Living on Purpose

I read a quote by Gandhi the other day and it really made me reflect over the past few days on living a life of purpose.

I'll let you read it first.

Now read it again.

Most of us don't spend much time to really sit and think about our purpose in life and things we feel called on to do.

Gandhi said perfect happiness is when what you do what you think and what you say are in perfect alignment.

I thought about it, and it made sense because all the times I’ve done something that didn’t make me happy was when it didn't line up with what I believe, what I want for myself or my purpose.

Going out and enjoying drinks with your best friends is in line with your belief that it’s good to have fun and celebrate life. But getting intoxicated beyond measure and harming your health.. does that align with what you believe in for your future?

I’m using this example because the first time I asked myself these questions was in high school when I used to talk to my friends. They would question habits I had that were different to theirs. They’d ask me why don’t you drink? Why don’t you smoke? Why don't you eat meat?

The more we spoke and the deeper our conversations got, the more I realized our beliefs our values and our purposes were actually very similar.

I explained to them that I can enjoy drinking to an extent but that I think about how God has blessed me with a healthy and perfectly functioning body and for me, to abuse it would be disrespectful and hurtful to me and to my relationship with God. I didn't believe I could truly love God and practice being grateful for all the things He gave me if all I did was abuse them.

My friend told me, "Beti, I agree with everything you said but I don’t think about that when I’m drinking. "

"You don’t ?"

"No. You do?"

"Yes."

I could have also used the example of eating meat. Growing up as the only vegetarian I knew in a culture centered on eating meat, I was often asked why.

I would explain that I loved animals since I was young. So when I realized they couldn’t live if I was going to eat meat, I stopped eating meat.

Some people disagreed and said animals didn't deserve the right to live or that we are superior to them (habeshas lol). But most people said: I agree with you. I LOVE animals. But I could never stop eating meat.

I’m not using these examples to say you need to give up meat or alcohol. But to make you question why we do things we do when they don't line up with what we say or believe...

Because here’s the problem with a lot of us. Our purpose, our long term goals, our beliefs, our values are spotless. We ALL believe it’s good to always be kind, we all believe success takes hard work and dedication, we all believe living a healthy lifestyle is worth the challenges.

But our actions don’t always line up with what we want for ourselves and what we believe is good.

We say we want a successful career and education is going to help us get there but we spend more hours on our phones than we do with a book.

We say we want to develop healthy habits but we stay up all night watching videos or shows.

We say we want to save up to start a business but we spend money everyday on things we don’t need.

We say we don’t believe that we need a relationship to be happy but we spend 30 minutes stalking anyone we find attractive online.

We say that a relationship with God is what should come before anything but we spend more time on earthly things than we ever would speaking to and getting to know God.

I am not saying I am perfect. The reasons I am using these examples is because these really were/are my personal examples. You have your own.

My point is there is a gap between what we believe/say we want and what we are actually doing with our time. And the bigger that gap is, the less balance and inner peace our life has.

That’s why when you see some people doing really sad things that don’t line up with your values they are usually so unhappy that they're miserable. Because the things they are doing don’t line up with their true values and beliefs either.

I truly believe everyone in the world starts with good and pure intentions. But this world has distractions and they get in the way and they trip us up and they lead us onto the wrong road.

If you want to know how to fix it.

To be honest I don’t have an answer.

Because you are the only person that can make those changes. You have the key to your own happiness. You have more power than you ever let yourself believe.

You can pray to God to help you and He will help you but even God can only help you if you let him.

God created free will. That means he can’t force us to follow His will. He can’t make you get into the “right” habits.

But the final thing I have to say is that we do have free will. We don’t have to be slaves to temporary urges or bad habits or addictions or seeking validation or any of that. You have power that was granted to you by God himself when He created us as free creatures.

Maybe your actions are fine but your beliefs needs to change a little. Or maybe it's your purpose that needs refining. Maybe you’re telling yourself you need a perfect body to have a healthy lifestyle and everytime you look in the mirror and you don’t see the perfect body you want you’re unhappy.

Maybe you have the belief that you need to get a 4.0 and everytime you get a 3.8 you're unhappy. Maybe you need to change your belief that a 4.0 or a "perfect body" is necessary.

I know what I need to do to get my actions to fall in line with my beliefs. And you know what you need to do.

May the grace of God be with you and help you through all the odds and challenges you feel like you are up against. I pray that you find freedom from whatever is holding you down. So you can soar. With wings. Like eagles :)

Have a wonderful time in the world fam.

Talk to you soon,