Quotes About Purpose

He explained that unlike our other classes in the program, research was all about prediction and control. I was smitten. You mean that rather than leaning and holding, I could spend my career predicting and controlling? I had found my calling.

That when we surrender our own joy to make those in pain feel less alone or to make ourselves feel less guilty or seem more committed, we deplete ourselves of what it takes to feel fully alive and fueled by purpose.

To foreclose on vulnerability and our emotional life out of fear that the costs will be too high is to walk away from the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to living.

If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

I got sucked into proving I could, rather than stepping back and asking if I should—or if I really even wanted to.

Martin Luther King, Jr. In a 1968 speech given to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Reverend King defined power as the ability to achieve purpose and effect change.

The main concern of wholehearted men and women is living a life defined by courage, engagement, and a clear sense of purpose.

I often say that Wholeheartedness is like the North Star: We never really arrive, but we certainly know if we're headed in the right direction.

As children we found ways to protect ourselves from vulnerability, from being hurt, diminished, and disappointed. We put on armor; we used our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors as weapons; and we learned how to make ourselves scarce, even to disappear. Now as adults we realize that to live with courage, purpose, and connection—to be the person whom we long to be—we must again be vulnerable. We must take off the armor, put down the weapons, show up, and let ourselves be seen.

Daring leaders, even in compliance-driven and highly structured industries like banking, healthcare, and the food industry, create and share context and color. They take the time to explain the "why" behind strategies, and how tasks link to ongoing priorities and mission work. Rather than handing down black-and-white mandates stripped of story, they hold themselves responsible for adding texture and meaning to work and tying smaller tasks to the larger purpose.

Make a list of the work that inspires you. Don't be practical. Don't think about making a living; think about doing something you love. There's nothing that says you have to quit your day job to cultivate meaningful work. There's also nothing that says your day job isn't meaningful work—maybe you've just never thought of it that way. What's your ideal slash? What do you want to be when you grow up? What brings meaning to you?

The surest thing I took away from my BSW, MSW, and Ph.D. in social work is this: Connection is why we're here. We are hardwired to connect with others, it's what gives purpose and meaning to our lives, and without it there is suffering. I wanted to develop research that explained the anatomy of connection.

If we want to live a life of meaning and contribution, we have to become intentional about cultivating sleep and play. We have to let go of exhaustion, busyness, and productivity as status symbols and measures of self-worth. We are impressing no one.

Don't lose sight of the goal

Maybe being a big star isn't the only life that will make you happy. Maybe the joy isn't in the end result—in the success. Maybe it's in living, loving—and trying.

In so many ways, she was the luckiest person in the world—someone who didn't have to worry about money, someone who lived in a beautiful, exclusive area others paid a fortune to visit, someone who cared about the library and felt a great sense of purpose—and yet...something was missing. Her life wasn't nearly as idyllic as others probably saw it.

the best way to know the Truth or Beauty is to try to express it. And what is the purpose of existence Here or Yonder but to discover truth and beauty and express it, i.e., share it with others?

No yesterdays are ever wasted for those who give themselves today.

Everybody has a vocation to some form of life-work. However, behind that call (and deeper than any call), everybody has a vocation to be a person to be fully and deeply human in Christ Jesus.

The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea. When it imposes itself on mind and heart with the stark reality of ontological truth, it determines why and at what time you get up in the morning, how you pass your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, and who you hang with; it affects what breaks your heart, what amazes you, and what makes your heart happy.

God's grace always precedes his call.

When "doing" becomes divorced from "being", pious thoughts become a poor substitute for washing dirty feet.

Our culture says that ruthless competition is the key to success. Jesus says that ruthless compassion is the purpose of our journey.

According to Viktor Frankl, a person finds identity only to the extent that "he commits himself to something beyond himself, to a cause greater than himself."4 The meaning of our lives emerges in the surrender of ourselves to an adventure of becoming who we are not yet.