As I was sitting in a coffee shop today meeting with a lovely new connection, she stopped me mid-sentence to ask, “What drives you?” Feeling rather dumbfounded for a minute, I’m sure my facial expression gave my surprise away. She explained that she was inspired by the energy I had towards all that I was sharing and she just had to ask. It was inspiring to hear, because I lost that for awhile. I lost my mojo for awhile.
The question made me realize that a large part of my purpose is to help people live a maximized life. I love to help people love what they do and live purposefully and happily. The first thing that I could think to share with her was a quote that I keep on my LinkedIn profile:
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both. ” -James A. Michener
After sharing and reflecting on those words, I realized why I lost my mojo for awhile; I wasn’t helping many people find their platform for excellence. I wasn’t helping others, because I hadn’t helped myself. I’m back now and I am going to cultivate regular habits to ensure I don’t get lost again.
Here are 3 things I’m going to do:
- Check in regularly on my purpose and evaluate my calendar to identify how much time I spend pursuing my purpose.
- Take quarterly retreat days to spend time thinking and planning. I will eliminate the things that are not helping me grow and I will seek out new things I need to incorporate in my life to grow.
- Spend time with people who are better than me. I need 2-3 interactions per month with people or groups that make me feel uncomfortable and push me. I must walk out of those meetings fired up (meaning I can feel that I can run faster than my car can drive) or they don’t meet the criteria that I need.
Bottom line, keep a maintenance plan for your purpose and passion. Fuel it all the time!
