01 May Begin with the End in Mind
A SENSE OF PURPOSE WILL GIVE US THE RESILIENCE TO CARRY ON WHEN THINGS ARE DIFFICULT
On May 5, 2015 David Brooks wrote in an op-ed column about “purpose” in the New York Times:
“Every reflective person sooner or later faces certain questions: What is the purpose of my life? What should I do day by day to feel fulfillment and joy?
Many feel lost or overwhelmed. They feel a hunger to live meaningfully, but they don’t know the right questions to ask, the right vocabulary to use, the right place to look or even if there are ultimate answers at all.
As I travel… I find that people are ready to talk a little less about how to do things and to talk a little more about why ultimately they are doing them.
This is true among the young as much as the older. In fact, young people, raised in today’s hypercompetitive environment, are, if anything, hungrier to find ideals that will give meaning to their activities. It’s true of people in all social classes. Everyone is born with moral imagination — a need to feel that life is in service to some [higher] good.
Well, I’d have to say that’s true for me as well. A sense of purpose and meaning in life are essential for me. I simply do not have the resolve to get up each morning and take the blows that life will inevitably give me without a clear understanding of why I’m doing it and the conviction that it is all worthwhile.
I suspect that’s true for you, as well.
On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy announced a staggering national goal: to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the end of the decade. There was a collective gasp among scientists and engineers. Many thought it was impossible, and couldn’t believe the president’s naiveté in announcing it!
But… to our national amazement, Kennedy’s ambitious goal was achieved on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon’s surface, and returned safely to earth shortly thereafter.
Does anyone think the United States would have gotten to the moon if Kennedy hadn’t announced that goal? No. No one thinks so. That’s the power of a worthy goal, which give us a clear sense of purpose in our everyday activities. It clarifies the mind, stirs the heart, and focuses activity. It is difficult to overstate the power of goals and purpose.
An article published by Harvard University entitled, Setting Goals: Who, Why, How?, uses the term, “backward design.” This is a term that describes setting a goal and then working backwards to determine what has to happen to achieve that goal.
In Stephen Covey’s mega-bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit #2 is “Begin With the End in Mind:”
Habit 2 is based on imagination–the ability to envision in your mind what you cannot at present see with your eyes. It is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There is a mental (first) creation, and a physical (second) creation. The physical creation follows the mental, just as a building follows a blueprint. If you don’t make a conscious effort to visualize who you are and what you want in life, then you empower other people and circumstances to shape you and your life by default.
An article in Inc. Magazine Online is entitled: New Study Shows That People Who “Think Backwards” Are More Successful, reports that research shows that those who plan backwards perform better than those who plan forward.
So, the most powerful strategy for accomplishment is to go out into the future, envision what you want to be true, and then work backward to determine the things you must do between now and then to achieve that goal. When you talk about it, it seems self-evident, but it often doesn’t happen that way.
This type of goal-setting provides a powerful sense of purpose for guiding our daily activities, and for giving us resolve to carry on when things are not easy.
For Christians, the Bible says that we will all appear before the Bema (a podium/platform) to receive our reward for the things we did on earth (2 Corinthians 5:10). Knowing this can be a powerful backward-planning motivator.
We determine what we want to “become” by then and what we want to “do” by then… and we work backward to determine what we must do between now and then to achieve that goal.
Establishing that goal provides a powerful sense of purpose for us on a day-to-day basis. It give us the resolve to work hard when we are tired, to be resilient when we experience set-backs and failures, to be quick to repent and quick to forgive, and to focus on the future rather than the present.
As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
If we think about the next world, focusing not on the “things which are seen but the things which are not seen”… especially our appearance before the Bema… it will give us – as we said – the resolve to work hard when we are tired, to be resilient when we experience set-backs and failures, to be quick to repent and forgive, and to live for eternity rather than the present.
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