Take Time to Meander

meander [mɪˈændə]

vb (intr)

1. to follow a winding course

2. to wander without definite aim or direction

Sometimes people have misconceptions about living at The Intersection of Purpose & Now.

They believe it will be restrictive. They think they might get trapped by their own plans. Having a definite aim and direction might keep them from new, as yet undiscovered opportunities.

They fear that living a value-driven, goal-directed, On-Purpose life leaves no room for spontaneity. I have found just the opposite to be true.

Living On Purpose actually creates more opportunity for innovation, spontaneity, fulfillment and just plain fun...if you take time to meander.

I have been traveling a great deal lately, putting miles and miles behind the wheel of my Volvo XC70. The purpose of my travel has included business, family and other personal goals. Being on the road has taken me closer to some goals, yet it has also limited opportunities for some other things that are important to me, no doubt. Travel has kept me from my own bed, my own pillow, home-cooked meals and my wife and three sons, all of which I longed for after 10 days of travel with only three nights at home.

My travel schedule has created opportunities as well. For one, I am making money to pay for the expensive hockey gear that keeps my sons happy and fully engaged in life! I am present and supporting them as they play hockey. I am helping a friend expand and achieve his life's mission. I am developing leaders within my client organizations. I am On Purpose when I travel.

One of my clients recently informed me that two small towns within my current travel path now have Thai restaurants. Thai food is by far my favorite cuisine and a key element of my "Ideal Day", which includes the goal of having least one Thai food meal (lunch or dinner). I even reworked my business marketing plan three years ago so that I could do more business in the two communities in which my favorite Thai food restaurants are located: Thara Thai in Champaign, IL, and the Magic Kitchen in Springfield, IL. As a result, my business has grown and I am having many more Ideal Days!

On one leg of my journey late last week, I had plenty of time to meet my goal of getting home by 7:30 p.m. without hurry, so I took time to meander. I drove down roads that allowed me to see parts of the country that I've never seen before. I was pleased to discover most "country" roads were in much better shape, after a harsh winter, than the major highways. And I never grow tired of the panorama of rolling prairies in my home state, even in the dead of winter.

My purpose was clear - I wanted to get home. But I also needed to eat before I got home. The convergence of these two desires, plus my ongoing desire to have an Ideal Day, led me to the Thai Noodle in Mattoon, Illinois. I had Tom Yum soup and made a new friend. The owner happens to be friends of the owner of Thara Thai, my favorite, and informed that another new Thai restaurant has opened in Effingham, IL, which is also on my map of travels in coming weeks. I will be meandering on another Ideal Day soon.

Take time to meander. It's nearly always rewarding. Meanders mustn't always take you off-purpose, even if they take you off your most direct course. You might just love the drive, enjoy the scenic view, savor the food, and surely appreciate the good company you find along the way while Living On Purpose.

Facing Your Giants

Sometimes we need a little help to do our best, to get better when we're already so good, to reach The Intersection of Purpose & Now.

Most people recognize the powerful difference a good coach can make in athletics, as demonstrated in this movie clip from "Facing the Giants". Yet few make use of the powerful difference a coach can make in helping achieve personal and professional goals that currently seem out of reach.




Who is challenging you to reach beyond what you current realm of belief and potential? Who is telling you to "keep going, keep going, don't quit"? Who is showing you the way to the end zone?

The world needs you. God has gifted you with the ability of leadership. Don't waste it.

How do I get better when I’m already so good?

FINDING PURPOSE
OK, so maybe you would never really ask this question about yourself, let alone your team or your organization. I believe you could say it though, with all honesty. I believe most people, individually and in groups, are just fine the way they are. A few, however, want something more. They want to achieve more, do more, have more; they want to become more.

Of these few, research shows that fewer yet – less than FIVE PERCENT of all people – are willing to pursue the difficult journey of tapping into their hidden potential to achieve even greater fulfillment, even greater success (completely self-defined), even greater applications of the untapped potential they have to add value to the world around them.

These special few do the difficult things that less fulfilled people won’t do. These special few are seeking the The Intersection of Purpose & Now.

AWAKEN TO POSSIBILITY
Sooner or later you may find yourself awake at night wondering. “What else is possible?”

Better yet, you find yourself fully awake during the day, more awake than you have ever felt in your lifetime. You are wondering… and something just clicks:

“Now is a time for action.”

• Maybe it was something you read, saw or heard.
• Maybe it was a missed opportunity.
• Maybe it was a difficult activity you faced with dread, yet from which now you feel the joy of accomplishment.
• Maybe it was an obstacle you could not overcome, a reprimand from a superior or a doubt expressed by someone important to you.
• Maybe it was the action, or inaction, of another that inspired you.
• Maybe you realized that circumstance has controlled you for too long.
• Maybe you just realized how much of your future you have ahead of you.

Now you are fully awake and intent on an IDEA, and think, “How can I turn my ‘maybes’ into goals that I will achieve?”

APPLYING POTENTIAL
Whatever the catalyst, you realize more clearly than ever that you (or your team, your business unit, your entire organization)…You realize that you are capable far beyond current achievements. You realize you have so much more potential to do more, to have more, to become more than you already are. But how?

This wondering
is the opportunity of a lifetime.
I don’t want you to miss it.

You are a person with dreams, but it takes great Courage to become a leader with vision. Your Courage becomes a reflection of a growing desire to become the kind of person you want to become, to have the kind of life you deserve, and to be the successful leader you were meant to be.

We all need help in this journey. I would love to help you arrive at Your Intersection of Purpose & Now.

What happens at The Intersection of Purpose & Now?

What is The Intersection of Purpose & Now? What happens there?

The starfish thrower

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean’s edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, faraway movement. I saw a boy, bending and reaching and waving his arms – dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin.

As I approached, I sadly realized that he was not dancing, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea. I asked the boy the purpose of the effort. “The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves,” he replied. “When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea.”

I looked at the vast expanse of beach, stretching in both directions. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. the hopelessness of the boys's plan became clear to me and I pointed out, “But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference.”

He paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, “I made a difference to that one.”

This short story, first published by Readers Digest in 1991, now exists in hundreds of variations such as that above, based on one originally written by Loren Eisely in his classic book The Unexpected Universe. I love the lesson of the popular tale above, but equally I love Eisely’s telling of his original lived event.

Eisely was indeed on pre-dawn walk along the ocean’s edge at Costabel. He was noticing the unusual number of starfish stranded along the beach, doomed to die and end up in some sheller's collection. That is when he came upon a boy, at the base of a “gigantic rainbow of incredible perfection”, picking up a single starfish and casting it into the ocean.

“It’s still alive,” Eisely commented to the boy.
“It may live,” said the boy, “if the offshore pull in strong enough.”
“Do you collect?” Eisely asked.
“Only like this,” was the boy’s response, “and only for the living. The stars throw well. One can help them.”

The stars throw well. One can help them.
So many coaches, inspirational speakers and the like seem to be in a spitting match most of the time. They boast of earning great wealth, buying condos near the beach and of great heights to be climbed. These things are great, for some people.

But there are those of us who find our greatest achievements in the way our children approach the day, with great care and curiosity. There are those of us who find more purpose in serving a great meal to a group of good friends than we do in skydiving or building a profitable marketing network. There are those of us who are satisfied by earning, really earning, the big job promotion for which we are striving rather than an annual cost-of-living increase. There are those of us who care more about the neighbor who is crying on our shoulder than the number of followers we can gain on Twitter in the next 30 days.

There are those of us who just want to wake up another day and make a contribution, knowing that we have value to give.

We all find ourselves washed up on the beach at times. I want to help you get back into a strong current.

My clients crave focus on the things that are important to them (not what is most important to society or the big-name speakers and authors). I have written before about my Grand Aim. My purpose, in part, is to develop people with dreams into leaders with vision, who through authentic self-expression will add value to the world around them. I COULD measure my success by the number of leaders with whom I work – who I “collect” – each year, and by the goals they achieve as a result. But that would not be true to The Intersection of Purpose & Now.

At The Intersection of Purpose & Now I measure my value by the person who finds clarity and renewed commitment with my direct assistance or by the words I am writing right now. I can make a difference for this one.

Only like this, and only for the living. The Intersection of Purpose & Now is a moment, not a lifetime. It's a person, not an audience. It’s only for the living. And what I do right now…determines how someone lives or dies.