backpackers

Success can be generally stated as an accomplishment of your purpose or intention. Our desire for love, happiness, joy, prosperity, recognition, education, health, and many other things stems from living a life of purpose. Are you only willfully trying to achieve success, or are you pursuing your passion and trusting success will come?

Our measure of success may be different, yet it is the same when we use a recognized set of principles. Most principles are a set of beliefs and concepts that we follow and teach to act on a moral and ethical basis. For example, if we work hard and continue to work toward our goals, eventually we will achieve them.

Success Doesn’t Happen By Accident

Maybe we’re enamored when we hear someone was an overnight success. It is not that someone was an overnight success, it means that the juncture when success was attained, there was motivation and determination. The former reality TV show, America Idol, happily bestowed the winner in 2005 to Carrie Underwood, who may have seemed like an overnight success. She was attending college at the time as a journalism major when she auditioned on the show. What you might not know is she liked to sing as a child and wanted to pursue her passion. In fact, Carrie’s success continues to be much greater than that time when she won the award. Carrie is now a seven-time grammy award winner and it keeps getting better.

When I decided to pursue my life of purpose, I got past what I didn’t want and what I do want. When you’re finished reading, you’ll see the Joy Review exercise that follows below to see what brings you joy. My original idea as I was nearing college age was to become a physical education teacher. Although my idea of running PE classes never happened, instead I decided to focus on helping others become fit for life through self-improvement and living a life of purpose.

The essential principles I teach are based on the methods of Jack Canfield, renowned co-author of The Success Principles and Chicken Soup for the Soul series. He has developed training certification programs based on teachings he has developed as well as those of other human potential thought leaders through the ages. I am trained and certified to deliver these Jack Canfield Success Principles training.

Let me say, take some time to reflect on your life. Are you true to your purpose? Are you living your passion, waking up every morning with gratitude? Do you have a vision of what you want, and do you set goals and stick with them?

My goal is to help as many people as I can to find their purpose in life. When you align with your purpose and passion, you will have no worry about whether you are doing the right thing. You owe it only to yourself and the responsibility that lies within you to make it happen. When you do, your life will flourish.

I invite you to try a simple exercise below. As a cautionary note, this exercise is one of many that will help you get to where you want to be. We can do this together.

Joy Review Exercise

Set aside ten or fifteen minutes to complete the Joy Review. It is a beneficial way to help you get in touch with areas of your life that bring you joy. If you can think of joy as your inner guidance system, you are on the path to understanding and living your life of purpose.

Please understand it may take time to feel joy if you are struggling in a job, relationship, or financial area of your life. Think of the Joy Review as an opportunity to separate the positive from the negative feelings you have toward things when you’re not fully experiencing joy.

  1. Look back over your life, when did you experience the most joy? What were you doing? Make a list of 5, 10, or as many things as you can. The greater the list, the deeper you are looking inside your heart.
  2. What are the common elements or themes in the times you felt the most joy? Look at the list you created in the previous step. Write down the themes or common elements.
  3. Spend some time reflecting on your list. As an alternate way of doing this exercise, either share your list with someone you trust, like a spouse, partner, or friend. Try doing the Joy Review together and then share and discuss what you’ve come up with.

Please share your comments.