Finding Your Life Purpose and Living By It...
...Step 12 to Financial Freedom

Finding your life purpose

Why Finding Your Life Purpose Gives Your Life Meaning
Living by Your Purpose in Life Will Help You in All Areas Including Finances

Few people ever take the time to seriously consider the questions:
“What gives life meaning to you?”
“Does your financial footprint reflect that?”
- How we spend our money is a direct reflection of our personal values. What are those values? What is your purpose in life?
- “Show me your checkbook or Master Card statements … and I will know who you are and what your values are.
- We all need to honestly face the questions …
  - Take time to list, in order of priority, what you truly value. Then list, in order of amount spent, where you spend your money.
  - Do the lists correlate?
  - If not, why?
Kirby Jon Caldwell, “The two most important days in a person’s life are, the day he was born, and the day he discovers what he was born for!”

Finding your life purpose.
- To be fulfilled … to have a chance at financial health and a balanced and joyful life, we all need to have a sense of purpose in life.

Money, in its simplest form, is something we choose to trade our “life energy” for. Life energy is the allotment of time and resulting opportunity that each of us has on this earth. That's why finding your life purpose is important so you can live according to your purpose and values.
- The key questions is … “What are we trading that precious and limited gift for?”
- A personal reflection on a powerful corporate executive...
  Was it worth it?
  When I first moved to Virginia a number of years ago to join one of the manufacturing facilities of a large multinational corporation, I arrived to discover the plant was run by a very imposing and somewhat intimidating leader.
  Over the years this manager had made quite a name for himself. He was respected and feared by all the co-workers I knew.
  He drove one of the world's most expensive Italian cars ... a $175,000 Ferrari, and he frequently tested the limits of its incredible horsepower and made sure everyone knew he owned the "best thing on wheels."
  His power, perks and position made the up-and-coming future executives long for the day when they might climb the corporate ladder of success and be just like he was.
  He was the model of the corporate American dream come true.
  His story made a huge impression on me as a young executive ... but not for the reason you might expect.
  Some ten years later, this local icon retired from the company. To my surprise ... no one cared!
  He moved out of state and built a luxurious retirement home.
  Four years later, he died.
  When news of his death reached those he used to command ... no one cared.
  The man who just a few short years ago held the very pinnacle of power and influence ... passed from this world a forgotten and lonely man.
  Such is the way of a man who invests his life in pursuits that have no real and lasting value!
  What do you think ... was it worth it?
  Was his life a success?
  Did it have purpose? Do we admire him?
  Think about this is terms of your own life and finding your life purpose...

Grandma’s two rules of Monopoly
- Acquire, acquire, acquire
- When the game is over … everything goes back in the box!

When someone asked J.D. Rockefeller’s accountant how much he left behind when he died … the accountant simply said, “All of it!”

Finding Your Life Purpose – it’s Good For Your Health

Psychotherapist Douglas La Bier found that focusing on money, position and success at the expense of personal fulfillment and meaning, had led 60% of his sample of several hundred to suffer from significant cases of depression, anxiety and other job-related disorders.

Finding Your Life Purpose - it’s Good for Your Relationships

“Every week, American parents spend, on average, between 6 and 7 hours shopping … and roughly 40 minutes in quality family time playing with their kids!”

Finding Your Life Purpose - it’s Good for Your Soul

Psychologist David Meyer says … “More than ever, we have big houses and empty homes, high incomes and low morale, secured rights and diminished civility.

We excel at making a living but fail at making a life. We celebrate prosperity, but yearn for purpose in our lives.

We cherish freedoms, but long for relationships.

In an age of plenty, we feel spiritual hunger and we are empty inside.”

Finding Your Life Purpose - When You Do, You Will Need Less Money to Be Happy

Author Taichi Sakaiya says … “The more real wealth we have … friends, skills, libraries, wilderness and afternoon naps … the less money we need to be happy.”

External wealth vs. Internal wealth …
- External wealth (the world’s orientation)
  - Money, Possessions, Status & Power
- Internal wealth (the spiritual orientation)
  - Peace, joy, happiness, contentment & satisfaction
Jim Elliot … “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” We are told in the Bible to lay up treasures for ourselves that will make us “rich” from a spiritual perspective, which will last, rather than an earthly perspective, that won’t.
- We often can get our heads around this concept, but we find it very difficult to translate into the way we live our financial lives day by day. What will it take for us to change to reflect our purpose in life?

"Challenge yourself with these questions …”

Have you honestly approached the subject of Finding your life purpose?”

For what purpose are you living your life?

Each of us will live out that mission, or life purpose either on the “offensive” or the “defensive” … for each one of us is charting a path toward eternity.

For those of us who have thought about our Life’s purpose …

"Does the way we spend our money line up with that mission?"

"Are the daily expenditures of our “Life’s energy” consistent with the goals, dreams and visions of the future in the context of the purpose of your life?"

Contentment, peace and joy can only follow when we know our mission and purpose in life and align our expenditures of Life’s energy accordingly!

Every Human Being Craves to be Seen and to Feel Significant.

All of us need to feel as if our lives matter, that there is meaning in our lives.

People often turn to money and possessions as a means of “filling that hole” when life has no purpose.

However, we were created to have meaning and significance by God, Himself, who created us and desires for us to find that meaning in spiritual, not material things.

The God of the universe views us as unique and valuable individuals …, which provides the basis for us to have purpose and meaning apart from our money and material possessions.

Tragically, one who fails to realize that, will spend a lifetime pursuing, and ultimately failing to find, significance in material possessions.

It is possible to have a measure of “financial health” apart from the divine guidance and wisdom of God. Your personal “books” can balance, you can have money in the bank and the bills paid on time. Your financial future can be secure with 401K’s and pension plans.

But … venturing out from financial health to a daily life of Peace, Contentment, Satisfaction and real Joy … comes only with God’s wisdom and guidance and a desire to discover what it is He has for us as we live out His purpose for our lives.

The Bible talks about a man in the 19th chapter of the book of Matthew who desired to know God and have eternal life …

He spoke with Jesus and was invited by Jesus to follow him … but was confronted by a choice
- He had to choose what was more important in his life … his possessions or an invitation to follow God
- Sadly, the man walked away from all that God had to offer him … to pursue his possessions and his wealth

The most significant danger of wealth and possessions … is their ability to keep us from seeing that which is of real eternal value.

They can blind you from finding finding your life purpose, understanding it, and pursuing a relationship with God … who desires to know us and bring meaning to our lives.

Post this to the bathroom mirror!

"When your days on earth come to an end and your whole life flashes before you, will it hold your interest? How much of the story will be about moments of grace, kindness and caring? Will the main character, you, appear as large and noble as life itself, or as tiny and absurd as a cartoon figure, darting frantically among mountains of stuff? … Will you have the hope of eternal life, or will your possessions have been a barrier to knowing God?"
It is up to you and me to write that story from this day forward!

So, what do we do now?

Step #12 Finding Your Life Purpose … and Living by It!

(Fill in the space below …)

Money + Desire + Knowledge / Information + Discipline + Courage = Financial Health

__________________________+ Divine Guidance & Wisdom = Financial Peace, Contentment & Joy

Completing the Formula for Financial Health

Finding Your Life Purpose and Living By It......Step 12 to Financial Freedom