Did you ever stop doing something you once did or even quit a job? Did you feel like doing either of those things but did not for whatever reason? If you can answer yes, then you may have a clue as to what your purpose is based on what it isn't. Confused? Read on and see if I can bring some clarity.
WHO YOU ARE NOT.
I recently conducted a seminar and met a woman whom I described in Monday Memo 275. This woman told me that she had quit her job as a pharmacist because she didn't see anyone get better. She found out that she wasn't cut out for the pharmacy, not because she could not do the work, but because she wanted desperately to see people improve and be healed. She found out who she wasn't and that propelled her on a PurposeQuest to find out who she was.
I was a pastor for four years and I was miserable. It's a bad sign if you're a pastor and you don't like Sundays. It's like being a surgeon and not liking to operate on people! I tried to like it and even went back to school to earn an advanced degree in pastoral ministries. It didn't help. I was still miserable. So part of my PurposeQuest was facing who I was not.
WHO YOU ARE.
Yet my eventual departure from the pastorate did not mean I left church work. Today I do more work in churches than I ever could or would have done as a Sunday-morning pastor. What didn't I like about being a pastor? I didn't like being in one place all the time. Facing that fact enabled me to embrace my love for travel and speaking more than once a week. It led to the eventual formation of my company and the rest, as they say, is history.
In other words, facing who I was not enabled me to accept who I am.
When I asked the woman I mentioned above why she left the pharmacy business, she said she never saw anyone get better. That led us to a discussion of whether or not her purpose was to see others improve. I think you can see how facing who we were not helped both of us see who we are.
So who are you? Perhaps more important this week, who aren't you? Why are you unhappy in your current position? Why have you left other jobs you've had? If you can see who you aren't, it may provide the clues I promised as to who you are.
Spend some time this week, with your journal close by, thinking about the questions I just posed. Be honest and see if there is an answer to what you haven't been able to achieve but would like to. Be careful, though, for once you get some answers, you will be responsible for what you know. It could very well thrust you into a whole new world of purpose and productivity. That is where I live now and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Care to join me? I hope you do.
If you have any suggestions for topics or improvements for The Monday Memo, please send me an email and let me know. Feel free to post your comments to this Memo on the site where it is located. You can also go to the same site to read the other Monday Memos from 2006 (Memos prior to 240 can be found on my website). Don't forget my personal PurposeQuest website, which has loads of material that will help you find your purpose and be productive. You can also sign up for my weekly Bible studies where we have started a study of Mark's gospel this year. Finally, please remember PurposeQuest and the Stankos in your missions giving.
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