If Vision is our sense of destiny; a sacred understanding of where we are going, then purpose is its more meaningful partner. Like yen and yang, these two ideas are each other’s greatest compliment. Neither can stand alone very well without the benefit of the other. Of course, you can have “vision” with no purpose, but there won’t be meaningful results. We need to have a compelling reason to engage in any change of behavior. “Purpose” is most often defined as the anticipated result that guides decision making. That’s right when you are moving with purpose; you are simultaneously anticipating an outcome. You’re thinking about your end game with some reasonable expectation. Your results can be either positive or negative but the results are inevitable.

Purpose quite often has two characteristics: it provides meaning and simultaneously answers the question “why”. It’s easy to decide on a destination that you want to reach in life. The hard part is providing a sense of contextual meaning or reason to that destination. Without a good compelling reason, it’s harder to accomplish anything. Yes, often we find ourselves engaging in thoughtless activity simply because someone in whom we have a great amount of respect for, asked that we do so. I would submit that keeping up with this course of action, never having a clue as to why your mother, for example, wanted you to bath five times a day would be difficult. Eventually, you’ll have an understanding of how other people behave and begin to question why they can get away with only one or two cleanings a day! You may even begin to resent your mother as you use up more and more body soap in your quest for absolute germ-free cleanliness. Anger and disappointment will soon give way to rage and disgust until you simply cease to comply. [Read more…]