Passion… Purpose… and Legacy…
What is your individual purpose? What would you like to be able to say is your legacy? I believe that each of us wants to find our purpose in life, our raison d’etre or reason for being. We need to have a motive to get out of bed in the morning. We want to feel alive and passionate about something. Something that makes a difference in the world. We are not alone in this and yet many of us are still searching for that purpose.
Purpose is much bigger than goals, yet we are advised in many of the self help and productivity books to set goals. However, If you are aligned with your purpose, the goals just fall into place.
I was friends with a fellow who set a goal to find the woman of his dreams, have a successful business and own his own beautiful home with a Mercedes Benz parked in the driveway, all by the age of forty. He did manage to achieve all of it and yet he admitted to me that none of it had brought him the peace and happiness that he had aspired to. He did not feel truly content or fulfilled and this really surprised and disappointed him. For him, these goals didn’t really come from the inside. They were simply based on what he thought he should do or have in order to look good and feel respected by his peers. They were more in alignment with what “society” tells us will make us happy than what our heart is saying. They came from the outside. Purpose has to come from the inside.
I was particularly touched by an email I received recently from a fellow who came across an interview I did several years ago with Dr. Leo Buscaglia, author and motivational speaker.
Dr. Buscaglia had an awakening to purpose moment while teaching at the University of Southern California when one of his most talented students committed suicide. As a result of that experience, Leo began a non-credit class he called “Love 1A” and he became known as the “Love Doctor”.
Of all the interviews I have done over the years, with people such as Dr. Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch etc, the one interview of which I have received the most feedback in the form of emails and letters is the one with Dr. Buscaglia. I will be forever grateful for Leo’s support and encouragement of my work and I was so honoured that he agreed to an interview, something he rarely did.
Sadly, Dr. Buscaglia passed away this month in 1998. Even though Leo has been gone now for 12 years, his legacy still lives on. So many of my readers have told me that they want to continue his work and make it a part of their own legacy of love.
For many of us, our awakening to purpose comes out of a major life crisis, a suicide in Leo’s case, a life threatening illness for Terry Fox, an active Canadian teenager involved in many sports. Terry was only 18 years old when he was diagnosed with bone cancer and forced to have his leg amputated in 1977.
While in hospital, Terry was so overcome by the suffering of other cancer patients, that he decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He called his journey the “Marathon of Hope”.
Terry passed away also in this same month in 1981 at the tender age of 22. However, his legacy had only begun. Close to $500 million has been raised worldwide in Terry’s name for cancer research, through the annual Terry Fox Run, held across Canada and around the world.
You can feel purpose in someone’s heart, see the determination in their eyes and witness passion in their step. With purpose, nothing is impossible and no one can stand in the way. The Universe is on your side, cheering you on and rejoicing in your victory. With purpose, defeat is nonexistent as purpose itself is the triumph.
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