Purpose
The power of purpose is something that keeps coming to mind. John Maxwell once said that the two most important days in a person’s life are the day they were born, and the day they figure out why they were born.
I was having a conversation the other day with a friend about the cultural differences of generations. As a GenXer, the younger generations have inspired and frustrated me. I’ve noticed that they seem (I know this is a vast generalization) far more inclined to protect their schedule and not overbook themselves. I’ve spoken with peers who lead in government service and corporate leadership, and the “easy answer” for us more mature leaders is to question their laziness with a fair degree of skepticism. I talked with a young unmarried ministry leader who told me he was stretched too thin and overbooked to attend our leadership institute. I immediately thought about my grad school, four teenagers, and my fantastic wife filling my calendar, confusing the conversation.
The more I think and ponder, the more I wonder if the younger generations aren’t learning and doing things better than we have. Recent writings by authors like John Mark Comer and Jordan Raynor have highlighted the destructiveness of our constantly filled, way too busy lives. The same friend and I discussed how the designers of one of the original smartphones thought they were building a tool that would make a 24-hour workweek normal. They didn’t see it as something that would dramatically increase the work week, not take away from it.
As how we work and schedule our lives changes, we must continuously look for purpose in our planning and activities. Distraction seems to be a major obstacle to finding joy in living the life we were created to live. Developing a personal mission and vision statement can help find purpose in the tasks and responsibilities that feel more like a distraction than purpose.
My life mission is to make the world more awesome. My vision for doing it is to maximize human potential and experience by developing people, building teams, and solving problems to overcome evil with good…I’m still trying to figure out how cleaning my kitchen connects to this, but it at least makes for some entertaining thinking.