It’s tempting to think about your life’s mission as though it were a particular career, or at least a particular type of work. People who receive public accolades and media attention for their professional accomplishments often seem to have found their mission in what they do for a living. No one looks at Wayne Dyer or Tony Robbins or Bill Gates and thinks, “Poor guy - if only he could find some direction in life!”
But there’s an important distinction between the purpose of a life and the way that purpose is expressed. People who achieve tremendous career success generally do so by aligning their career very closely with their life purpose. Their life mission is not limited to their career, but they have learned how to express their mission particularly well in that arena. We don't realize how broad their life mission really is because their career is the only aspect of their lives that gets broadcast on television.
No one is born with a limited life mission. Your mission is your special gift for the world, and that gift doesn't magically shut off at 5:00. We aren’t born with a career mission or a family mission or a friendship mission. We are born with a LIFE mission. Whatever your personal mission is, you will be able to express it every day, in every aspect of your life.
So if you're tempted to think of your life mission as your most promising career or your greatest talent or your deepest interest, think bigger. But then again, at the same time, think smaller... Believe it or not, your life mission will be both much broader and much more narrowly focused than any of these. How is that possible? To be continued...
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Articles in the Life Mission series:
- Discovering your life's mission - 11/15/05
- The nature of a life mission - Part I - 11/19/05
- The nature of a life mission - Part II - 11/20/05
- The broad scope of a life mission - 11/24/05
- Expressing your life mission in your own way - 11/26/05
- Aligning your life with your life mission - 12/2/05
- Using your talents and interests to find direction - 12/5/05
- Recognizing the value of your life mission - 12/13/05
