Change Starts...

When You Live on Purpose

If you’re able to read this post, that means you’re still alive. And if you’re still living, that means there’s something out there for you to do.

It’s time to stop procrastinating and saying you’ll do it, “When you have the money, next year, or when you’re older,” Why not now? What’s stopping you from fulfilling your purpose in life.

Here’s a list of things I continually do to make sure that I am living a life of purpose. And for me purpose means continually working towards what God wants for/from my life.

15 steps to purposeful living:

Know Who You Are –Creating meaning in your life starts with knowing who you really are. When you know who you are, you are able to define what a purposeful life means for you. When you know about yourself, you will know what things need to be done in order to reach your destiny. Learn about your strengths, weaknesses, gifts, talents, dislikes, likes, values, what drives you, and what discourages you.

Be Confident in Who You Are – You may have a good sense of who you are, but that may consist of negative connotations about yourself, such as, “I can’t do this, or I’m not good enough.” It’s important to be confident in the unique individual that you are. People can encourage you all day long, but if you don’t believe in yourself, you won’t ever strive towards the things you want in life. Learn to love yourself, flaws and all. There’s no one else on this earth like you, so make the most of what you’ve been given. Nothing about you can go to waste, not even your weaknesses, unless you let it. Confidence is the key to success, as you will never try anything if you don’t believe that you can.

Know Your Purpose – When you have developed a healthy sense of self, it’s time to start wondering what you were created for. Is it to be a teacher? To develop a new software program? To preach, sing, dance, build, create, or all of the former. Whatever it is, figure out what it is that you’re passionate about – the thing that you would do if nobody paid you. The thing that you can be excited to get up each day for.

Read my article on "When You're Called, but don't Want to Be," for more insight into understanding God's purpose for your life.

Don’t Live in the Past – choose to not be a victim of your past hurts and mistakes. Acknowledge what happened and how it affected you. Seek a counselor if needed, but don’t stay in the past. You can never move on in life if you are constantly stuck thinking about what cannot be changed. Instead, you need to be thinking about what you can do today to be the person you want to be tomorrow, or what you can do today to make tomorrow a better day. Re-living in the past only keeps you there and makes you forget that you still have purpose in life.

Dump the Haters – Not everybody is for you. Most of all, be aware of those who want nothing but to see you fail. Get rid of these people from your life. They will do you no good. Don’t let jealous, negative, or discouraging people around you. The number one thing I do to make sure that I am focused and staying on track is limiting who I allow into my life. I am very peculiar about who I am close friends with, and because of this I don’t have too many, and I’m completely fine with that - less, drama for me.

Dump the No-Good-For-You – These are the people that don’t push you to be a better version of yourself. You may have many friends that you like, and they may not be “hating” on you, but are they doing you any good? Do, you pour way more into them, then they do into you? Are they constantly taking advantage of you? Do they pressure you to do things that go against your values? My dad would always tell me, “Show me your friends – I’ll show you your future.” Now, this doesn’t mean you have to disregard them completely from your life, but these shouldn’t be the people you hang out with on a daily basis. If you keep hanging around people that don’t have dreams and goals for themselves, you yourself won’t think you need to have any.

Stop the anti-Social Media – If you’re not using social media to actually be social (messaging people, business pages, reading articles, posting encouraging messages/videos), then you need to rethink your priorities and ask yourself if this is another thing that is just a waste of your time. I’ve had to deactivate my Facebook plenty of times, because I would spend hours just looking at “everybody’s life that’s better than mine,” which in return would only leave me depressed. Also, I spent hours doing this, when I knew my time could have been spent a better way.

Get Rid of the TV – Lol, yes, I know you are laughing too right now, and most of you will probably skip this step; however, TV can consume so much of your life. It’s so easy to go from watching one episode to watching ten in one sitting. Now, you don’t really have to get rid of your TV, but definitely monitor your time on it. I think for many of you this is a way to relax and enjoy some down time. If you enjoy TV (which many do), just limit how much time you spend on it. Also, don’t get so addicted to it that this becomes the biggest hindrance from you being able to live out your purpose. It’s so easy to say, “I’ll just watch TV,” instead of, “I’ll work on this project.”(The same thing for video games!)

Do 1 Thing a Day – I challenge you to do one thing a day in the direction of your goals. It can be for 5 minutes, but at least do something. If you want to be a mom: pray for your future kids, read a parenting book, learn how to cook. If you want to be a speaker: watch other speakers, practice speaking, write out a speech. Think about what things you can do each day to help you become the person you want to be.

Be Intentional - do something for somebody else. You never know who you will meet that is in need of encouragement. People can gain a lot from giving to others. So, be intentional: smile at someone, ask someone how their day is going, pay for someone’s meal, etc. I noticed that my days have gone a lot better when either someone was intentional with me, or I was intentional with them. Just having a conversation with a stranger in an elevator boosts my mood. Also, networking and making contacts is very helpful, because no matter how good you are at something you can’t do it all alone. We need others to help us. So, whether that is being accountable to a mentor or meeting someone new at a coffee shop, you may only be one person away from an answered prayer.

Prioritize Your Time – Most of us say we don't have time for things but in reality, we choose not to make time for it. If you say you want to be ________, and not a professional napper, video-gamer, social media expert, yet this is what you spend most of your time doing, then it’s time to rethink your values. To know how to spend your time you have to start by knowing your values. You will know what you value by how you spend your time, and if you do not currently enjoy your life, it may be time to reconsider if you are truly prioritizing the things you value. Create a list of values from most to least important. Then, think about what you do in your day. Do these things match up? If not, it’s time to create a list that matches your values. Then, do what is most important first, so that you get it done.

Be Healthy - Take care of yourself by exercising and eating healthy. If you eat junk food every day and never hit the gym, you might never make it to see those dreams of yours accomplished. When you exercise and eat healthy, it helps you to be more alert and gives you the energy you need to accomplish today’s tasks. If you’re always feeling tired it may be time to reconsider what’s in your pantry.

Wake Up Early – Okay, this is a hard one for me, because anyone who knows me knows that I am not a morning person, and I can’t function before 10am. However, I have been training myself to wake up early so that I have more time in my day to get things done. When I wake up late, I feel as if half the days already gone, and I become anxious with all that I have to do. Waking up early will give you that time you need to get your list done, even the relaxing/napping one, and not feel bad about it.

Make Every Minute Count – As I said, time is limited each day, so use it wisely. Don’t waste time by taking naps just because. If you really need to rest, then do so, but don’t take naps because you’re depressed or have nothing else to do. Fight the boredom and fight the depression by doing something you love. Whether it is talking to friends, exploring the city, or baking. Ask yourself this question with everything you do, “What is the purpose in what I am doing right now?” Is it to fill time? Relax? Learn? Grow? Encourage someone? Improve a skill? Have some fun? Let at least 80% of the things you do in your day have some type of meaning and be in accordance with your goals/values.

Relax – lastly, after I talk about how to be a go-getter and everything you need to do in order to live intentionally, you also need to learn how to rest. God requires us to rest, because even he rested (Genesis 2:2). If you don’t take time to relax, this will eventually lead to burn-out. And if you're burned out, you won’t be able to do as much, or at least do it well. This may mean taking a day to watch a full season of your favorite show or taking a full day to sleep. I try to take one day a week, where I don’t do anything that feels like work: cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. Rest is always needed so that you can be rejuvenated to start the rest of the week/day strong. Don’t feel bad for taking time to just do nothing. Sometimes this is what you need and there is purpose in that – to regenerate yourself and to enjoy the little things in life.

Also, remember your #1 Purpose above everything is to deepen your relationship with God. Even, if you feel like you are doing "nothing" in life - if you are constantly in prayer, worshipping, reading your Bible, then this is always the best way to spend your day. When you relax, remember to spend time talking to God, as the main point of a Sabbath is to pause and connect to what the Holy Spirit saying...which is always purposeful.

Doing these things has really helped me to create discipline in my life. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be living for nothing. I want to enjoy this life as best as I can, and for me that’s by impacting those around me.

Now, this article wasn’t written to create a “Workaholic” or "Hustle" mentality either, but to encourage everyone to live intentionally, and these 15 things will definitely give you a head start.