Being On A MIssion
I’m sure you know people who are highly motivated and driven. It seems that no matter what they work on, whether it is a task in their job/business or doing something around the house, that there is a sense of purpose and “mission” to what they do.
They want to do their very best. They have purpose and deliberateness behind their actions. They exude an attractive kind of confidence that draws you in.
On the other hand, I’m sure you also know people who seem to be going through the motions. It usually spreads to all areas of their life. They kind of just do the bare minimum at work and when they get home, they do just enough to make it to the sofa so they can spend the rest of the evening watching TV.
A conversation with a person like this usually results in spending a lot of time and energy focusing on what’s wrong with life, a search for things to complain about.
The bad news is that this second type of personality is easy to fall into. You can become passive and uninterested in life and within a few days of practicing this form of behavior, it can quickly become a habit.
The good news is that the FIRST type of personality is just as easy to “fall” into. The only difference is you have to elevate yourself to that level. It doesn’t just “happen” by default.
BUT, you always get to choose which direction you want to take and making the choice to be a person who carries him/herself with a sense of purpose or mission is just as easy as choosing the opposite.
The key is to find things to get charged up about. It doesn’t have to be all that complex. Sometimes you can start really small. If you find yourself lying on the couch when you know you should be doing something productive, all you have to do is FORCE yourself to stand up, and pick a task to get started on.
One exercise that works well that you may want to test for yourself is as follows…
Set a 15-minute timer on your smartphone. Pick an activity like tidying your office and press the start button. Do your VERY best in that 15-minute window to make the office as tidy as possible. Think about nothing else and allow NOTHING to distract you from the task until you hear the buzzer at the end of 15 minutes.
What you will likely find happens next is a feeling of momentum where you will WANT to continue working on the office until the task is complete.
Then, you pick something new to do and the next tasks seem far easier and more exciting to take on.
Before you know it, you can spend a whole day operating with this sort of “mission” mentality and it can carry over for weeks at a time. In fact, if you practice this enough, it just becomes part of who you are and it can have a life-changing impact.
So… think about how YOU can develop a sense of mission in your life. A sense of purpose that propels you forward and prevents you from dipping into a rut that will only end up frustrating you in the long run. When you have that mission, when you are in the zone, you will feel grateful for everything around you.