From time to time I’ll be posting a guest piece. Today’s post is by Bill Gordon. Bill is a friend, mentor and soon to be my kiteboarding coach (he doesn’t know that yet). Thanks Bill.

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Every month I meet with a small group to focus discovering for each of us what is our purpose and mission and why we are here in this world?

Being practical people we also talk about how that relates (if at all) to “being successful” and the normal financial commitments we all have for such things as monthly house payments, utility and car payments, taking care of our families, etc.

After many useful discussions, and books, and journaling, I haven’t made as much progress as I’d like.  However, this week I heard a talk from a man named John Ortberg who’s insights I found useful.   I wanted to share these in case they help you get any closer to clarity around your mission and purpose.

The idea that I took away from the talk was that finding our Mission or Purpose has to do with finding the intersection of 5 key things.  The 5 things are:

• Passion – what fires you up?  Is it injustice, education,  hunger, sickness/health, helping people grow, making people happy, something else…
• Gifts – what gifts do I have?  Everyone has gifts to offer.  Hospitality, administration, organization, encouragement, communication, teaching and many more.
• Scars – where have I been hurt?  How can I use this experience or pain to inspire me to help others?  The knowledge and experience of the pain will equip us to help others and will inspire our passion.
• Partners – Finding a person or people who share a similar mission or who may want to be part of your mission.
• Need – where is there a need in the world?  Where is there need around me?  Where is there pain or annoyance or frustration that needs to be solved?

If you’ve been keeping a list of thoughts and ideas on where you might like to focus your time and energy, run those ideas through this list of 5 items to see if there is an answer around the 5 that makes sense to you (and if you haven’t been keeping a list, I encourage you to start).

I hope this gets you closer to finding your path and purpose!