How to Implement your Life’s Purpose – Part 3

Menanteau Serfontein – 22 April 2021

In Part 1 we covered what is meant by Meaning and Purpose and why it is of Critical Importance to find Meaning and Purpose in our lives.

In Part 2 we addressed How to Discover Meaning and Purpose for your Life.

In Part 3 pointers are provided about how to go about ensuring that you Implement your Life’s Purpose(s) in practice by following the Steps outlined below.

Irrespective of what your purpose(s) is/are, it is essential to determine how to deal with each of the multiple facets of your life and how much time to dedicate to each facet, such as the following:

Family, career/job/business
Your walk of faith and spiritual life
Sports and exercise activities
Leisure activities
Social life
Watching television
Time spent on digital media and devices
Hobbies and interests
Travelling
Administration, chores etc
And of course your purpose(s)

Your challenge is to find a way to pursue your core purpose(s) in one way or another, despite all the other responsibilities and realities that are part of your life.

Below are some practical steps to be taken:

Write down all the facets of your life and rank each facet in order of importance to you.
Decide how to deal with every facet of your life that was listed in Step 1 above and write it down.
In order to balance the respective facets appropriately, you need to write down how much time per day, week or month to dedicate to each of the elements that you have listed (including your core purpose(s)). If you don’t do this, you run a serious risk of falling into the trap of spending too much time on the unimportant time-wasters that are of no or little meaning and purpose.
It is essential to ensure that most of your quality time is dedicated to the most important things. One of the challenges of creating balance in respect of your main priorities and the time spent on the respective elements, will be to decide which elements are to be renounced, i.e. which elements do you say “no” to and spend no time on it. It’s essential to ensure that you end up spending most of your quality time and effort on the most important issues of substance. This means eliminating from your life the things that do not contribute to your purpose. Limit your commitments, find more time to think and to focus on your chosen thing(s) – learn to say “no”.

In short, “choose carefully what you worship” – “For where your treasure is, there your heart (your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centres) will be also” – Matthew 6:21.

Stephen R. Covey: “Whatever is at the centre of our life will be the source of your security, guidance, wisdom, and power.”

5. You are strongly encouraged to formulate and write down your personal Mission Statement. Some of the typical headings to be covered in such a statement are the following:

What do I believe in?
What values, principles and habits do I treasure most and want to live by?
What is the most important to me? What do I really care about? What are my passions – what drives and truly motivates me the most? What activities set my soul on fire? What are my deepest desires?
What am I really good at? What have I done uncommonly well?
What am I not interested in/what do I do not like doing?
If my life were perfect, what would it look like?
What needs and problems exist around me, or in my community, or even in the world?
Which of these needs and problems would I like to solve or contribute towards an improvement?
What can I do for others in need? What can I do for others that they can benefit from? What is my moral responsibility here?
Write down the steps to be taken to ensure practical implementation.

Formulate your Personal Mission Statement (Based on the assessment you have done and the conclusions that you have reached in following the steps above.)

It is strongly recommended that you should often look at your Mission Statement to ensure that you are still on track. It may well be necessary to make adjustments to your statement from time to time, for example when things have changed in your life or when you have changed your mind in respect of some issues.

Some of the content of this Article was derived from the following sources:

Book entitled “The Second Mountain” by David Brooks
Book entitled “Game Plan” by Bob Buford

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