PASSION TO PURPOSE

What’s your purpose?  Is it something other than waking up every day and living for someone else?  Or, do you have a clear vision of what’s to come and a plan in place to make it happen?  It has taken me years to figure out my purpose.  Years of college, continuing education, a corporate career, raising children, reading and going down any rabbit hole I could find that might actually lead me to fulfillment.

The problem with finding your purpose is that you just can’t up and say, “THIS is going to be my purpose!”  It has to be something that comes from the heart.  Something that pulls and draws you in.  It’s emotional, mental and almost a spiritual feeling.  And, for me, it had to be something bigger than myself. That’s where I would find my purpose.  

Sounds super cheesy, but hear me out.  You don’t know what you don’t know.  Life has a funny way of directing you with all kinds of “signs.”  They come both literally and figuratively.  Did this work?  Nope.  Let’s take a detour.  Did that feel authentic to you?  Yes!  Proceed through the stop sign to the next intersection of your life.  From there you will take a left onto either a dead end street or a busy thoroughfare.  See?  All of this sign talk made me remember the book posted above. I loved this book as a child and poor Mr. Pine and all of his signs has the entire town distraught. Sorta like finding your purpose! Your purpose is usually not just handed to you and placed in your lap.  It takes some time to figure out and you have to be vulnerable and wide open to it…even the stops and turns that you never expect.  They are leading you to the path you need to take.  There will be times you doubt the process and have to blindly trust.  I will be the first to say that you may at times have absolutely no clue where you are being led.  

Here’s a prime example (no, this is not a sales pitch)…

Hang with me for a moment.  I am making a point, I promise.

Many people thought I was crazy when I decided to invest in  a skincare business.  I have to admit, I kinda wondered, too.  I knew zilch about skincare.  And, even less about peddling a product.  

I actually said “no” several times.  This was just something I never, ever saw myself doing.  It was completely out of my skill set.  I don’t like to fail.  Oh, and I might be just a smidge stubborn and competitive.

I finally said “yes” only because my friend was doing it and I didn’t want to get left out.  Oh, and she promised me Starbucks coffee for life if I would do it with her.  

Fast forward almost six years and it has been one of the most amazing, empowering experiences ever in my life.

Why?  Probably not for the reason you think.  

For many years, it WAS about a paycheck and paying the mortgage and car payments.  It WAS about building a sustainable business that would be inherited by my children.

It WAS about paying the bills.  It WAS about all the things you get up and go to a job for today…mainly a paycheck.

Except that…

Still with me?

Fast forward to about the fourth year of this same skincare business.  It grew because I put some time and effort in and because I got all the coffee I wanted. ;)

However, all of this led me to one very, very important thing.  MY PURPOSE.  I no longer saw it as a business that paid the bills.  It had now become a VEHICLE to my purpose.  It has been a full circle transformation.  Looking back on this journey to finding out what drives me, encourages me and my passion have exponentially changed my future and my path forward.  If you had told me twenty years ago that I would be a life coach owning a skincare business, I would have laughed in your face.  My life was a hot mess and I probably barely washed my face with a bar of soap.

Your PURPOSE doesn’t give a crap about what you think though. :)  It knows where it will lead you and it knows the path you will take to get to it before you do.  For some it may take years to figure this out.  It has for me.  I’ve been a little dingy whipping in the waves of the ocean for years before feeling drawn and led to my purpose.  It’s not for the faint of heart.  You may even fight it.  I did that, too.  You may even say, “WTH?  I can’t do that!  Are you crazy?”  Purpose doesn’t care.  It starts in the heart and takes root.  It’s bigger than you.  It owns you.  If you aren’t living your purpose, your body, heart and mind know.  It’s that little ping in your gut that says, “This isn’t what I’m meant to be doing every day.”  It’s the voice in your head that whispers, “You used to want more and now look at ya.  You’ve settled.  How does that make you feel?”