How to find your purpose in life

How to find your purpose in life? It’s easier than you think. And…

Guess who can help you do that?

But first, a story… (or you can skip right to the Baby Step by clicking HERE).

STORY

Having worked in the school system for many years, I’ve come to this realization: Something happens to Seniors when they return from winter break. It’s smack dab in the middle of their Senior year, but for some reason, their overworked brains lead them to believe they're done with school. Just when they’re about to cross the finish line of a 12-year race, they give up.

Getting kids to show up for school every day is a daily challenge. Getting Seniors to show up for school every day is a damn miracle.

Knowing that, I decided to pursue a different route in getting my kiddos (#Ms P’s Hooligans) to show up. One sleepless night I came up with a brilliant idea based on a board game from my youth. I spent weeks preparing an elaborate (and I mean over-the-top) project. The goal? To help them release some of the stress surrounding the million and one overwhelming things they needed to do before their quickly approaching graduation date.

I wanted to remind them to have a little fun…to feel like a kid again. And can’t we all use a little of that?

(#guess who) image courtesy of Google

I gave each of the Seniors one assignment: bring in a baby photo. Then after weeks of prep work, and the help of a few of their underclassmen, the day of the unveiling finally arrived. As pinky-promised (yes, I made them do that regularly), the Hooligans showed up to hear about the top-secret project they knew I’d been working on for them. It was a game. And, of course, there were rules. The most important of which was this: In order to snatch the grand prize at the end of 7 weeks, they had to have 80% attendance during that entire time period.

The lesson?

The key to winning in life is to JUST SHOW UP!

Each week a dozen baby photos were on display in the classroom. I set up a system for them to match each baby photo to the name of the Senior listed – they could even vote directly from their phone. One catch, though…there was always a ringer for the week to throw them off.

They had a blast, and the 7 weeks flew by. In fact, it was such a success that the underclassmen were jealous. So, in week 8, their baby photos went up and the guessing was even crazier!

Well…I may not have been powerful enough to get those Hooligans to show up every single day, but they did manage to drag themselves to school on game days. Each of them had a different purpose for participating. Some showed up for the fun. Some showed up for the little prizes. Some showed up because they loved the challenge. Some showed up because they couldn’t wait until their photo was displayed on the wall. Some did it because Ms P said so :)

BABY STEP

The point of my story? To tell you the most important bit of truth you may ever hear…

YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE IS YOUR OWN.

There’s no set assignment we were given at birth. Even though we must follow certain rules (#don’t break the law), we are all given free will. So WE get to decide what’s best for us. WE get to decide what feels good. WE get to decide how we show up every day. WE get to decide what music we listen to. WE get to decide which peanut butter is best (#smoother than a fresh jar of Skippy).

I know. I know. Having access to infinite possibilities can sometimes feel OVERWHELMING. But, what if it wasn’t? What if we decided it was exhilarating instead of exhausting? WE get to choose that, too. Hmmm…

Try out my super simple Baby Step the next time you feel like you have too many choices to make or too much to do. Simply repeat after me…

No matter what I choose, it will turn out awesome because that’s my belief. Besides, I can always choose again later!