Keep Things Centered on Purpose (BeFirst Course 152)

I'm Dr. David King, husband, flower. Okay, in this discussion we're going to have a conversation about writing that purpose statement. We need to make sure that we keep things focused and centered on purpose and values. We talked about the purpose of the purpose statement and how we should review it periodically, daily, if you will. And how creation of that purpose statement really is what gives us and can provide us with power. But let's talk about parts of the creation of your purpose statement process. The exclusive nature of our purpose statement will allow us to maintain a certain level of specificity with regards to what it is that we are wanting to focus on, improve upon, and consistently center upon. Including overbroad or generic statements can prove to be less than helpful. Even bringing some of the drive for focus on a purpose-centered and value-centered life to its knees. So, avoid overbroad and generic statements. Yes, some of them will be, for sure. But avoid the overuse of them. We want to be specific and clear. Each of us has been inculcated with a worldview that is a function of our previous lived life experience, absorbed external influences, and personal thought processes and choices. These worldviews are largely invisible to us. Much like the windshield through which we see as we drive down the road is largely unseen to the driver. Worldviews, sometimes referred to as our paradigm or our lens, provide an immensely influential direction and guidance of our choices. But all from a totally unseen source. We can be manipulated, or perhaps I should say that we are constantly manipulated by our worldviews as we move throughout our life seeing, evaluating, and making choices. So I'm going to take a little bit of time to discuss this here. Worldviews are something that we wear without wearing it. And as we wear our worldviews, it's like looking through glass as a lens, like we've talked about. And sometimes that lens refracts the light, bends things. Sometimes maybe it's dirty. Sometimes it alters our perception of reality without us being aware of that alteration. So the challenge now is, how do we see around that worldview? Or how do we see through the worldview in a way that actually accurately reflects truth and reality? It's important to note that this manipulation of our worldview, manipulating us, can be referred to as adjustment or influence. And it is oftentimes a positive influence. Did you catch that? Although we're being manipulated by our worldview, our paradigm, oftentimes that manipulation isn't a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's a positive influence. I think just being aware of our personal worldviews can be a source of great power to us personally as it allows us a deeper analysis of our individual choices and directions. As we continue the discussion of an individual purpose statement, it's absolutely critical that the vision be centered on purpose and founded on values which originate from a personal individual identity. Although a deeper discussion can be done elsewhere. Let's discuss an example. The purpose statement, quote, I like flowers, seems to only convey the liking of flowers. Imagine the author intended to convey a love for and a desire to enjoy the beauty of God's creations. With that in mind, the statement could be adjusted to say more clearly, I take time to enjoy the beauty of God's creations. Certainly additional data could follow and multiple statements can be stacked on top of each other depending on the individual's goals and purpose. So that's just a real simple example of how we can clarify what we're trying to communicate by adding detail. So, working forward now, thinking about next steps. Let's jump ahead to the next lecture and talk further about, pull this up here for you, how important it is that our identity is the center of our purpose statement. Inclusion of an identity statement should be considered as the purpose statement is created. I would suggest caution when considering this section. Currently in the world we live on and the world wide web we live in, the word identity has various meanings. My purpose here is not to make a statement as to what those meanings are, but rather to suggest that as you consider your identity, that you evaluate your identity on a durable level. Hey everybody, I wanted to give you a quick behind the scenes.