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\u201cThe great and glorious masterpiece of man is to know how to live to purpose\u201d (Michel de Montaigne).<\/p>\n
PURPOSEFULNESS INCLUDES TWO DIFFERENT, BUT EQUALLY IMPORTANT, IDEAS. First, the purposeful person is one who is guided by deliberate intentions and goals,<\/em> rather than the impulses of the moment. But second, the purposeful person follows his or her intentions with determination and perseverance.<\/em> In other words, if we\u2019re purposeful, we plan our work (deliberate intent) and then work our plan (determination). Both of these parts of purposefulness are essential. Neither can be left out if we expect to get good results.<\/p>\n The beauty of purposefulness is that it gives us something good to work toward. Although most of us spend a good deal of time trying to move away from certain things, there really is a greater power that comes from having something positive that we passionately want to move toward. And purposefulness gives us exactly that. It identifies the thing we most deeply want to say \u201cYes\u201d to, and then helps us move in the direction of that vision. Purposeful people aren\u2019t just against things; they\u2019re for<\/em> things \u2014 and they\u2019re powerfully<\/em> for them.<\/p>\n To be helpful, however, purposefulness must balance two traits that are sometimes hard to balance: steadfastness and flexibility. We need to pursue our purposes with determination, certainly, but we also need the wisdom to know when to modify our intentions, or even to change them altogether. Purposefulness shouldn\u2019t make us pigheaded.<\/p>\n William Arthur Ward listed the following as the Four Steps to Achievement:<\/em> \u201cPlan purposefully, prepare prayerfully, proceed positively, and pursue persistently.\u201d Something like that four-step program will have to be adopted if we\u2019re going to contribute in a worthy manner to the world in which we live. In the absence of purposeful planning and execution, we\u2019re at the mercy of our external circumstances. If we don\u2019t live deliberately and intentionally, we can\u2019t expect much more than to be tossed back and forth by every breeze that blows. Those around us should be able to expect more of our behavior than that. They should find us to be people who know what our destination is and are purposefully moving toward it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe secret of success is constancy to purpose\u201d (Benjamin Disraeli).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n