Throughout life, we are all searching for who we are and why we matter. Whether we are an educator, a student, or a human being.
When we are young, we are told that when we grow older and have our own jobs and careers, we will then be able to do what we want. We will be able to follow our dreams. Once we live out our dream, we somehow believe we will immediately feel this unexplainable happiness that will fill every inch of our soul. Suddenly, at that moment, we will feel fulfilled.
I thought as a kid, that I just had to wait for that feeling because it only happens when you get older.
What I have found instead through experience is that reaching your dreams does not have an endpoint like we are made to believe.
Once you reach your goals, there is usually not someone there cheering for you or there is not a glass ceiling that you finally reach and shatter into pieces, although that would be marvelous, wouldn’t it?
Instead, sometimes when you reach your goals, you feel the silence. Sometimes you reach your goals and feel like you are not enough. Sometimes you reach your goals and wish you would have done even better somehow.
What I wish I knew years ago is that life is not about reaching your goals. Do not get me wrong- Setting goals can be motivating. Setting goals can be inspiring. Setting goals can help you and those around you be more. But, what matters more than goal-setting is purpose-setting.
Let me ask you this: What do you set as your daily purpose? You may even have a life purpose. Or— You might be like me and know what makes you, “you” but you are continually trying to figure it out. You are out there in the grandiose world, looking, listening, and hearing for your purpose in the world around you.
Being an assistant principal is one of the greatest joys in my life, but a job title is not my purpose alone. What I do within my job, may be part of my purpose, but it does not tell the whole story. We have to see ourselves as not the career we have but the whole person we are and the holistic impact we make.
Let me break it down for you- Your purpose is not the awards you won, your job title, or the diplomas in your office. Your purpose is the way you act, the way you love, the way you behave. Your purpose is how you make a difference in the lives around you. Your purpose is what you can bring to the table that no one else can. Your purpose is what makes you, “YOU!”
Each day– I pray, I search, and I continually hope that I can live out my purpose to make a positive impact in the lives around me. Some days I do just that, and other days I fall short. Rather than searching for my purpose in the approval of others, the applause, the likes, or white noise, I am choosing to take a bolder path. I am keeping my heart and eyes open around me so I can find it wherever I go.
After all, purpose is not found in us alone but instead, purpose is found in the people, places, and the beating hearts of those around us. When we are looking for our purpose, keep looking all around you- that is where it is hiding and waiting to be found.
