The online world is abuzz with talk about finding your purpose or living out your purpose. This is well and good. We need a purpose. We need something to drive us harder and farther than we would normally go.

But…

What if we have our definition of purpose wrong. In the online and leadership sphere, we often hear purpose as the reason behind what you do. It often relates to the things you do and how they impact you.

I think we’re wrong in thinking purpose is about the effect our work has in us. I recently read a quote from Jade Simmons. This is when it really resonated with me.

Redefine how you look at purpose. Re-understand your purpose. Your purpose is not the thing you do. It’s the thing that happens in others when you do what you do.

Wow! That’s powerful.  Read more...

We all have excuses. We blurt out a reason for why we’re less successful than we want to be. Or we excuse our poor behavior.

Excuses run rampant in our lives. It’s become an epidemic of massive proportions.

I was recently thinking about a few excuses I’ve used. My excuses include:

• But I don’t have a compelling and challenging upbringing
• But I was raised in a great home
• But I don’t have the great immigrant story to tell
• But I have never truly struggled for much in life
• But I don’t have enough experience

Many of our excuses lack substance. Other excuses people use are:  Read more...

• But I’m too young
• But I’m too old
• But I’m a white male
• But I’m an African American male
• But I was born an immigrant
• But I’m not an immigrant

As I was recently reading the John Maxwell Daily Reader, the statement made by John Maxwell struck me hard. Really, really hard. I think his statement will strike you hard as well.

January 29th’s reading shared a quote from John Maxwell’s book Your Roadmap For Success. The piece that struck me was this:

Change requires action.

How many of us want to see a positive change in our lives? I see those hands. I think that’s everybody reading this.

Come on… I mean, who doesn’t want to see positive changes happening in their lives? I know I do.

Some positive changes I would like to see are:  Read more...

• To lose another 13-16 pounds
• To release my first book (I have two in the works!)
• To improve my marriage
• To increase the amount I can lift

Over the years, I’ve signed up for a lot of newsletters, store promotions, and more via email. I’ve recently come to realize I’ve signed up for way too many emails. Many of them I no longer read or they no longer apply to me.

What does this mean for me? It means my email inbox has become inundated with emails from companies and organizations. Just today, my inbox contained over 500 emails from various companies.

That’s a lot. A lot more than I’m comfortable having in my inbox.

I choose to do something with all of these emails. I began to look at the emails, their senders, and whether or not the emails were pertinent to me.

Doing this allowed me to determine which email lists I wanted to stay connected to and which email lists I was okay with clicking the unsubscribe button.  Read more...

Lately, I’ve felt uninspired. What used to drive me to write has left me feeling empty and dry. I think my well is close to empty. My well is dry.

Authors, content creators, leaders, and more have a well they go to. This well helps them find new content and ideas to present to their audiences and teams.

Sometimes, these wells run dry. You hit writer’s block. You hit an inspiration block.

There are hours, days, weeks, even years where you may not feel the desire to keep doing what you have done for as long as you can remember. Writing feels mundane. New content isn’t coming easily. Or you don’t know where to direct your organization to go.

It sucks… But it doesn’t have to be the end of what you love to do.  Read more...