Randomly Specific Thoughts on My Purpose

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”

Albert Einstein

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don't define them, learn about them, or even seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will”

Dennis Waitley

“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.”

Aristotle

I feel very happy to be here.  I also feel like I have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it.  I also have no idea what to write about.  I want to write quickly because I have other things to do today.  In fact, in order to keep my day orderly, I just wrote down my goals for today.  More specifically, I wrote down a list of tasks.  Goals are different.   Do I have goals for the day?  Do I have goals for the week?  Do I have goals for the rest of the summer, which is only two and a half weeks away?

If I do, I haven’t thought about them.  What is the difference between a goal and a task?  A goal is an objective, a reason, a prize, or a desired outcome.   A task is the way to reach the desired outcome.  So for example, my current task is to finish this blog.  But why?  I feel like I need to clarify my reasons for all my tasks today.  I feel like I go through a lot of tasks without really knowing why I’m doing them.  The tasks aren’t necessarily bad or even unproductive.  But somehow, somewhere along the way I lost sight of why I’m doing them.

Why am I doing this blog?  Why am I writing blogs at all?

I’m writing this blog and all my blogs for the following reasons.

1.     I like to write.  It makes me feel peaceful and strong.  It is one of the highest expressions of myself.

2.     I have a gift for writing.  I feel an obligation or a duty to share my gift with the world in order to bless God, the world, my friends and family and myself.

3.     I hope to attract attention and eventually make good money with my writing.  If I don’t, I will keep writing, but eventually, I want to be a full-time writer.

As I look at my three reasons, I realize that writing every day will not be enough to reach my third goal.  I need to find a way to promote myself or find someone who can promote me.  Yes, it’s possible that I will attract attention and be unexpectedly offered a lucrative book contract, but I’ve been writing for 40 years in one form or another and so far that hasn’t happened, so I think I need to be more purposeful and directed in order to reach goal #3. 

By the way, I think all three objectives are the reason I do my radio show.  (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/robert-farrell)

That was fun.  Let’s try another one.  I have a client today who needs a resume written.  Why do I have clients?

1.     I like making money.

2.     I like seeing people get direction for their lives and getting jobs.

3.     I like helping people find their own answers.

Money is the main reason for writing resumes.  The problem is, I really don’t make very much of it.  Yes, sometimes the phone rings, but not often enough.  If it rang five to seven times a week, with each call being a paying customer, I would be fine.  But I get one paying customer a month, maybe.  Sometimes I go months with no clients.  Having fewer clients is actually more work.  If I had more clients, I would be even better at this job. 

I suppose I could start my own business and work really hard to make resume writing a full-time occupation, but that involves a lot of work I don’t have the time or money to do.  Also, there is very little repeat business.  And, the truth is, although I’m good at writing resumes, it’s not my passion.  If I had to do it for the next ten years, it would be a good use of my time, but I’m not sure if it would be the best use of my time.  Honestly, when it comes to resume writing, I wish I could just work with people who really need it but couldn’t afford it.  I don’t know that I would want to do it all day, but maybe a few hours a day.  I also wish I could be paid for doing it.

Here’s one more goal.  I like making dinners for my kids.  Why?

1.     I want to spend time with them.

2.     I want to cook a nice meal.  I haven’t done that in a long time.

3.     I want to build memories and a stronger relationship with them.

4.     I want them to eat well.

I could write like this all day.  It’s fun and freeing to clarify my goals.  It puts me in charge of my life.  It makes me responsible for my own life.  “Responsible” means I respond thoughtfully to every action.  It means I am accountable for my actions.  It also means I can be trusted by others and by myself to do what I say I will do.

So, I could literally look at every single action and ask why I am doing it. It seems that this practice might cause me to stop doing some actions and increase involvement in others.  Here are some other questions I can ask:

·      Why do I go to church or to the specific church I attend?

·      Why do I live where I live?

·      Why do (or don’t) I exercise?

·      Why do I pursue certain activities?  (More specifically, why am I going to Comic Con this week?)

·      Why do I spend so much time on Facebook?

·      Why do I play certain online games and not others?  Why do I play them at all?

None of these questions are meant to imply that any of my choices are bad or wrong.  I want only to be conscious of every choice I make.  When I am, then I am living a life with Purpose, not just tasks.  Then it’s much easier to Get Started and Keep Going.