Session 12 – Purpose

Actions Steps

1. Write down your Purpose for one of your life plan accounts.

2. Post your Purpose in the GU Leader Community.

Post your response to this question in the GU Leader Community by clicking here. Share one of your new Actions and ask for feedback.

Session Transcript

Welcome back to another session of Guidestone University.

We’ve been looking at the actual steps to complete the Personal Plan Account form, and in this session, we are going to look at Purpose. So, last session we looked at Future, we wrote out what we want that area of our life to look like. And in this session, we are going to look at Purpose. Now you might ask from the very beginning, “Wait, why did we start with future?”

I want to reiterate something that we talked about earlier. The reason we started with future is because when we know what we want the future to look like, then we can work every day toward that envisioned future.

So, we start with future and once we understand what we want the future to look like then we can back up and say, “Okay, why is this important to me?” We already have some detail and some data, some information on why this area of our life so important. And so then, we could work on purpose.

Let’s look at Purpose for just a few minutes. So, based on the future that you described, as you drafted the future for your first Simple Personal Plan Account, you are now going to define your purpose for this area. And the questions are, why is this area important? What is the clear, concise, compelling result that you desire? Here’s what I want you to see and this is really important, we’re not just writing out a purpose –  you know a lot of times purpose can be really one dimensional, it can be flat, it can be almost boring? It’s not, I want to take care my children in my Children Personal Plan Account, so child protective services do not show up my door or I want to care and love my wife because I’m supposed to. That’s not what we are talking about.

You want to write something that is clear and concise yet compelling. Every time you read it, it ought to give you energy. Every time you read it, it ought to help you come alive. Every time you read it, it should excite you about that area of your life or your work.  So, based on the future that you described, when you wrote out future for this area of your Simple Personal Plan, define or describe your purpose. So, I think I gave you the future for my Personal Plan Account for Sarah, my wife, here is the purpose that correlates with that future.

My purpose is to show my love for Sarah in a way that allows us to enjoy the adventure of life together and help Sarah accomplish her dreams.

I used key words like, adventure. You know we usually we think about the marriage relationship, especially if you have been married for quite a while, you don’t think about adventure, you don’t think about using words like that or you don’t think about helping a spouse accomplish their dreams.

Well, those things are continually evolving for her, and so I want to resource her and support her and encourage her, because that brings richness and fullness to our relationship and that’s fulfilling to me and to her. Now I want to show you real quick where some of these things came from.

So, I’m going to read you my future again, so you can kind of back up and see what that looks like. So, my future for my Personal Plan Account for my wife, Sarah, was, “Sarah and I loved our time together. We live and work together in focused purpose. I’m actively pursuing her love, honor and respect. She’s happy and I see her smile every day. We’re enjoying the best days of our lives and we’re always looking for adventure. We’re deeply in love, we’re intimately involved and we’re regularly reflecting on our incredible experiences together.”

Included in that is the two key elements of the purpose that I wrote for her. You have the component of adventure in there, and you also had the component of helping her pursue those things that are important to her. Did you see that? And again, so here’s purpose one more time. My purpose is to show my love for Sarah in a way that allows us to enjoy the adventure of life together and helps her accomplish her dreams.

I boiled elements of my future down into the purpose for our relationship. And for you the purpose for this area of your Simple Personal Plan. So, that’s Purpose. And as you can see, you want to have a purpose that you can fully embrace, again, that is compelling and exciting to you each time that you read it. So, to make it really easy for you’re going to start with a phrase, “My purpose for this Simple Personal Plan Account is…” And then you are going to complete that sentence. Okay, makes sense?

That’s our action step for the day. You’re going to write out your purpose for this account in your Simple Personal Plan. Okay, makes sense?

And then number two, you’re going to share it in the Guidestone University private Facebook group. Now again, remember, this group is a private group where you are posting these things to get feedback from us, and our team, and also from your peers who are walking this path with you.

We encourage you to post it in the Leader Community because that provides accountability and also provides support and encouragement as you make progress.

So, two things, write out your purpose and then share it with us in the Leader Community on Facebook.

And we’ll see you in the next session.[/text_block]