Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to make things better. Robert F. Kennedy
Henry Ward Beecher learned early in life not to listen to the word no. He was reciting his work when the teacher said, “No.” He continued on a couple of times but finally sat down. When another child did the same thing but finished reciting his work the teacher said, “Very good.”
Henry went to the teacher and said, “I recited just as he did.” The teacher replied, “It is not enough to know your lesson, you must be sure. When you allowed me to stop you, it meant that you were uncertain. If the entire world says, “No” it is your business to say “Yes” and prove it.”
We hear “No” a lot.
“You’re too young.”
“You’re too old.”
“You don’t have the education.”
“You don’t have the experience.”
“You’ll never make money doing that.”
If everyone stopped at the first “No” we wouldn’t have the life we have, the society we have, or the opportunities we have. There is lots of advice out there and some of it we should listen to, some of it we should ignore, and we have to figure out which is which. Is it better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all? Sometimes we will have to figure out what is success and what is a failure. Is it a failure if we can’t live off the sales of our books, or is it a success if we have written books?
If we want to do something different, we will have to be okay with being different. We might end up seeming odd as we listen to the beat of our own drum. We can’t be all things to all people if we are going to be true to ourselves. Everyone will not approve of us, what we believe, or what we do, and we will have to be okay with this.
Anything and everything you have experienced has been purposeful; it has brought you to where you are now. Iyanla Vanzant
The most important person we need to be okay with is us. The next thing we have to be okay with is the price we must pay to get what we want, and there is always a price. If we want to accomplish something often we do it outside of the hours when we do the work that keeps body and soul together. We might have to give up watching TV while we work on our passion. Maybe we give up socializing with friends, and sleeping late, but something in our life will have to give if we are to make room for something else.
Any of us that are parents know that children take up room in our lives, but they grow up fast, we get that time back, and it is our choice what we do with it. Many of the most productive years of our lives might be the years when many are retired. I’m reading Joyce Meyer’s, “The Confident Woman,” when she wrote it she was 62 and not planning on retirement. Now she is turning eighty and still going strong. What an example of not listening to the “No’s” she got in life.
What if we asked the question, “What could we do if we put everything we had into it and didn’t quit?” When Joyce Meyer started her ministry she didn’t know where it would go. She was faithful to the task she felt was before her.
If we have something we think we should do, then we should do it. We don’t know where it will take us, but we’ll never know if we don’t try. What if each of us can do some small thing to make our society and the world better? What if we have an inkling of what that is, and just have to follow our heart, intuition, or the calling of a higher power?
Each of us is born for a purpose, and we want our lives to matter. I don’t think it’s unique to only some of us; it’s a longing of every human being. Garrett Gravesen
We all want deep, purposeful, and meaningful relationships. We all want love, joy, bliss, and fulfillment… The miracle is that we can all have it! All we need to do is overcome our fears and dare to seek our goals. Jack Canfield
Dig deep enough in every heart and you’ll find it: a longing for meaning, a quest for purpose. As surely as a child breathes, he will someday wonder, what is the purpose of my life? Max Lucado
Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
