One of the many things I love about my job is the ability to travel to national conferences to learn from colleagues at land grant institutions. During a recent trip, several sessions were inspirational, but the one titled Priority and Purpose in Life really spoke to me. 

The speaker shared, “Living life with purpose can bring a sense of direction, meaning, and contentment.  Purposeful living can also be good for your physical and mental health.”   A few of the questions shared to help focus on our purpose were:

What drives you?

What energizes you?

What is it that you would sacrifice for?

Who is it you want to help or how do you want to help? 

'If you chase two rabbits, both will get away'

As I pondered these questions, I was also reflecting on how our purpose throughout life might change with the responsibilities of not only our work but family and community.  These questions may help us set our aspirations for long-term goals and breaking them down into manageable tasks so that we might feel a sense of accomplishment. 

I enjoyed the speaker’s comment “if you chase two rabbits, both will get away.” We seem to think we can get more accomplished if we multitask, but really our brains are not wired that way and in reality, it takes longer to do both, if I don’t focus on the task at hand. 

To feel successful, we must put our priorities in place.  Stephen Covey states, “time management is really a misnomer- the challenge is not to manage time but to manage ourselves.  The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”  This brought to mind the visual from Steven Covey we’ve probably all seen about the glass jar and the rocks, pebbles and sand.  If we don’t put the rocks in first (our largest priority), then they won’t fit. 

We all only have 24 hours in a day, and we spend them on the things that are important to us, our priorities.  There was also a discussion about why we work.  Yes, we work to bring home money, but the emphasis was placed on the where as much as the why.  Do we work to only make money or is it to build skills and develop ourselves professionally along a career path or is it even more than that, is it to make a positive difference like a calling? 

Ask the right question and you may identify purpose

Reflectively, we can all look at those questions and possibly identify throughout our work career, an example in each category.   If the question was asked, “Where did you find the greatest satisfaction or joy?” we might identify where we found purpose, at least I know I can. 

The audience was challenged to answer, where do you want to be in three, five or 10 years and how will you know that you achieved those goals?  We know that time goes by very quickly and without a plan, it will arrive before we know it, if we don’t make a concerted effort to identify where we want to succeed and how we will get there. 

As we reach certain milestones in life, it’s a great time to reassess our purpose and priorities.  Dr. Jim Loehr states, “Discovering and living your personal brilliant purpose brings energy, fulfillment and wellbeing to your life.”

Melinda Hill is an OSU Extension Family and Consumer Sciences Educator and may be reached at 330-264-8722 or hill.14@osu.edu
This article was previously published in The Daily Record.