How to live in Purpose

A few months back, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend who happened to have left a very successful professorship and time off as a New York Times best-selling author to learn more about where faith and social change intersect. She was participating in our memoir circle and she said something that’s stuck with me and influenced how I move ever since.

She asked us which of three categories we wanted our stories to show our lives;

Survival

Success

Significance

“What you write on the pages may bring you success, but what you do with what you learn from the pages will bring you significance.”

As I sit here in a new space, in Nigeria, I’m reminded, a large part of the world’s population still lives a life of survival and very often they have little choice to change it. There are countless numbers of people who earn below the poverty line, those who are forced to spend most of their time ensuring they have basic necessities like clean water and as a result are forced to live a life of survival. According to some estimates, the number of people in this bucket are over 3 billion.

If you’re reading this via your smart phone or on the internet, I’m confidant you fall into the second or third category. You probably have a job or are financially ‘successful’ or comfortable. It’s a blessing to be in given the billions living a life of survival.

You may have experienced some success, but to live in purpose..you need progress. The greatest enemy of your progress is your last success. I’m not saying don’t celebrate you. I’m saying you shouldn’t get so wrapped up in what you’ve done that you think it was done by only your will and you stop moving towards what else you can accomplish.

Success is living for likes so others can say you’re important. Significance is living to be effective for others. Success is consuming existing knowledge, data and news for your benefit. Significance is doing something news worthy and creating knowledge that others can benefit from. Significance is educating others.

Success is earning a steady income and buying comforts for yourself. Significance is empowering others to thrive. When you’re significant, you make an impact. Yet few people choose to make the leap from success to significance. How it’s going to be for me in 23…making an IMPACT!

I – Live Inspired M – Master your craft P – Play at world-class A – Take Action C – Condition for Greatness T – Tenacity