A Blessing

“Over and over I marvel at the blessings of my life: Each year has grown better than the last.”

Lawrence Welk

“Writing is my time machine, takes me to the precise time and place I belong.”

Jeb Dickerson

“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make.”

Truman Capote

I got hit with a severe case of vertigo today and it pretty much wrecked all my afternoon and evening plans.  I finally got home and slept for a few hours.  I’m better now, but still not at 100%.  So I’m having tea and toast and writing.  Why am I writing?

I’m writing because that’s what I do.  I do other things, too.  I also write resumes, teach, and give job search seminars.  But writing is the activity that brings the most structure to my life.  It creates self-discipline.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not the most self-disciplined guy in the world.  I’m impulsive, indecisive and impetuous.  My physical environment is often disorderly and I’m easily distracted.  But when I write, I’m calm and focused.  I breathe more easily. 

This is what Purpose does.  It focuses and even brings peace.  I have been active in my Purpose(s) when I’ve been tired, depressed, angry or even physically ill.  And when I got engaged in my Purpose, often my emotional or physical symptoms abated and even disappeared. 

Can Purpose bring physical healing?  Perhaps.  I know that I’ve worked when sick and while it didn’t bring immediate healing, it did help me feel better while I was engaged.  Steven Pressfield tells the apocryphal story of the woman who is told she has six months to live, so she engages fully into her Purpose and the cancer goes into remission.  I don’t know if Purpose brings healing, but it does bring life. 

I know I’ve felt more alive in the last eleven months than I’ve felt in a long time.  I’ve felt this way when I’ve taught or written resumes or done public speaking.  But this is something I can do every day and it doesn’t require anyone else’s participation.  It just requires my fingers and keyboard (or pen and paper, if I prefer).   I think that even if one’s Purpose is manifested in front of others, like teaching or public speaking or leading a group of some sort, it is ultimately a process for the individual.  It creates personal growth, inner healing and it teaches.  It may even change the circumstances of one’s life.  Or it may not.  It will certainly change the individual.  It has changed my life.

In addition to increased focus, I’ve felt greater self-esteem, more structure and certainly more joy.  It has been a blessing to do this.  It’s been a blessing to Get Started and to Keep Going.