I’ve recently recognized something that has given me a great deal of control over myself; purpose. I wasn’t sure what word to use for this post,purpose or reason, but I figured purpose was a little more relevant and required less explanation while providing more inspiration.
So let me explain.
For the last few days I have been taking my little sisters to school for my mom while she was out of town. They are in high school and junior high school. In order to do this I had to wake up every morning at 6:00 am. I use to wake up around that time when I was first hired at Raster Media, but I soon lost the urgency in arriving to work at 7:30; I had no purpose in waking up that early. Thus waking up earlier was seemingly impossible; I’d just turn off the alarms and sleep in a bit longer. But when I had a reason, or a purpose, I woke up at 5:59 am twice out of the 3 times that I brought my sisters to school. My alarm was set for 6:00 am.
I found it amazing what I could accomplish when I had a purpose. It may seem very odd, but I use to be able to do this long ago, too. I would repeat over and over in my head “wake up at 6:30″ until I fell asleep. I would wake up once or twice during the early morning, say around 4:00 am and then mentally, almost unconsciously, note that it wasn’t time to get up and then I’d go right back to sleep. Then when 6 rolled around I woke up before 6:30 95% of the time.
Purpose empowered me to do what I normally was unable to; even though my inability to do so was voluntary.
So now I am connecting this simple theme to a much broader horizon of tasks. No longer am I going to turn off the metaphoric alarms of my entrepreneurial projects. No more procrastination, as long as I remember why I am doing what I am doing.
So what is my reason to get these projects running? Personally, I don’t want to work more than 3 days a week. I want to live a simple life where I can make a living doing what I enjoy without forfeiting the whole living part. I have other more important life priorities that have deeper benefits than working 40 plus hours a week to make an overly anxious living. I don’t want to be stuck in the rat race.
Find your purpose. With it will come power to do what you believe you must.
Well said and agreed. When you understand the deep motivations of a goal your internal self will move you toward that goal almost subconsciously. Most teach that you have to make goals to get where you want in life. But if you don’t bring to surface the “purpose” of those goals, what good are they. You’ll soon forget them and move on to new goals that you will later forget… and so on, and so on.