One of the things I get to do in my job is co-coach two amazing groups of people with Bruce Pitcher from Extreme Weight Loss, season 4. If you haven’t seen Bruce’s episode, you really must make the time to watch it. It will motivate you and inspire you and…just go watch it! (You can find his episode, episode 4, on YouTube). Each week we have a Zoom call with each of our groups, and last night we had our monthly combined group call with Chris and Heidi. Each week during our call we teach a Life Lesson—lessons that will help our clients make the mental and life changes so their transformations will be permanent. Because if you don’t change what’s going on in your head, true and lasting change is pretty difficult.
Last night’s Life Lesson was Live with Purpose. We encourage each of our clients to find their WHY—the reason behind their choice to change their lives, and this WHY has to be so personal and defined and strong that it can be their guiding force to help keep them on track when they’re tempted to go off plan and return to their old habits…which got them to where they are in the first place. (In fact, this WHY is so important that it’s one of the questions our new app users are asked during the set up process!). Interestingly enough, this WHY can help them to figure out their purpose, which is often not an automatic thing. It might take some time and a lot of thought, but once they find that purpose, it’s SO powerful.
Another thing Chris and Heidi also talked about is how we need to be thinking about the big picture and ask ourselves, “What’s next?” What will our next goal be WHEN we achieve our current goals? What is our purpose, and how does that translate to what’s next? It’s been proven that if you don’t have a new goal ready to go to replace a goal that you finish, your chances of maintaining your progress—especially where weight loss is concerned—go down quite a bit.
As we were having our call, I got to thinking: “What is my purpose?” And I’ve been thinking about it ever since. One of my purposes has always been—for almost 33 years—to be the best wife I can be. And while we were raising our kids, another one of my purposes was to be the best mom I could be and to teach our kids to be independent, hard working, and kind, and to help them build a strong spiritual foundation they could rely on throughout their lives. But as they started to grow up and leave the nest, I thought, “What’s next? What is my purpose now?” Not that being a mom ever ends, but it definitely changes. And trying to be the best wife never ever changes…that’s a lifelong purpose.
So in this new season of life, I went back to school to finish my Bachelor’s Degree, which was one of my top bucket list items for many, many, many years. And I absolutely loved going back to school! I loved learning, researching, interacting with and learning from my fellow (and often much younger) students, and I even didn’t totally hate those tough assignments that caused some mini-meltdowns from time to time. Those years between being an 18-19 year old college student and a 43-year-old-married-with-4-kids college student, plus all the life experiences during those years, offered a very different—but very appreciated—perspective shift. A few months before graduation, I started to think about “What’s next?” again. This long sought after goal was about to be completed.
What was I going to do? I knew I needed to work so that I #1: wouldn’t go crazy and #2: could contribute to our future and retirement financial plans. But what was I going to do? What could I do that would fulfill these two needs AND allow me to follow my passion to help others achieve their goals, which is also important to me? I loved writing, editing, nutrition, fitness, health (all things health-related, basically), research, and helping others…what kind of job would include all of those things? And what would my new-season-of-life purpose be?
It was a bit of a stressful conundrum.
Then about 3 weeks before graduation, the perfect opportunity literally fell into my Facebook Messenger inbox, and I joined Team Powell. When I first became a Certified Personal Trainer back in 2004, I never dreamed that I’d be able to use this knowledge and experience—as well as what I learned in the process of getting my degree and from life—to help people on a much greater scale than I ever imagined possible. It has been an amazing ride for the past 5+ years, and looking back, I can see how so many things and experiences came together at just the right time to help me find a new purpose in a new season of life.
Here’s another important thing about following your purpose: History has shown that those who find and then follow their purpose are so much more successful than those who don’t. Makes sense, right? And part of following our purpose needs to include paying it forward—using the things we’ve learned and the knowledge we’ve gained to help others achieve their goals and find and follow their own purpose. Which I guess is the purpose behind this post!
I’ve shared my purpose, but what’s my WHY for my current health and fitness goals? To be active into my 80s and beyond. If I’m active, then that hopefully means I’m healthy too. I want to be able to do all the things I want to do, including chasing around our great grand kids!
So…what’s your purpose? If you’re not sure yet, what’s your WHY behind the goals you’ve set for yourself? That just might help you find that purpose. And something else Chris said last night might help too:
Allow your passion to become your purpose, and you just might find your profession.
It’s so interesting how that worked out for me at this stage in my life, and I’m so very grateful that it did!
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