Vision Lines Up With Purpose…or should

The mayor position for the city of Grandview opened up to the public a couple weeks ago. The city usually appoints from within.  Our current mayor was elected to County Commissioner, so the city needed to appoint someone to be mayor until the next election cycle. I’ve been with the city of Grandview in some position, be it planning commission or city council since 2003. Some of my friends were telling me to apply for mayor “because I would be so good at it.” That felt pretty good to me…and they were right (note the sarcasm.) I filled out the application and told God if I wasn’t supposed to have the position to close the door.

Hahahaha.  The council unanimously appointed a current city council person to the position. A unanimous vote was definitely a door slam for me. It was my answer to prayer. I was fine with the decision…until the next morning. The committee that lives in my head started me wondering if, “Maybe I wasn’t good enough, I didn’t even know enough, the current council didn’t like me…blah, blah, blah.”  I sat in the self-pity quicksand for about 15 minutes. Then I told the committee to pound salt, because a positiion doesn’t determine my worth. I am valuable on my own. Geesh. AND I had asked God to close the door and He did.

Fast forward to a teaching that I shared in my Breakthrough to Your Best You. This particular segment is on Purpose and Vision and I’m going to share just a bite of this. Hang in there with me, I am going somewhere with this.

Our purpose is why we do what we do. It directs our thinking and it is the filter through which we make all our life’s decisions. Many people don’t know what their purpose is–they have to guess at it. We can discover our purpose by listening to what people appreciate about us. What do you love? What gives you great joy? In what areas are you strong?  When you think you have discovered your purpose, it’s time to write your vision.

Your vision is what you would like your life to look like if you could have your perfect life. It’s a detailed description of you living in the full achievement of that life, like you have already attained it. If I am living my perfect life, what would it feel like? How would I act? Who would I surround myself with? What would my relationships look like?

During this teaching, I’m busy sharing with everyone that the litmus test for vision is that your vision is in harmony with your purpose. And I stop. What? My brain tilted like a pinball machine. It felt like a minute lapsed while I processed this aha! moment. My vision of being mayor is NOT in harmony with my purpose. OMGoodness, how could I have missed this? This makes me laugh because I teach this stuff and I totally missed it. Duh! That was a great example to share with the class on how easy it is to get derailed, when we don’t hold our vision up against our purpose. I tried to take a path that wasn’t aligned with my purpose.

If we have a clear purpose (and remind ourselves of it often,:) we can make decisions quickly. We know if the decision is a match…or not. People without a clear purpose are often not quite sure what direction to take. This can make for wandering through life rather than thriving by doing what you love and are good at.

This is such a valuable teaching that I’m going to give this teaching away on a complimentary conference call sometime in December. I am not sure of the date, yet, because I just got this idea. I’ll let you know. This information will help you discover your purpose, so you can define your vision, and from this your goals will come together. Your 2019 will be set up nicely.

Still discovering,

Jan

Jan McDonald
The John Maxwell Team

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