“It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself.” – Abraham Lincoln.

Purpose is a matter of overwhelming importance in the life of anyone. Many people find themselves toiling on seemingly arduous and unproductive life ventures because they have yet to take time to discover their authentic purpose in life. Yet, if the sacrosanct truth is told, the rewards of devoting time and effort to find one’s purpose far outweigh any professional and financial benefits that may accrue from obtaining degrees from Ivy League schools and gliding blithely into the highest-paying jobs after that. Without seeking and finding one’s purpose, all those apparent dividends of success might only end up ringing hollow at the end of the day. Nothing is quite as despairing as stories about many people who end up unfulfilled after working tirelessly for an entire lifetime in a field that ended up being at variance with a true purpose they never took the time to discover. Although some people seem sufficiently lucky to find their purpose early in life, possibly by mere accident, this is not the case for the vast majority. Most of us are not deliberate enough to dig deep for those genuine yearnings of theirs that come wrapped as the beautiful package called purpose. The point ought to arrive in a person’s life when the need to pause and take stock becomes necessary. We need to slow down instead of spending our entire lives jumping from one unfulfilling venture to the next in search of what makes us truly happy. Finding your true life purpose should be such a critical mission because it is your only guaranteed path to genuine happiness and contentment. 

Purpose is unique to each person. There are three main areas where one typically connects with and expresses a purposeful existence. Without necessarily intending to peddle a pun, each area speaks to purposefully seeking self-worthiness in one’s life. The more worthy one feels about one’s activities and relationships, the more one lives purposefully. The first of these areas is a career or vocation meaningfully aligned with your values. The second area lies in aligning your relationship with your family, friends, and your community with your personal values. At the same time, the third is the attempt to seek meaning and fulfillment through your spiritual beliefs. Some people are aligned with their purpose in only one of these areas, while others are aligned with their purpose in one or more, or all three. It is essential to know your purpose and live your life in and with it. Living with purpose means finding yourself worthy enough to work, connect with, and understand your purpose so well that you can consciously choose to align with that purpose in one or more areas of your life, as described above. Naturally, your values are closely allied to your purpose. You will need to identify your core values in each area of your life, including your spiritual well-being, work, family, and friends. To live with purpose is to live with intention. Living intentionally means you have a plan for where you are going, so you knowingly allow your values to guide you as you make choices and set goals for your life.

Think back to a period when you were completely disoriented. In every likelihood, you were at a crossroads, completely unsure of the next turn to take. When you don’t know where you’re going, life might seem boring and useless to you. “What am I even doing here? Where do I go from here?” These are questions you might predictably ask yourself. Undoubtedly, this can be one of the most unsettling mental states in which we can find ourselves. This is why people with clear goals tend to have a higher sense of self-worth and, by extension, a higher sense of self-esteem. The human being in us earnestly desires and seeks a purpose for our existence. As I previously mentioned, some of us are incredibly fortunate that we discover the purpose of our life’s work early enough. It would seem that some people are practically born with a microphone in hand, belting out songs that make us break out in goose pimples, while some appear to have been solving the most complicated of algorithms and equations right from their mother’s womb. For the generality, however, it is more of a guessing game until they finally appear to achieve a certain equilibrium in their sense of purposeful living.

Contrary to the belief of many, your purpose does not necessarily have to be your passion. Sometimes, matters tend to resolve themselves much better that way. Some people are fortunate enough to be able to transform their passion into their livelihood, in the process genuinely enjoying the aspects that they truly love about that vocation. For you, and perhaps, many others, matters may not be that simple. That path may actually end up destroying your perception of your passion and make you abandon your authentic life pursuit. Yet, you can still build your career on something that you are passionate. How do you know you are pursuing your life’s work? You might find these guidelines helpful. 

1. That vocation is a seamless extension of your beliefs and values. 
2. You are willing to endure adversity in that work and use setbacks as motivation. 
3. You lose yourself in that work, often totally losing your sense of time. 
4. You can maintain the appropriate work/life balance without feeling drained. 
5. The prospect of work is never daunting to you, and you look forward to it. 
6. The people closest to you cannot help notice your absolute contentment. 
7. No matter how exhausted you are, you still look forward to continue to work.

The question is often asked, “Can we exist without a purpose?” Technically speaking, we can exist without a purpose. Yet, whenever we engage in any activity, no matter how menial and lofty, there is always an intention behind it. Even the commonplace act of breathing is for the physiologic intent to live. Your purpose is not under the obligation of being your cash cow. In fact, it might just be the opposite. The ultimate motivation is not always fortune or fame. Sometimes, it is merely the exultation and independence of spirit. Authentic success, contrary to consensus, is often not all about a bank account bursting at the seams with dollars and should also seek expression in the currency of happiness, for one is only too familiar with many millionaires on the world stage who are extremely unhappy, and really ought to be doing something else. The pertinent point is that we all have a purpose, and whether or not others recognize that purpose is irrelevant. The ancient Greeks believed that no human being is complete without a sense of purpose, and once that purpose is discovered, peace is achieved only when you sacrifice yourself to it entirely.

Living with a sense of purpose tends to give you a sense of high self-worth and, by extension, higher self-esteem. Any discussion about self-worth must start with a definition of self-esteem. Although the two are intimately related, they are not the same. Most of your self-esteem comes from things outside of yourself that you can’t change. Self-esteem is made up of all the thoughts and feelings you have at any given time. These ideas and feelings directly affect how you do, what you get done, and how well you do it. Self-esteem is built mostly on the value you get from doing things that help you get what you want. 

Yet, it is significantly more than just about “doing” something. Instead, self-esteem comes directly from how you feel at any given time. Stretching it further, how you feel about yourself is heavily influenced by how you think you are fairing compared to others. Your self-esteem comes from what you think other people “think” of you based on your results and actions. With all of this in mind, it’s clear that self-esteem isn’t something that comes from inside of us. Instead, it’s something that comes from outside of us and affects how we feel at any given time. Of course, how we feel at any given moment has nothing to do with what’s going on. Instead, it is purely based on our perspective and interpretation of that reality. Given all this, it also becomes clear that self-esteem is rather fickle and can shift with changing opinions and circumstances. On the other hand, people with a high sense of self-worth don’t feel that way. When we have a lot of self-worth, our self-esteem goes up automatically, giving us the same self-confidence.

Conversely, self-worth is an internal state of being that derives from self-love, self-understanding, and self-acceptance. Self-worth, to its eternal credit, remains unchanging and timeless since it is a direct measure of how you value and regard yourself, despite the opinion of others about you. Therefore, it does not change with external factors or circumstances. Self-worth is steady. It is implacable and unflinching. That is why it possesses the power to radically transform your life for the better. To possess a high level of self-worth is to have a favorable estimate of yourself and your abilities and capabilities. Having a high degree of self-worth means feeling worthy of the good and wonderful dividends that accrue from your efforts at self-actualization. It means feeling worthy and deserving of health, wealth, happiness, and love, notwithstanding life’s inevitable difficulties and vagaries. To have a high sense of self-worth, you must fully accept yourself, and at all times, warts and all. You fully accept being flawed, weak, and limited. Yet, that acknowledgment does not prevent you from recognizing the real value of who you are. To have a high level of self-worth is to never allow yourself to be defined by outside forces, including the opinions of others. It also means never allowing outcomes to shake your confidence, faith, and resolve. In the circumstances, no matter what happens, you are steadfast. Nothing outside of you influences how you feel about yourself. You, and only you, will always be the most important part of how you feel about yourself, your life, and your situation. That, in truth, and indeed, is the source of your power, and that is what allows you to purposefully pursue your life of purpose.

ABOUT PASTOR MAGGIE BELLEVUE

Maggie Bellevue, known famously as ‘The Apostle of Purpose,’ is a Christian minister, international speaker, women’s advocate, and transformational leader. She has traveled throughout Europe, Africa, America, Canada, and the Caribbean for the past eighteen years, sharing God’s word through her Kingdom Empowerment International Ministries. In recent years, Bellevue has emerged as a major force for transformation in the lives of many through personal development seminars that are uniquely designed to not only spiritually empower people but also to help them identify their life’s purpose and propel them toward manifesting that purpose. To provide a solid intellectual, literary, and theological platform for her mission as an ‘Apostle of Purpose,’ she has authored two books, “TREASURES OF THE SOUL – Unearthing God’s Purpose For Your Life,” and “THE PURPOSE DEVOTIONAL – Biblical Illustrations of Those Who Lived In God’s Purpose.’