#7 Move With Purpose

I have often heard people talk about their purpose in life. I feel like it’s talked about like the end-all, be-all of your work life. And when that purpose is found, everything will fall into place and we can finally have our “happily ever after.” I do want to talk about that idea, but later. You see, if we don’t talk about something else first, our purpose will slip through our fingers. We need to talk about the shoulders that carry our purpose when it is given to us. We need to talk about the kind of person that we become. The kind of person that can receive and carry our mission once we find it. We need to become the purpose before we can find it. 

I say this with confidence because that’s what happened to me. I was given the dream and I lost it because I wasn’t ready to have it. In between my junior and senior years of college, I had a moment where I got fed up with all the intellectual work and said to myself “screw it, I’m going to be a plumber!” It may have been flippant at the time, but it planted a seed in me. A seed that would later grow into the path that I know and love today. 

But as I started down this path, I wasn’t the type of person who was ready to chase that dream. I compromised. I settled. I took some jobs that didn’t really help my career advance in the direction I wanted. I said “whatever” one too many times and got lost along the way. I didn’t dig my heels in and really chase my dream well. Not because it wasn’t my passion, but because I just wasn’t an assertive enough person yet. I couldn’t say “no” to the wrong thing. And I couldn’t say “yes” to a tougher one. And, above all, I couldn’t stick it out when the work wasn’t fun anymore. 

That’s why I think everyone should have a few years of doing a certain job without quitting. To work their very hardest, do their very best, regardless of whether or not that job really is their career path. Heck, maybe it would be best if that job weren’t their career path. Maybe we ought to work a dead-end job for a bit, to learn to work hard for hard work’s sake. Then, when your purpose comes, you will have the fireplace built and the kindling ready to burn with passion for the rest of your life. 

I say everyone should work in the food industry for a time. It helps you learn how to work like you mean it, even when you don’t. If you slack off in the dish pit, things pile up fast. It’s not a pretty sight. And it’s pretty thankless, too. Sure, you might have an occasional someone that comes up and offers you a hand, but it’s pretty rare. Everyone should have a dish pit season so that they can learn how to keep on truckin’ like a machine when things get tough. 

Because anything you commit to will have that difficult season. Your marriage won’t always be fun (or so I’m told,) your job will have its boring or busy seasons and your friends might get on your nerves after a while. In everything you do, you will have a time when things aren’t fun. And it’s in those moments that you will have the opportunity to make the choice: do you want to build a fortress of permanence, or do you want to chase the tent of pleasures and highs? The choice is yours and you must choose your path wisely.

So I pray that you make the difficult choices. That you learn to chase the less pleasant road that leads to glory. Because the path of chasing highs comes with a side of regret, and you will be forced to live with its nasty taste for as long as you live. So choose wisely and live with deeper peace.

Until Next Time

May Peace be your Guide.