100 Business Days Out: Day 100 - PURPOSE.. (#1 Lesson)

And so it is, I am here. Day 100 of my 100 Business Days Out (in all honesty, I writing this two days later because it took me the extra time to really settle on this last post of this series. After 100 Business Days Out (which on some days seems an eternity and other days seems a blink of an eye), I have listened, talked, watched, experienced, and learned much. I started this journey as a way mush through what it is like to stop working cold turkey and figure out what to do next. Along the way there have been a lot of you have helped as you read the blog, dropped me a note of encouragement or said that something I have written resonated with you. I appreciate all of those comments. They helped a lot. I also during this 100 Business Days Out got to know myself again and to borrow Senator Clinton's line, "you helped me find my voice". Over the last 10 days I have tried and sum up the things I have learned during this period. That might have been more of a challenge than I was up to, but I hope the 10 lessons haven't been too trite. And on this last day, this last lesson, I don't want to stop the learning but rather transition from these 100 Business Days Out to another topic that has been the true lesson learned for me since April 3rd. I sincerely have no more clue what I should do next with myself than I did on April 3rd when I started this. It's too bad as I really wanted to have it nailed and be able to articulate it clearly on this 100th day. But, not to be and that's okay. It's okay with me because I went into this exercise time wanting to decide what I "should" be doing next. That "should" thing meant it would not be my own decision, it would be a decision informed by what is needed from me, what I could best contribute to make things better and what was important to be done. In summary, what was going to be my purpose going forward? And that is where I still am. I am listening and waiting for that call of purpose. Where does that call come from? For me, that call comes from God and no it doesn't come in a note in the mailbox like in the book "The Shack". God has never spoken to me that I could hear Him audibly. I believe He could if He wanted to and maybe He has tried and I wasn't willing or able to hear Him, but not likely. Instead, I believe God speaks to us through the Bible, through the intuitions we feel when we pray, through others who are like-minded, and through the circumstances of our lives. What I know to be true is that God does have a purpose for all of us. Whether or not, in our free-will that we are given, we choose to seek that purpose, find it, and live it, that is a different story. Where I am on this 100th Business Day Out is convinced that the lesson I was to learn during this period is that what I should be doing next is not within my own power but instead within the power beyond me and that it will not reveal itself to me until it is the right time and place that I am ready and willing to follow. It is the lesson of patience, faith and obedience.

In the meantime, the idea of purpose in what we do with our work is something I have long been passionate. We spend so much time in our work and it consumes, yes consumes like fire consumes wood and oxygen, all aspects of our lives, that we MUST seek our life purpose within our work if we are to ever be truly satisfied and fulfilled in what we do. I have many life experiences and have been blessed to have seen and done much within a short time that I want to give as much of that back as I can with the time left to do so. I don't know just yet the best way to do so, but I have come to how I should start. Beginning October 1, 2008, you can log into http://www.purposedworking.blogspot.com to find a daily business reflection of how to help make your working life more purposeful. I will be creating these for 365 days of work so that someone can drop in and check out as many as they would like, or follow along day to day. 365 small lessons to make the work life go a little better.

As for Bolts of Thinking, it will also continue and along the way with my random thoughts, I will keep you up to date with where I am seeing that purpose call coming from. And, when I answer it, I will be sure and let you know what it is that I decide to do next.

For now, thank you for being a part of my 100 Business Days Out travels. It has been my pleasure to give you a peak inside of me and I hope, that something along the way helped you too.

Thanks,
Rusty