Living on Purpose

The first time I accomplished something that was ‘on purpose,’ I was 10 months old. I don’t know this moment in time from memory, but rather from the stories told to me by my proud parents.

My parents taught me to swim before I was 6 months old; apparently I took to the water like I was back in the womb again. My mom said, “it was the cutest thing, you would just close your eyes and float on your back.”

At this ripe age of 10 months, my parents entered me into a fund raising swimathon for red cross. Thirty adults and kids participated, needless to say, I was the youngest participant.

As the story goes, I was in the outer lane and I simply followed the sound of my dads voice back and forth along the olympic size pool. I kicked and kicked on my back and when I finished one lap I followed my dads voice to turn around and go the other way. I ended up raising an good amount of money for this charity event because the donations were based on ‘per lap.’ Since I was a baby, people were donating $20 plus per lap for me. As you can imagine, people couldn’t believe this was possible, let alone me actually completing more than one lap. I swam two laps.

When my parents tell me this story I feel myself sitting up a little taller. I feel my body soften and my soul rise as I fill my lungs with fresh air.

This the how the body feels when it takes in the energy of being ‘on purpose.’

The part of this story that deeply resonated with me when I first heard it many years ago, was that the sound of my fathers voice carried me back and forth along that olympic size pool into my first experience of purposefulness.

As little ones, the sound of a parents voice is one that we innately trust. When we are little, the call of our heart is the sound of our parents or caretakers voices. As we get older, our souls begin to recognize that they are separate from their parents soul. We develop autonomy and we begin our unique quest for purpose.

Now, as an adult, it’s not so much my fathers voice that carries me towards my individual expression of purposefulness, but the call does feel similar. I innately trust this voice and it’s ability to always guide me to grow. This voice is what I call the still, small voice of my soul. It’s a voice that we all have whether or not we chose to listen to it. It’s our higher self calling us towards our potential. It guides us to make choices that allow for us to ‘sit up a little taller. Feel our body soften and our soul rise as we fill our lungs with fresh air.’

Its calling us to live on purpose.

Look, we only get one shot at this marvelous adventure called life, so this ‘built in’ inner guidance system (GPS from the soul) is not one to take for granted. This guidance can be received by you in many ways. Dreams, hunches, ideas, inspiration. It can also come in less than obvious ways, for instance, jealousy. This emotion is nothing more than you recognizing a potential in yourself that is unfulfilled. That emotion if your GPS. It’s guiding you to take action. To go start that business, write that book, learn that language, run that race, get that certificate, visit that country. For the love of baby toes, it’s guiding you to live your life fully!

You see, your purpose does not come in this one moment of “hallelujah! I have finally found my purpose.”

Purpose is not found, it’s created. {tweet this}

And you don’t get to chose just one, you get many. Just listen for that voice that carries you across the waters of your life. Listen to it, and it will guide you towards all your experiences of purposefulness. As the greatest doctor who ever was, Dr. Seuss, once said, “Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!”