Throw Away Your Purpose?

We all desire to leave a lasting legacy, something that will outlive our earthly life. But discovering your purpose is something few find the time to invest their time into. Being willing to do what it takes to throw away your purpose is something few actually desire.

We live in a world prone toward the advancement of your career. It’s all about seeking that next promotion or simply looking to find meaning and fulfillment in life. Whether it’s professional or personal, the results are the same. We never go further than our self-limitations.

For years I’ve taught people how to find their God-given talents, to pursue purpose and discover that which God has created them to do on this earth. It’s something I’ve believed in my whole life; discovering your purpose and destiny is the single most important thing one can learn about themselves. And now, I’m telling you to throw it away?

I listen to a lot of podcasts and on imparticular, “The Cliff Ravenscraft Show” is my favorite. In an episode this past year, Cliff talked about a book by Gay Hendricks, “The Big Leap“.  The purpose of this book is to awaken something buried deep within each person’s life, helping people discover their zone of genius.

But what does this have to do with my purpose? I want to take you on a journey of discovery and give you 3 reasons you should throw away your purpose and live the life that God has called you to live.

1. Give up and stop pursuing your dream.

Say what? I know it seems counterproductive and scary to say such horrid things. Bear with me.

If you were to sit down and ask someone what their dreams are, you’ll get a whole array of things. One person may desire to be a veterinarian but are currently stuck in a day-to-day job of getting the CEO their coffee. Someone else may want to be a writer, but instead of writing their books, they complain about their co-workers at the factory and live their life wishing for something different. Or perhaps you are the CEO and feel unfulfilled in the daily grind wishing you could do something else.

If you begin to buy into your self-limiting beliefs you’ll handicap your life and you not succeed. This is why I say, give up and stop pursuing your dream. We all have something burning deep within our soul but life happens. Maybe you start living your dream, making real progress to pursuing that passion, but when you find a small victory, your self-limiting belief smacks you on the side of the head and you come back to reality.

It’s this self-limiting belief that keeps us from really putting everything we have into our dream.

Do this; take out a piece of paper and write down your dream. What do you believe God has called you to do? Then, answer this question, “are you willing to invest time, every day, to see your dream become a reality?

But, stop pursuing your dream, unless you’re willing to invest some serious time, capital, and sweat into making it happen.

2. What zone do you live in?

What is your upper limit problem? We all have one. It’s this self-sabotaging aspect of our life that keep us grounded instead of living within our God-given purpose. The moment we have a small win, we find ourselves sinking back into our comfort zone and our upper limit problem becomes a real thorn in our side.

There are four zones we all live within; the zone of incompetence, the zone of competence, the zone of excellence, the zone of genius. Each of these zones is operated on a continual and daily basis. But, the goal is to discover which areas of our life fall into which category, then make a decision that bests suits our zones of excellence and genius.

The zone of incompetence.

We like to keep the finger on the pulse of our lives, but there’s something that hinders our effectiveness and drags us into living a mediocre life. This is when you must decide if it’s worth the hassle to continue functioning in something you’re not good at. For most people, this is when we delegate those responsibilities to someone who is more competent at doing the task.

The zone of competence.

This zone is where we are confident that we can get the job done, we’re good at it, but it’s not something that makes us tick. We easily get bored or frustrated that these tasks need to get done. The saying goes, jack of all trades, but master of none. This is what the zone of competence is.

I’m someone who is so good at so many different things. People often ask me to do something for them, and I will jump at the chance, why, because I know I can accomplish the task. The problem I have, I don’t know how to say no. With the zone of competence, you may have the chops to do something, but maybe it’s best to send that task off and let someone else do the work.

The zone of excellence.

This is the area that most people excel in. When they look for a career or a new job, they are applying with the knowledge that they’ll be using their skills to help a company fulfill its mission. Being excellent at something is what makes you money and pays the bills. This is what you believe you are gifted at, but also feel some lack in your life.

There’s nothing wrong with living in your zone of excellence. It’s what motivates you to get up in the morning and go to work. But the question we still find ourselves asking, what am I called to do with my life. There is this longing for something more.

The zone of genius.

When someone asks you, what are you called to do? or what is your purpose?, what do you tell them? We all believe there’s something more to life than being excellent at something, we want to change the world and desire to leave a lasting legacy when we die. This is what Gay Hendricks calls the zone of genius.

When we begin to tap into what really makes us tick and makes us go, I wish this is what I could do with my life, then you’ve discovered your zone of genius. My zone of genius is to write and help people go deeper in their walk of life. I want to help people find their voice and succeed in life.

When you discover something deep down inside your soul that makes you sit up and pay attention, listen to that still small voice. It’s talking and you must pay attention or be stuck in the cycle of life called excellence. We should desire to move beyond that and into what God has called us to do with our lives.

3. Get rid of self-limiting beliefs.

The reason we don’t pursue our dreams is that our self-limiting beliefs stop our forward momentum. They are the life-suckers that latch on, don’t let go, and keep us from fulfilling our purpose. In fact, they help us throw away our purpose. You were created for a reason and finding that reason for life will help you on the road to success.

A self-limiting belief can be as simple as, I am not good enough to write that book. But a purposeful statement is, my story will touch someone’s life. 

A self-limiting belief is, I have to go to work, again to pay the piper. Whereas a purposeful statement is, I get to go to work and make a difference. 

See how changing our focus to something positive altars the perception of what we’re wanting to do. Self-limiting beliefs keep us from moving forward, but thinking forward with purpose allows our minds to tap into something deeper. When we connect with what God has called us to do and begin thinking positively about life, we will change our destiny.

Remember what George McFly said, You are my density… I mean, destiny.