build your legacy or tear it down. Choices – we all make them every day. But in the end – they make us.

“Choose to cultivate your inner person and don’t sacrifice your character on the road to success.”

Believe In Me

“Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” – Karen Ravn

I have been blessed to be surrounded by many wonderful friends who can be brutally honest with me when needed. They tell me when I am on track and when I am not. When their feedback tells me I need a course correction, it is usually done in a positive way so I can receive it with benefit. I'm thankful for those kind of friends.

A good friend believes in you but doesn't only say what you want to hear. They are an encourager who shores you up when you are down and brings you down to earth when you are too high on yourself. A friend is a leveler.

My life has been riddled with great successes and sometimes even greater failures. The usual course of action is to hide the failure and publish the success, but as I grow older I am not inclined to do that so much. What I want most is to learn the valuable lessons embedded in my failures so I can become the person I am intended to be. I don't usually learn much from my success.

Failure is not fatal unless we run from it. Our success is far more likely to damage us because it can create an unreliable sense of importance that causes us to think more highly of our self than we ought. Success should never make us feel invincible because that is when we are most vulnerable. On the other hand, success can give us the confidence we need to attempt that which is beyond our immediate reach; it helps us believe in our self when no one else does.

I seem to have always had encouragers around me. When my life was the darkest, they gave me light. I want to do that for others too. I want to have the eyes to see the need in those around me and a tongue that will speak the words of life they need to hear. What a wonderful impact we could have if we valued others in that way.

I want to be a “Believer.”I need to believe in myself and to have others believe in me too. I cannot ever give up on myself and hope those around me never will either. I want to believe in people who are failing; to believe they can succeed. I want to lift them up with my words of encouragement and show them that their failures will never be fatal if they use them wisely to build a foundation for their future success. I want them to realize that everything which comes into our life is useful if properly employed. I want to believe in others the way I need for them to believe in me.

“Encouragement is the mortar holding our failures and successes together like bricks so we can make something beautiful of our life.”