On Time, With Purpose
I received a wonderful massage yesterday and after in our conversation as we closed the session my therapist and friend said to me, “on time, on purpose, with purpose”. I don’t recall what I said first and I didn’t catch what she said at first so I had her repeat it. When she did I thought how fitting, how simple, how true and how profound. For me it requires trust to know that regardless of my time table or whether I am late, early or on time, I am on time. It is also a reminder to live on and with purpose. The Oxford American Dictionary defines purpose as a thing intended, the intention to act, reason for which something is done or made. So the affirmation my friend stated implies that one acts on and with intention, with meaning, with good reason.
To go deeper one really needs to examine what their intentions are and what actions followed. I have been focusing a lot on my intentions and where they originate. As I reflect inward I wonder are they born from a place of honesty, love, integrity and meant for good or were my intentions and actions directed from a selfish, defensive, unloving place? I do my best to answer these questions honestly. It’s not easy and at times it’s humbling.
To move forward, to be the best version of ourselves, we must be willing to take an honest look at all aspects of ourselves. To see what works and to change what doesn’t. To acknowledge when we have hurt another person or ourselves and be willing to make wrongs right. To look at the bigger picture, from all perspectives, and then act with compassion. Again not always easy, but I think worth it. If understanding ourselves and our actions better leads to loving intentions and actions in which we treat everyone with love and respect, what are we waiting for?
This post is incredibly interesting to me. I get so caught up in 2 jobs, school, family, friends, etc…. that sometimes I forget why I am doing the things that I do, sometimes in such a “robotic way”. It’s very refreshing to take a moment and step back to review your overall goals, and why we do the things we do. Also, this is insightful as far as priorities go. I must be ‘on time, on purpose, with purpose’ in the ‘little’ things, so I can conquer the big things. Very insightful! Thanks!
Alicia Fox
Collin Yoga Class T/TH 10-11:15
I love this post!! All of your posts have been ” a breath of fresh air” I read them and think “wow” doing things the extra mile, or slowing down, or just stopping. Reflect what is going on, go on with purpose. Dont half-ass anything. MAKE THINGS COUNT
Perhaps fear is the reason we do not look inward more often. Fear of what we will find inside ourselves; things we have hidden for years. Perhaps we are afraid that if we look at our intentions they might not be too pure. And most definitely we are afriad to offer apologies and ask for forgiveness for fear that it won’t be given to us.
I struggle with self reflection and maybe I am afriad, but I’m happy to read this post and see that doing things from a positive, loving place is a conscious effort. I am going to always strive to think before I act, even the smallest act, to be sure that I am spreading positivity and respect.
These was one of my favorites thoughts 🙂 In my opinion , we all have good and bad thoughs and that is part of being human , if we were all perfect we would live in a perfect world. Unfortunatly not is not the case. What is important is how we disregard or act on those thoughts.I am completly agree with you when you said that all we can do is try to better our selfves everyday. Anyways I love the website and Im still working out in slowing down and taking the time to breath and noticing , but ill get there. I was debating on taking this class this semester because I though i wasnt going to be that good at it ,but now I am glad that I did and I am really enjoying it 🙂
My favorite quote from this post is “To look at the bigger picture, from all perspectives, and then act with compassion”, which is something I think people don’t do enough. No one ever looks at the big picture, or try to look from another perspective. This is definitely something I try to apply in my daily life but it is not always easy.
This is something that resonates deeply with me, because I am such a believer that everything you do and say has a meaning to it. Whether it was meant to or not, concious or unconcious, you do everything purposely with some sort of intention. The way you treat people, objects, relationships, etc shows exactly how you feel about whatever it is you are acting upon. So many people take it as overanalyzing, but there is truth in every action whether people want to acknowledge it or not. Everything has a purpose, every person, every action, every thing.
I would like to relate this article to your “A Simple Pause” article… I believe all it takes to be the best versions of ourselves is to “pause” every once in a while and think about what we did, what we do, and what we will do in different cases/situations… Talk to others, ask their opinions about our actions and try to evaluate ourselves and our behavior. Then try to stage the scenario in our mind and redo it based on the decision that we made after the evaluation, then it would become a mindset for us which would dominate our future acts!
This post really resonated with me. I think this is a deeper explanation of the phrase “everything happens for a reason”, which I firmly believe is true. I really enjoyed reading the last paragraph of this post because it’s incredibly honest. You’re right about it not being easy to “look at the bigger picture, from all prospectives, then act with compassion”. But I do truly believe that if we are able to do so, it will be so incredibly worth it in the long run. Great post.
What you said is 100% true. You just have to move forward and know that everything happens for a reason. You may not like what happened, but God has a plan for all of us and we must trust in Him. Thank you for positing this article.
This post resonated with me and got me thinking deeply about this. Helpful post!
This helped me think that maybe sometimes I should take a step back and realize how my actions affect not only myself but those around me.
That statement is extremely profound. It is often the simplest phrasss which mean the most. My wife says all the tine if you are really important to someone they will make time for you. This means that tbe actions you take will affect those arounde you, especially your loved ones.