Are You Living A Purposeful Life?

Can you answer this simple question? Are you living a purpose driven life? Or perhaps you are like the majority of people, living day to day, just moving along wherever life chooses to take you and not in control of your own destiny? We live in a time and age where we are constantly bombarded with distractions from all angles. We are bombarded by media 24 hours a day! With all of this “stuff” going on, it’s no wonder that it’s easy to lose track of what’s important and what we should be doing.

One way that we subconsciously fool ourselves that we are coping with this information overload is by focusing on the “what” instead of the why. We focus on things like “What do we need to do today?”

Now perhaps you can understand why there is such a huge market for planners and organizers! There’s a reason why so many of us work with daily to-do lists. It’s a psychological crutch which helps us sort through the clutter and pick out a handful of (important!) things we need to get done today. In other words, these organizers and lists are a coping mechanism allowing us to deal with the overwhelm of too much information and too many things we could be doing. They help us to simplify a (too) complex life.

Now, I am not dismissing these tools outright as they definitely can be useful but they may also hold a hidden danger in that they make us focus too much on the “what” at the risk of losing track of the “why”. What do I actually mean by this? What I mean is that it’s hard to see the big picture and make sure you are following your purpose when you’re just staring at a to-do list.

But it’s not difficult to fix that while still being able to use all those tools to kick overwhelm to the curb. Here’s what you need to do. Set aside a little time each month, or even each week, to sit back, reflect and look at the big picture. If you need to, put it on your calendar to make sure it gets done. Don’t just ignore it as it is important.

Spend that time reflecting on what you’ve actually accomplished this past week and how it has helped you move forward in the right direction. Be objective and critical; What tasks helped you fulfill you purpose and what was just busy work? We all have things we do on a regular basis, just because that’s how we’ve always done it; in other words it’s habitual. Take a long hard look at those things and see if perhaps there’s a better way to be spending your time. Maybe there are other things you could try that may work better, be more efficient or they just align more with your big “why”.

Finally, the exciting bit; start planning your “what” for the coming week or month, but always keep your “why” in mind when planning this. Think about what you need to do to move forward. Always keep your purpose and your end goal in mind and you will get there much quicker.