Do I believe that everyone is put on this earth for a reason?…Yes, I do.

I do however also believe that not every one of us will ever find out what that reason, our purpose is.

Some people are not even looking for what their purpose may be in life, they are living day to day and are doing just fine. After all, you can’t find something that you are not looking for.

All people who live a purpose driven life have certain things in common and one of those things is something called Awareness.

Awareness is the principle characteristic that drives people to a life full of purpose.

There are three things that you need to be aware of:

1. Your World: Where you born and raised, your current environment, who you surround yourself with and what influences you to take certain decisions.

2. Your perspective and your narrative of yourself in relation to the world that you live in: Being aware of what your inner voice is constantly telling you and what you believe the story of your life is.

3. Your Vision: Your forward looking perspective, how you see the future and where you see yourself in that future.

It is extremely important to realise that your awareness in any situation is crucial to you discovering what your purpose is, success in life and making a ton of money is only a part of the equation.

How true is it that once people start tasting money and realising the options and opportunities that it affords them in life, they are often left with an urge to acquire more money?

How often is it true that a person will move from company to company because they are being offered more money and not because the work that they will be doing is going to have any impact nor will it make a difference?

Though money is important, the single pursuit of it alone will leave you in a vicious and never ending cycle to acquire more; those who are infinitely pursuing money are subconsciously looking for their purpose without realising it.

Awareness is the key to helping them break out of this cycle.

Let’s become aware…

The first part of being aware is to look at everything that you do on a daily basis, the time you wake up, your daily routine, the job that you do, what your thoughts about your career are…everything is important and will ultimately lead you down the path to purpose.

Imagine how much harder you would work at your job if you knew that the current work that you are doing is part of the purpose that you are meant to fulfil?

No matter how dull and mundane your daily tasks are you would probably approach them with a new energy, when you encounter obstacles or challenges you would push your mind much more to come up with a solution.

Your positive attitude would be infectious to everyone around you, you would stop moaning about how the company doesn’t care about you and see the value that you offer, you would stop bitching about how crap your boss is and how he doesn’t know what’s going on.

And weirdly enough you would probably end up being promoted, having more responsibilities and accountability and you would end up earning more money!

This is just one example of the true power of awareness.

Let’s take a look at another example…

Are you aware how your behaviour makes the people that you care about feel, are you aware of the negative thoughts that go through your head on a Sunday evening when you come to the realisation that your weekend is over and you have to go to work tomorrow.

Are you aware that your Friday night drinking binges are restraining and holding you back from finding your true purpose?

When I came to this realisation, my work became more pleasurable, I stopped being jittery and nervous about the future, I started sleeping better at night because I was aware of all the things that were happening in my life, why they were happening and what role they were playing in my life.

My plea to you is that you would start observing all that is happening in your life, think about it as though you were outside your body, look at how you react to things, and become aware of how people react to you.

My hopes and wishes for you are that you become attuned to that inner voice inside of you that you have been ignoring up until now.

My prayers for all of us is that we may all become aware of what our purpose is for living and to spend the rest of our waking days pursuing it.

“The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates

Life is boring if it is routine.

It is worthless if we only live it only for ourselves, unfulfilling if our greater purpose is not something so big that it scares us.

Life is wasted if it lacks direction and if it lacks faith in something Greater.

Sitting, pondering and trying to figure out what life is, is useless.

The only way that we may ever come to any conclusions about what life actually is, is by living our lives and sharing our experiences with others.

Life is designed to lived in community with others, even though life is a personal experience it should never be a private one.

Life is putting aside the fact that you are 33 years old, letting go of things that hold you back, running outside and dancing in the rain with the toddlers from next door.

Life is buying your Mom flowers and telling her you love her even when it’s not Mothers Day.

Life is when the girl you thought you would marry leaves you and you later realize that it was probably the best thing that could have happened because you have met someone better.

Life is when you accept that you will die one day and that every moment you spend doing things that you don’t want to be doing is a moment that you will never get back.

That with each and every breath, we are one breath closer to death.

To live is to realize that your Dad is not Superman, that he is flawed and to love him more because in that moment you realize that he is just human and that you would have probably made the same mistake had you been in his shoes.

Life is falling head over heels in love with the girl who sits two rows in front of you in your English Literature class, then asking her to be your girlfriend with a letter that has a “yes or no” box drawn on it.

To live is to come to the understanding that even though there are greater things out there that are beyond our control, we were born with the ability to come out on the other side of any challenge or obstacle stronger and wiser.

Life is when the clue you give your friend during a game of 30 Seconds is “That thing we spoke about earlier today” and they answer correctly on their first attempt.

Living exists in pushing, pulling, asking questions and never settling.

Why do so many of us spend our lives not living for a greater purpose?

Life is accepting that Lawyer, Doctor or even Accountant is just a job title and not who you really are!

Why do we not reach beyond what we already have and what we already do?

Why do we keep living off past glories instead of pushing ahead and striving to make better ones?

If life is this big miracle, why do we do choose to not embrace it, see it as such and to wake up everyday with this reality as the first thought in the morning?

We’re not given such a miracle just to fit in, to be normal, to follow the crowd when deep down the crowd is killing us internally everyday.

We’re not put here, in this moment, surrounded by these people, given these talents, this worldview, these interests, passions and experiences to simply come home to drunken weekends, to gossip about what so and so did last week and to spend countless hours in front of the box ‘Keepin’ up with the Kardashians’.

WE WERE MEANT TO LIVE!!!

We’re meant to step out of our comfort zones each and every single day, we’re meant to feel, to smile, cry and laugh.

Death is a reality and it’s imminent arrival should be a constant reminder that we are not meant to look back at our lives with regret!

Our biggest regrets will never be not spending more time at the office nor will they be not owning a Maserati.

Our biggest regrets will be not doing what we felt we were meant to do deep down, not having loved deeply nor allowing ourselves to be loved, not showing those whom we love most just how much we love them.

We won’t regret failing after trying, we will however regret not trying at all.

We think we’re insignificant and that our opinion doesn’t matter so we never speak up, we never stand up for ourselves or others around us that need someone to stand up for them.

We think we’re worthless so we never put ourselves out there in this one and only precious life that we have.

WE ARE WRONG!!!

The only way any one of us is ever going to prove ourselves wrong is if we do the things that we fear most and embark on the journey we should have ventured out on so long ago.

The beautiful thing about life is, it’s never too late.

It’s never to late to love, to cry, to laugh.

It’s never too late to live.

Those who are truly living intentionally know all of this already or at the very least they are learning.

They realise that never in history has there ever been anyone like them and never will there be anyone like them.

They know that they cannot live the cookie-cutter life.

We are unique. We are molded by our experiences, our experiences make us unique.

So go on that road trip, take that cooking class, train for that marathon, stop playing small and see what you’re made of.

You’re far stronger than you’ve led yourself to believe up to this point.

There’s no day like today to get started living.

This is your life!