Over 50 years ago, Viktor Frankl wrote the powerful book Man’s Search for Meaning. If you have never read the book, I highly, highly recommend it. It is a classic, for good reason.
Well, this blog post is certainly not likely to be a classic ala Frankl’s book. My purpose in writing this post is not to proclaim some uncommon insight on this subject. Instead, I am writing about my own life purpose solely as an aid for those who are involved in my annual free personal planning process and who could benefit by reading about another person’s statement of life purpose.
Before sharing my current statement, I want to set the stage for you. Like many – if not most – people, I grew up with what I now consider to be an unhealthy desire to accumulate things. Accompanying this desire was a strong proclivity to compare my “things” to those possessed by others. My life was measured by the size of my pile of things. In defining my life that way, I was secretly always envying what someone else had. The result was one driven individual. By the time I was 40, I had accumulated what was a mighty pile of things. Hurray for me! 
I came to learn that all those accumulations did not bring me a personal sense of peace, something which became increasingly important to me.
Throughout the eighties and nineties, I was an avid reader of and frequent listener to the likes of Zig Ziglar, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and Reverend Robert Schuller. Each in their own way, encouraged me to define my life by something other than my pile of accumulated things. Like water dripping on cement eventually drills through the cement, their words dripped on my heart and my soul and made some progress in getting through to me.
Then, in 1998, I had a life changing event. My beloved wife and I moved back to the beautiful Berkshires (a peaceful area in Western Massachusetts where I had grown up) and through divine intervention we became the caregivers for a young man with severe disabilities. Scotty, as we call him, was born blind, can’t speak like you and me, and has many other disabilities. To make a long story short, Scotty became my guide. He made the wisdom of Ziglar, Dyer, Schuller et al finally make perfect sense.
With new insights into life that Scotty provided (and which are the subject of my talks on the Wisdom of Scotty), I took some deep looks at what was the meaning of life for me. Gradually, a very different focused emerged.
Now before sharing my statement of purpose with you, I want to acknowledge that it is easy for people to craft slick purpose statements designed to impress. Some may even conclude that is what I have done. But, in a world of transparency, those that craft purpose statements and espouse lofty purposes that are not compatible with who and what they really are will soon be discovered for what they really are.
It matters less what I say my purpose is than what you, and everyone else, experience through interactions with me. A true life purpose is truly lived. Not summarized and displayed on a wall like some corporate mantra. But in the interest of helping others come to grips with their own purpose, I will share mine.
Pay little attention to what I say my life purpose is. Instead let my actions speak for who and what I am.
Through my studies of wiser men than I and through a lifetime of experience in working with high performers like you, I have come to believe that – ultimately – our lives are defined not by what we take when we pass (nothing) but what we leave behind for future generations (everything we have). I have become a strong believer that the life purpose that will bring us personal peace (and peace is an important element of my peak performance construct of my desire to Live in the Zone) is service to others. I live with the Zig Ziglar taught mantra the “you can get whatever you want in life IF you will help enough others get what they want.”
For those who choose “service to others” as a life purpose, there are many ways that we can serve others, both vocationally and in our everyday living. Given the skills with which I have been blessed, I have chosen my life purpose to be serving others by helping bring out the best in people. I aspire to do so in a way that is consistently thoughtful, compassionately supportive, and abundantly kind.
The true measure of any of us is not what we have written as our life purpose but what we are living for a life purpose.
As with all of my work, I hope that my sharing my own experience at getting to my life purpose will help you to define a life purpose for YOU that inspires you to better use all the strengths with which you have been blessed. For as Scotty reminds me every day, we all are blessed.
Please note: If you are interested in creating a personal annual plan that supports your living a life on purpose, get started with the free process here.
This blog post was written by Dave Carpenter. Dave is a prolific author, inspiring speaker, and well-known consultant to professional service firms. Besides writing regularly for this blog, Dave’s writing can be seen in leading business and personal development publications. Dave is also the leader of the Accelerate Success mentoring program where he mentors high performers in a unique program designed to do great things for the favorite charity of each participant. If you are (1) a high performer who believes you still have untapped potential, and (2) passionate about a favorite charity, you may want to learn more about this powerful program. You can also follow Dave on Twitter, on Facebook, and/or on Google+.
