Post #73 focused more on some basic mechanics of estate planning, while this post adds content on living with purpose to estate planning efforts. At least a couple of you will suggest that the “finding purpose” step should come first, and you would be right. I suspect many of you already have a good idea of what your purposeful living includes, and may have already taken steps to reflect that in your estate planning. If so, then you’re ahead of me.
Then again, there’s nothing wrong with keeping estate planning efforts separate from any search for purposeful living.
Let me introduce you to some Christian-based and agnostic-based snippets from purposeful living online references (there are several, read as many or as few as you like):
- “By that, I mean, doing work that allows you to use your unique gifts and talents to do work that truly makes you happy while making a positive impact on the world around you. This is what allows you to create meaning in your daily life and feel fulfilled in everything you do.
Not only that – living your purpose requires you to set meaningful goals, achieve self-efficacy, and keep learning and growing throughout your life.”
https://jackcanfield.com/blog/life-purpose/
2. “Building a right-sized life means one that is authentically aligned to your True Self, your wiring, needs, desires, life stage, values, and sense of purpose. It is not a fairy tale ideal; it involves truth-telling, questioning, grappling, and coming face to face with the reality of what is. We take responsibility for that which we can control and choose our response to the rest of it.”
3. “Ask yourself what you are good at to help recognize what you care about.
-Align Your Life with What You Care About
-Recognize the Things You Care About”
4. “…nothing else matters if you aren’t following your soul’s purpose. Once you’ve found it, you can align all areas of your life to point in that direction. It is possible to do what you love and live in flow — you just need the right motivation and mindset, and to take the right action.”
Understand what life should feel like.
“Living on purpose” means doing what truly matters to you in alignment with your values and beliefs. I can’t tell you what that means for you, but you know it when you feel it — and when you don’t.
Stop searching outside yourself and tap into your calling within.
Trust yourself and forget what others think.
Feel the fear and take the first step anyway.
Rethink your to-do list.”
https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/7-steps-to-living-your-life-with-purpose/336600
5. “Living a life of purpose can motivate you to get up in the morning and put your full energy into your day. Having purpose in your life can help you feel as though your routines and habits are as meaningful and important as possible.
(Method 1 of 3) Following Your Passions and Setting Goals
- Identify your passions
- Integrate your passions into your everyday life
- Set goals and work to achieve them.”
https://www.wikihow.life/Live-a-Life-of-Purpose
(The above co-authored by Sydney Axelrod)
6. “Your job is to listen through the passion for the meaning, then infuse it into everything you do.
Meaning makes patience of pain, gratitude of sorrow, cheerfulness of change, and is the key to lasting joy. As C.S. Lewis describes it, ‘It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in’ ”.
7. From Rick Warren’s website: https://www.purposedriven.com/
“Why are you here on earth? What’s the purpose of your life? Ask your Creator.
What is the Center of your life? The greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.
You can’t fulfill your purpose by yourself. You must be connected to a community.
What is your contribution to this world? The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Compare how much time/effort you spend on yourself compared to time/effort you spend on others.”
And last…a handful of related quotes. I include the source of the first quote, but you’ll have to go to the reference website below to learn the source of the other quotes:
“True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” ―Helen Keller
“Musicians must make music, artists must paint, poets must write if they are ultimately to be at peace with themselves. What humans can be, they must be.”
“The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.”
“To begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.”
“The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, or gives you a sense of meaning, joy, or passion.”
“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.”
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
https://www.success.com/17-inspiring-quotes-to-help-you-live-a-life-of-purpose/
This is really just an introduction, something to get you thinking. Would be glad to hear thoughts on the subject.