Fresh Start Mondays – Live on purpose!

Live on Purpose!

Welcome to another Fresh Start Mondays, where we change the narrative… Today we will be looking at living on purpose. We started this series by looking at the gift of time, the mind and health; and in order to do those things we spoke of, we have to be deliberate in our actions.

“If we fail to plan, we plan to fail” – Benjamin Franklin

Living on purpose means we are deliberate in our actions. The verb deliberate means to engage in long and careful consideration. As an adjective, words such as, done consciously, intentionally, carefully and unhurried, gives deliberate its meaning according to the Oxford dictionary. Therefore, we don’t allow ourselves to become victims of circumstance but we make decisions to take ourselves closer to our desired destination.

There are three (3) things we can do to live on purpose; and they are to plan, to act and to evolve.

A plan is a detailed proposal for doing or achieving something, while making a plan means that we have decided on and made arrangements for that “thing” in advance. Hence, we can not live on purpose without a plan. We must, at least have a mental picture of where we are headed.

Next, we must act! No matter how detailed our plans are on paper or how beautiful our mental picture is, without acting on those plans nothing will be accomplished. Our thoughts and intentions must transition into actions.

And finally, we must be ready to evolve. Nothing in life is static, it is as dynamic as it can get. In order to capitalize on or make the most of our plans in a changing environment, we must be willing and ready to change as is necessary. It is also important for us to recognize, that some things we will only learn by doing, because until we are doing them, we will never fully appreciate that things are not always the way they seem. Many times, we are afraid of change because we enter into the world of the unknown. But it is of equal importance for us to recognize, that by doing, we are becoming experts in those things. Our eyes, hands and intuition are becoming “more trained” as we do, so we can trust ourselves to adjust our plans as is needed.

Living on purpose requires that we plan ahead, being fully aware that the plan may need adjustments. Living on purpose means that we are intentional or deliberate, we don’t wait on chance. But we take the “bull by the horn”. Living on purpose means that we are open to our goals or dreams evolving as we pursue them.

So let us live on purpose… and change the narrative…

Written by: Vanesia Bowden