A More Purposeful Life

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How would you like to have a more purposeful life?

A more purposeful life is one that is more about where you want to go with your life and what you want to accomplish and less about scrubbing baseboards and organizing clutter.

How do you get from here to there?

It’s a process, but one worth doing.

And if you want to involve your whole family in it, so much the better.

You don’t have to do it all at once; in fact, you probably shouldn’t. Part of the process is thinking and reassessing and deciding what’s best for you right now.

The Thinker – Rodin

You begin by finding some quiet time. Make time if you have to, or go to the library or the coffee shop. Bring paper and a pen.

Your first task is to take a look at your life and how you want to live it. When you get to the end of your life, what do you want to have accomplished?

Don’t edit. Just start writing things down as you think of them – words, phrases, feelings, whatever.

This is not so much about “I want to have 4 million dollars in the bank, a big house, and be famous” as it is about “I want to be happy and productive. I want my family to be well, happy, and successful – whatever that means for them. I want to have good friends and fun times.”.

Some people call this a mission statement.

If you have a business, you are encouraged to write a mission statement or something similar. It becomes your guidebook for decision making. For instance, if one of your guidelines is to be honest in your dealings, then deciding whether or not to take advantage of a vastly underpriced shipment of goods that is most likely stolen is easy. You pass.

Most mission statements are about a paragraph long; 3 – 5 statements. And while it’s mostly about intangible things like being productive or honest in your relationships, it’s OK to add some goals in as well.

I have not written my personal mission statement yet, but I plan on starting as soon as possible.

I know that one of my goals is to write a book and have it published. I know that I want to strive to be as honest as I can without being hurtful, and that I want to live a healthy lifestyle that includes taking better care of myself. I want to continue to learn as long as I can, to help as many people with ADHD as I can, and to work on shining my light instead of hiding it.

There. Looks like I just wrote my personal mission statement! That didn’t take long at all – really – just a few minutes.

Try it for yourself. You can always change it and add to it.

Once you have a working statement, keep it where you can see it every day.

And then base your daily actions and activities on it.

For me, that means spending more time writing and less time fooling around on Pinterest. It means getting off the couch and moving.

Do you see what is going on here?

By making a plan for your life, you have a direction in which to travel. Yes, the dishes will still need to be done and maybe you’ll even need to scrub the baseboards a time or two.

But when you have a decision to make, or some free time and you need a way to spend it, take a look at your mission statement. Which action will get you closer to your goals?

Picture of Lacy Estelle

Lacy Estelle

Lacy Estelle is the writer of Lacyestelle.com and the Podcast host for An ADD Woman.

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