Drifting or Living with Purpose

You ever feel like a piece of driftwood, just floating along.  Not really going anywhere and not enjoying the feeling of being out of control.  Can you see the water lapping sides of an old log, moving it around slowly and pretty aimlessly.  Then after all that time just floating around where does the piece end up, it usually ends up on a bank somewhere.  As a matter of fact my sister in law happens to live where it gathers.  By the end of the week or month she has a huge pile that can be made into a huge campfire.  The pieces that don’t get burned end up just sitting there on the sand deteriorating.  It maybe be a pretty piece of wood, but it still spent a good bit of life just floating around without direction and eventually ends up as ash or returns to dirt.

I don’t know about you but I have no desire to continue on feeling like a piece of driftwood, floating around endlessly.  The days that I do let this happen I am very unhappy with myself and when life is all said and done I want to look back and be please with what I have seen and remember.  I was watching a series on PBS that I absolutely love,  It is named, “Call The Midwife”  It is set around a convent in the 1960’s.  One of the sisters said something a few weeks ago that I have thought a lot about.  Sister Monica Joan said, “One must not become like Lot’s wife, frozen in the act of looking backwards.”  You may not know the story of Lot’s wife but she was informed of something tragic about to happen in her city by God.  She was given the chance to flee the situation but instead of leaving quickly and being saved from the tragedy she hesitated and looked back longingly.  When she looked back at the city that was to be burned,  she turned into a pillar of salt.  That is where sister Monica Joan got the phrase “frozen in the act of looking backwards.”

So what can I do to prevent myself from floating along aimlessly,  or maybe even looking constantly backwards instead of forwards with purpose?  How can I stay focused on the future?  What do highly successful people do to prevent themselves from floating about and accomplishing something with their lives?

Determine Your Core Values

If you have ever heard of a man named,  Truett Cathy he wrote several books about how to live a successful life.   One of his biggest goals in life has to do with your values.  See what I consider to be worthwhile may not be what you consider to be worthwhile.  I am talking about values and until you determine what your core values are you will never be able to obtain the goals you want in life.   Core values are the things that make you tick.  That can be any number of things too.  Money and having lots of it is not everyone’s goal in life.  So I would say it was never a core value for me.  Now raising my children to be responsible, thinking, godly, contributing citizens was.  So for us one of our core values was family and raising our children properly.  Once you figure out your core values write them down.  Writing them down will give you great direction.

Write Your Core Values Down

You know that your core values can change depending on where you are in life.  When you decide what they are and write them down you can look at them.  Now why do I need to look at them?  Well, because sometimes we get sidetracked and start floating around aimlessly.  I am easily sidetracked.  I get around other people, see others homes, lives, jobs, pets, cars, or just what ever’s and before you know it I have forgotten my core values.  The ones I wrote down.  So then I can go back and look at them.  Writing them down helps to keep me focused.  So I am not so easily sidetracked.  So I am not compelled to be doing to newest and coolest thing around.

Maintain Our Core Values

Now this can be the hard part.  Especially if you have already gotten sidetracked.  So now that you have figured out your own core values make a commitment to yourself not to waiver on them, ever and the best way to do that is to set some goals.  This is a practice that all highly successful people do.  Sitting down and determining your goals will help to keep you on track.  Goals can give you a practical way of maintaining your own core values.

Set Goals Related to Your Core Values

Sit down and write five goals you would like to keep that are part of our core values.  If your core value is to raise your children to be productive citizens, or to become debt free, or to finish a master degree write those goals down.  Spend a little time brainstorming what your goals are and make sure they are in line with your core values.  Then prioritize them, by importance.  You know the importance part is up to you and again this goes back to what you value.

Not everyone measures success in the same way.  That is why it has to be what you consider to be the most important things to you.  That is also the reason you have to determine your own core values.  When you determine those things you will want to work on your goals and when you start to work on  your goals you will no longer be drifting along like a piece of driftwood.  I will tell you a secret,  I hate lists.  I really do hate them, but I do like to make goals.  I like to make daily ones, weekly ones, monthly ones and yearly ones.  I find that when I do make a goal I try to accomplish it.  There is something about writing it down that keeps me focused and offers me my very own challenge.  Just give it a try.

Honestly, Janet

” My riches are my family and my foster children. I try to store any material wealth in my hand, not my heart, so that I always feel free to give it away when the opportunity rises.”  Truett Cathy