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A Legacy of a Life On Purpose

Guest post by: Brad Swift

Article Overview: As long as I can remember, I’ve yearned to make a difference in people’s lives, and thanks to the grace of God I’ve had ample opportunities, first as a small animal veterinarian for 15 years and for the past 15 years as a life coach, speaker, writer, and founder of Life On Purpose Institute. I don’t believe there’s anything I’ve done in these various professional capacities that’s been any more rewarding or difference-making than taking an active role in raising my daughter, Amber, with my wife, Ann. And with Amber all the other various threads have come together as a beautiful tapestry of life.

A Legacy of a Life On Purpose

As long as I can remember, I’ve yearned to make a difference in people’s lives, and thanks to the grace of God I’ve had ample opportunities, first as a small animal veterinarian for 15 years and for the past 15 years as a life coach, speaker, writer, and founder of Life On Purpose Institute.

I don’t believe there’s anything I’ve done in these various professional capacities that’s been any more rewarding or difference-making than taking an active role in raising my daughter, Amber, with my wife, Ann. And with Amber all the other various threads have come together as a beautiful tapestry of life.

For, while I’ve coached hundreds of people to clarify their life purpose, trained and developed over 50 others to be life purpose coaches, spoken to hundreds about the value of living on purpose, and had thousands read my articles about life purpose, one of my proudest accomplishment was when Amber clarified her life purpose at the age of 10 using the Life On Purpose Process I created when she was only 2.

I love to hear Amber share her life purpose statement with her friends. “My life purpose is to live a bold life of full self expression, happiness and love,” she says proudly, with a smile on her face.

As one of her parents and her life purpose coach, it is my strongest desire that Amber grow up knowing who she is and why God placed her on planet earth. I guess that’s why the last piece of coaching I always give her just before she goes on stage to perform in one of her community plays or sing is simply, “Remember, be yourself and have fun expressing your Divinely Inspired Life Purpose. Everything else will flow from that.”

A LEGACY FOR LIFE WHERE PURPOSE IS MORE THAN DOING

It is my hope and intention that a part of my legacy to my daughter and the rest of humankind is a new perspective on what a life purpose is – a way of viewing life purpose that allows people to live true to their life purpose in their entire life rather than in just a few areas.

Over the past 13 years I’ve asked thousands of people this simple question, “In your view, what is a life purpose?” It’s my contention that how we view the concept of a life purpose has a tremendous influence on how we answer the question, “what is my life purpose?”

What I have learned from this informal survey is that there is a common theme or thread to 60 to 70 percent of the replies, which goes something like this. A life purpose is what I’m here to do while on earth, with the key word being ‘do.’ For most people this equates to them considering their life purpose to be either their job or career, or a primary role in life like parent, spouse, or family member.

It also means that much of their life is left out of their life purpose. For example, a few years ago my dentist read on my records that I was a life purpose coach, to which he said, “Boy, my dad could us you right now. He’s been a prominent physician in this part of the country for close to 40 years, but now, because of his health he can no longer practice. He feels lost. He has no sense of purpose or meaning to his life.”

The same loss of purpose is true for many men and women who retire or who experience the ‘empty nest syndrome’ when their children grow up and leave home, if they’ve misidentified their life purpose to be a good parent.

But there’s another way to view a life purpose that I call the Life On Purpose Perspective. I invite you to consider that a life purpose is the context, vessel or container into which you pour your life. And just like a cup gives form and shape to the liquid poured inside of it, the same is true for a life purpose – it gives shape and form to your life.

From this perspective, all the things we do in our life become ways in which we can express our life purpose, making it possible to live true to our purpose our whole life. Another way of saying this Life On Purpose Perspective is that our Divinely Inspired Life Purpose is more about who we are as spiritual beings and what we came here to this life to be and to experience. For example, my life purpose isn’t to be a writer, coach, speaker, or even to be a good parent to Amber or a loving spouse to Ann. These are all things that I do as an expression of my true, Divinely Inspired Life Purpose. For me, a life on purpose is to live a life of purposeful, passionate, and playful service, mindful abundance balanced with simplicity, and spiritual serenity. It is this context that I pour my life as a writer, coach, speaker and parent into.

And it’s this perspective on life and on living on purpose that I leave to my daughter, and to all the sons and daughter of humankind.

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Article Tags: grace of god, legacy, legacy of love, life coach, life on purpose, tapestry of life



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