“The only reason I even came to the Power of Purpose was because after you spoke at our meeting about ‘Faith to Move Mountains’ about your climb up Mount Kilimanjaro, I heard you say something to my friend, Robert: ‘Then you need to come to the Power of Purpose and breakthrough your limiting beliefs about your ability and right to prosper’!”
“That hit me between the eyes, because I thought everyone should be poor to be a good person.”
Eric is not alone in the belief system that poverty is somehow honorable.
There’s an ancient proverb that says, “The blessing of God makes one rich and there’s no sorrow with it.”
Purpose to me is a call. And with every call, needs will be met; ours and others.
So, it’s no wonder that the writer of this proverb added the phrase ‘no sorrow with it’. For when we find and live with purpose, abundance finds us and makes possible our ability to touch others.
Purpose brings a reciprocal kind of life. Contentment and peace are contagious! Because joy in doing what you love affects everyone in your life!
Although I do not remember saying that on the very icy night on Lake Michigan, it obviously struck a chord with Eric.
I say what he heard me say about removing limiting beliefs about our ability and right to gain wealth, because I see so many people struggling with it.
I don’t say it in an arrogant way, I say it because research has indicated again and again that finding and living purpose is associated with “greater prosperity, including income, paid employment, and assets, even after taking baseline wealth into account.” (Steptoe and Fancourt, British Researchers).
Of course, increase in finances and wealth is not the only benefit of finding purpose.
Over the weeks, I’ve listed many researched benefits, such as:
- Increased overall satisfaction with life
- Improved health
- Better marriages and family relationships
- Less risk of divorce
- Lower chronic illness
- Less chronic pain
- Decreased depression and anxiety
- Decreased chances of premature death
- Better quality of sleep
- Less incidents of Alzheimer’s disease
- Improved heart health
- Better immunity
- Significantly better quality of life
Whichever of those benefits appeals to you most, I would love for you to experience them … by finding your purpose. This week I am sharing Eric’s story to inspire you to find your purpose!
1. What was your trauma?
“I’m not sure you would call anything I experienced ‘trauma’. But I did have some hard times.”
“My dad was a traveling salesman. So, we lived by feast or by famine. When he came home empty-handed, all we got were meals provided by the school. Sometimes for weeks at a time.”
“Occasionally he came home, and we had a great feast and celebration. However, there was less money spent on the food than there was on the beer! That’s for certain!”
Someone has said, “Life is a struggle for one thing … balance!” We don’t get to choose who influences our emotional responses.
And based on our primary caregiver’s emotional stability, we don’t get to choose how we’ll respond. Eric’s early formative life was built on a roller coaster existence of feast or famine.
No child was ever born to have to find their truth, to balance that kind of life.
Trauma is any moment that drives us into survival mode. Moments that take from our hearts and souls, the freedoms to be us.
Eric continued:
“I did notice that somehow, even on the famine weeks, there was beer.”
“My mom basically hated having kids. She never said that, but she said awful things to us and about us.”
“Things like: ‘Get out of here!’ … as she pushed us out the door.”
“Things like: ‘Shut up and get out of my way’!”
“Things like: ‘I wish you were never born’.”
“Constantly!”
“Since there was always beer, whether we were in feast or famine … it was the one thing I could count on. I was having more than my share before I was 16.”
“There was nothing particularly good or bad about my life.”
“When I was 16, I was dating a girl who went to the church across the street from our school. I started attending with her; until I heard the message ‘The Poor Will Always Be with You’!”
“I knew from that moment on, that I would be poor. And I didn’t need any more of that kind of bad news … so I broke up with the girl and quit going to church.”
“My dad ran off that year. Probably with one of his girlfriends he had on the road. Shortly after that, my mom disappeared too. They left us all there to fend for ourselves. When the landlord kicked us out due to nonpayment of rent, we all went our own ways.”
“I stayed with a friend for a while and got my own job. Doing cleaning at the local factory after school.”
“When my friend’s parents said I couldn’t stay there anymore, I took a full-time job at the factory and dropped out of school.”
“I knew for sure that poverty and barely getting by was the best it would ever get for me.”
“I worked my way up in the factory and made enough to rent a trailer, and eventually buy an old truck that barely ran.”
“I did that for years, and then my buddy, Robert, told me about his side hustle, so I decided to give it a try.”
“I went to one meeting where I heard a bunch of ‘crap’ that sounded like get ‘get rich quick’ stuff. I told him I wasn’t going back.”
“But then he told me that there was someone from Texas coming to talk about her climb up Mount Kilimanjaro. That sounded interesting enough, and I was really captivated by the story.”
“And I was impressed that there was no crap.”
“I was with my friend Robert at your book table, and that’s when I heard you talk to him about getting over being poor and having the right and ability to prosper.”
“I really couldn’t believe it myself when I told him if he was going to that program you were talking about (The Power of Purpose), I might go with him … he was shocked too!”
“I guess I was sick enough of being poor that I thought it was worth hearing what you had to say.”
Life has a way of prompting us.
Life speaks at numerous times and in numerous ways.
Life’s direction is that hard and that simple.
Life is saying to all of us; you have a purpose.
“Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there’ll always be someone to tell you,
that you’re wrong.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. What is your purpose?
“I walked in that room, and it looked like a family reunion with John boy and the Walton’s! Definitely not, what would’ve happened at one of our family reunions. But at least it was fun to watch.”
“People hugging each other, people laughing, people telling stories … I must admit I was amused.”
“Then I saw on the screen: ‘Sit anywhere, but don’t unpack … you WILL be moving!’ Or something like that.”
“I strategically chose my place in the back furthest corner in the room. Determined to guard my territory.”
“I was there for one reason, and one reason only … to figure out how to shed this poverty mentality.”
“Then you did that group selection exercise where we couldn’t talk. Thankfully, I got adopted quickly. Nice enough folks.”
“Then you told us to grab our circle. Then Robert drug us to the front of the room. I’ve wondered to this day if that was strategic on his or your part?”
“Instead of objecting I went with it, and somehow that settling in, stuck with me through many moments, that took me so far out of my comfort zone, that I felt I was on another planet!”
“I was intrigued by the way you introduced the purpose concept in little tidbits at a time. And how you weaved it together throughout the day.”
“But as for me … I was waiting for that magic moment when I would bust through this poverty thing. I had no idea that you would push it to the very end!”
“Luckily for me, it turned out to be for the best. Because if I’d gone into that exercise without knowing my purpose … I’m not sure it would’ve had the same impact.”
“That whole thing of not being able to speak, and looking into other’s eyes as if I was going to draw them on a canvas did something to me. “
“You know, I’m not sure anybody had ever really looked into my eyes with any interest in me whatsoever.”
“By the time our group had figured out … with no words whatsoever… How love could build a bridge … I was ready for the letter that I had no idea was coming.”
“By the time I finished the letter, my purpose just popped out. Just like you said it would.”
“What is my purpose? It may sound a little benign to anyone else, but for me it set my world on fire!”
“My purpose is to mentor people to believing in and accepting a rich life.”
“Although at the moment it may have been all about finances, I quickly understood the power of living with purpose creating a fully rich life!”
“By the time you were standing in front of my group and above the music, challenging us again and again with the question… ‘Are you ready ‘?”
“‘Are you ready’?”
“Again, and again until we convinced you, we were ready!”
“When you proclaimed, ‘I believe you are ready!’ and released us to GO … I could have jumped over walls like a ninja to get to my sheet and breakthrough it!”
“I can assure you of this! I broke through the poverty mentality about life, about finances, about myself, and about my future!”
There’s nothing like putting ourselves out there. Opening life to new truths that challenge complacency (and they are always out of the comfort zone).
Victims never stretch or search. They just settle and maintain their normal rut called life. Or drift. You/me/we are better than that … let’s do this!
3. What difference has finding your purpose made in your life?
“Life changing. There’re no better words than that. It was life-changing!”
“From that moment forward, something in me was different. Very different.”
“I saw myself differently.”
“I saw life differently.”
“I quit drinking beer.”
“I started working out.”
“I decided to join my friend Robert in his side hustle. Maybe just because I’d made some new friends and enjoyed people for the first time. Maybe ever!”
“I’m not sure I really know how to explain this. But I somehow knew who to talk to and what to say to grow my side hustle.”
“After so many years in the factory, working my way up, I had many friends. However, I just knew that I didn’t belong there anymore. Nothing bad happened at all.”
“Within six months, my side hustle had matched my factory income.”
“It had never occurred to me until Robert suggested that if I left the factory and had all of that time to devote to my new budding business, the sky might be the limit.”
“I did that… And although I was sad to say goodbye to seeing my friends on a daily basis, I just told them all to come join me in my side hustle.”
“Some did, and I showed them the ropes, not only how to grow an income, but to begin enjoying a rich life.”
“Yes, I do believe a rich life is more than just money. Because I met the woman of my dreams, and I’m happily married.”
“I never wanted to have kids, because I learned from my mom that kids were a nuisance. But she wanted to have just one. I finally could capitulate with her promise that one would be enough …”
“God must have a sense of humor, because she had twins.”
“They have just graduated. The truth is, I wish we had had more. I made sure they got everything that I never got.”
“They both knew they were loved and wanted. They both knew all about loving, living, and laughing. Great kids!”
“What would I say to your audience? Well, I’d say a lot…”
“Don’t stay stuck in poverty. Find your purpose. Determined to have a rich life. Surrender to it and follow it! Trust that your life will become rich on every front!”
********
A rich life.
Prospering in love, health, finances.
I really related to his reaction to hearing “the poor will always be with you” in church as a teenager in high school.
I heard similar things and let that sink in way too deeply.
I hear that often, and each time I do … with all due respect to the Bible … I tell people: “I have read that. But I didn’t see your name in there anywhere! So you can claim that for yourself, or you can claim the Scripture that says that when we give, we receive back in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over!”
I do believe in giving money, but I also believe in giving our life to our purpose.
There are great dividends that come along with that.
I wish you a very rich life!
Find your purpose!
And find yourself prospering in every area of your life.
Without a purpose what purpose is there in life?
YOU can and will be the difference!
For more information about the Power of Purpose, click here:
