I ended blog #012 with a question, “what is your life mission?” This led to several interesting online discussions, during which, I was asked what is your life mission and how did you find it? I promised to answer in my next blog, so here goes…
The first formal prompt was 11 years ago. Chris, my coach at the time, asked me to capture my life mission or purpose. We were about halfway through a programme called Effective Personal Leadership from LMI (Leadership Management Institute). I still recommend this programme today as “Awesome and life-changing”. Like most people faced with such a question, I was daunted by its enormity.
Up until this point, I had been a model student, diligently completing tasks and achieving many self-generated goals. After a couple of sessions where I was unable to show any progress on the life mission task, I was starting to feel some pressure. Looking back, I can now see that this was me needing to maintain my image of me, and the one I wanted to project to Chris. This, combined with a deep-rooted belief that I am capable of almost anything, provided the energy I needed to overcome my fear. I knew that I had an evening at home alone coming up and decided that was the time to tackle my life mission.
After waving off the family, I settle in with an open fire and a bottle of wine on a typically dark and chilly autumn evening. I remember using a pencil rather than a pen so that I could easily modify anything I wrote. I started with a few questions - What are my values? What do I care about? What do I enjoy? The values question turned out to be a great starter for me, as I had asked myself the same question a decade earlier.
For my 26th birthday, I decided I wanted a tattoo. At the time, I lived with a good friend from Singapore, who was fluent in Mandarin. I asked Lim if he would write something in Mandarin for me. He said yes, and asked the obvious question, “what would you like me to write?” I knew a few friends who had regretted tattoos, so I knew that whatever the answer was, it had to endure. I came up with four core values, Peace, Love, Honesty and Friendship; values that I cherish to this day.
I was off and running! This led me to my favourite poem, Desiderata. Things snowballed from there. In less than 2 glasses of wine I had my first draft of my life mission complete. I sat there with a healthy glow for the rest of the evening, half contentment and half the wine. Since then, I have modified, iterated and reverted parts of it. I guess I am on version twenty-ish and still not finished.
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My Life Mission… is to be happy, healthy and helpful.
I am happy when; spreading peace but not avoiding confrontation; sharing my love for life; being honest but never brutal or indiscrete; nurturing strength of spirit and friendships; providing for my family’s needs; finding new and rewarding challenges; being myself!
I stay healthy by maintaining my reserves, being sociable, creative, grateful, f-u-n and active.
I am helpful to anyone who wants to help themselves…
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Perhaps my slightly unusual salutation at the end of my blog posts make a little more sense now? Just before I sign off, a shameless plug. My second book aims to tackle exactly these existential types of question and help the readers go through a process to find their own unique answers. It looks likely this will be published in Spring 2020. I will keep you posted. Until then, here are my seven top tips to help find your life’s mission or purpose;
Seven Tips for Finding Your Life’s Mission or Purpose
Write down the things (people, objects, beliefs, etc…) that you value most.
Arm yourself with anything that inspires you. For example, poems, songs, pictures, etc…
Remember you are not trying to capture the meaning of life, leave this to philosophers. You are seeking your life mission.
List any activities that bring you joy or that you get lost in i.e. you look up and time has passed by very quickly.
Talk to your friends, family and close colleagues about it. You will be surprised how insightful others are about you.
Write something straight away. Do not worry about it. Think about it as an eternal work in progress. It does not need to be perfect.
When you are happy enough with it. Create a plaque or picture with it and put it somewhere you can see it regularly.
The final tip has been really useful for me. I keep a copy in my diary/journal and read it daily. More often when I am struggling.
Have you got a life mission or purpose? Would you like to share it? I would love to hear about it, simply get in touch as per the details below.
Be happy, healthy and helpful
Paul
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