Flat Stanley?
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As you continue to honor your health as a personal and professional asset, do you sometimes still find yourself asking, "If I'm doing everything right, why do I still feel 'flat'?"
It may not be what you're doing to honor yourself that needs some fine-tuning, it may be why you're doing it that needs some attention.
The last issue of Fueling Your Fire (The Energy of Purpose, Part I) planted the seed for the curious exploration of the question,
"What am I here to do?"
Did you allow yourself the honor of mulling over the question? If so, did you get a glimpse into your unique gift to the world? Are you expressing that gift?
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The Juicy Junction
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The energy of purpose is found at that juicy junction of Who You Are, What You Value, The Goals You've Set, and How You Spend Your Time.
Are you living in the juicy junction? Incongruence between what we do and what we're gifted to do isn't uncommon, but that doesn't mean it has to be tolerated.
Think back to a time when you were working on a task or project for which you had no understanding of the ultimate goal, no attachment to the outcome, or no investment in the process. Now try and remember how you felt during that task. How much focus did you bring to the project? How did you feel at its completion--energized or drained?
Even with the best of intentions and all of the physical building blocks of energy in place, you may have been lacking the energy of purpose. |
Cultivating the Energy of Purpose
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Even the most mundane task can be energizing if you see how it supports who you are and what you're here to do. Becoming consciously aware of how you are spending each minute of your life and why you are making that choice puts you in a position of power to take intentional action in your life.
Try this exercise:
Take a piece of paper and across the top, in big and bold letters, declare what it is you discovered that you're here to do:
"I am here to...
[...take powerful portraits that remind people of the beauty they hide from themselves]
[...create human-scaled houses where people feel they've finally come "home"]
[...be a leader who cultivates teams where every person's natural gifts are expanded]
Put that piece of paper someplace where it can serve as a reminder to you every day (in your day-timer, on your computer monitor, on the bathroom mirror, on your car dashboard).
An interesting shift may start to happen. You may find that tasks will either:
- Start to take on new meaning and become more intrinsically energizing, or
- Become less important and beg the question, "Is it worthwhile for me to be giving energy and time to this?"
Either way, you'll be starting to charge yourself with a powerful renewable energy source... The Energy of Purpose. |
