Who doesn’t want to move forward? Most people would say hands down that they want to move forward in some way. It could be weight loss, a new career, home repairs, a long-awaited purchase, and more. There are infinite ways to move forward, and it can be different for each one of us. What is not likely to be different for each of us are the common elements we need to get started and get what we really want.
What do you want to be different in your life? It’s often easy to identify what we don’t want and what areas of life we are displeased with. “I’m tired of this or that” or “I don’t want XYZ anymore.” That’s easy enough to recognize. What’s not so easy to determine is what we would like to have or experience instead. We often only know what’s causing the disturbance and how vehemently we don’t want it anymore. But painting a clear and precise picture of what would be pleasing to us instead takes some dedicated thought.
This important work (identifying the instead in life) must be done first, even before addressing the three critical needs to ensure a great start to a successful journey on the path to purpose. So you feel annoyed and overwhelmed? I know that’s valid. But talking about how annoyed and overwhelmed we feel will not move us closer to any goal. . . better, different, or otherwise. Thinking about what you would like instead of being annoyed and overwhelmed gives us a fuzzy target for which we can aim. It’s a good starting point! Once we have the fuzzy target, we can make the target more streamlined, focused, and tangible. Skip this step, and the rest of the post won’t make much sense to you.
Ok, fuzzy target. Now what? Now we move into what I believe are three non-negotiables to embracing the abundant and purposeful life we are pursuing.
Next, you’ll need:
1. A clearly defined outcome that you would like to achieve. Now, here’s the point. To develop a clearly defined outcome, you must first decide what you want to be different in your life. A clearly defined outcome encourages you to think about what you would like to see, hear or experience differently. What are you striving for exactly? Try to narrow this to one sentence, if possible. This forces you to be more precise as you consider what you want the outcome to be. And if you are precise in the desired outcome, then the actions you will need to take to get there will be more succinct as well.
2. The motivation to move forward to achieve the desired outcome. We want a lot of things, wouldn’t you say? There’s no shortage of want! Most times, we lack the motivation to go after what we really want, especially if heavy lifting is involved. Without adequate motivation, you are not likely to take serious and enduring steps to achieve the desired outcome. To test your motivation and perhaps renew your motivation, begin to think about why you want the desired outcome anyway. What about it is important to you? How would your life be different? Visualize having achieved it successfully, and keep that picture in the forefront of your thoughts and conversation.
3. To design experimental actions to implement to realize the desired outcome. Now you can probably guess that visualizing it is not going to be enough. Vivid imagery still won’t help you get what you want, and I hope that’s to live the purpose for which you were created. Take some decisive actions that will move your cause forward. You get to design those actions, and they can be as individualized as we are. They are experiments because you can always change the action if it’s not creating the effect you were hoping it would. You’re not bound to it for life! There is freedom in that statement alone, and you get to choose the degree of freedom as long as it moves you forward. This is why noticing and evaluating are so important. What’s working? What’s not? It’s your design.
There you have it! It’s not exhaustive. It wasn’t meant to be. It was meant to get you started on the journey of change in your life. This week, take some time to think about what you want to be better or different. Things may be good now, but they could always be better. And may I assert that if you aren’t living the purpose for which you were created, things are not good—yet?
What helps to keep you motivated? What good has come from it? How has it changed your life? Let’s talk!
If you need more support, book a FREE Discovery Call with me. Learn how coaching may be able to support you in your journey to living your purpose!