THREE STEPS FROM PAIN TO PURPOSE

I want to share with you today what Tony Gaskins Jnr Shared with me, so i will humbly ask you to read through carefully. Tony writes,

I've had some tough times in life, and in each struggle I ask the same questions. Why me? How long will this last? What will it teach me? Life is known for testing you, then teaching you. It's the opposite of how we were taught in school. I've gone from test to test all of my life, and I'm sure you have too. I guess it's just the way it goes. I've learned some valuable lessons in my few years on Earth, and amongst those lessons one really echoes; turn pain into purpose! If you have to go through it at least get something out of it. There's a lesson in every struggle. 

Step 1: Understand why it's happening to you. I know that may sound unfair, but the truth is that it's happening to you because you can handle it. Life happens to us all, but to each is a share that's meant to strengthen, not kill. Remember all the times you didn't see a way out but yet you made it anyways. It was blind faith and instinct that brought you through it every time. If it happened to your best friend, it could have killed them. If it had happened to your enemy it still would have hurt you. Your problems are put on your plate because you can swallow them. 

Step 2: Get a lesson from it. Life is a great teacher, so let her have her perfect way. When the struggle hits don't focus on the pain, focus on the purpose. Life has an interesting way of handing out valuable lessons. Sometimes we bring them on by our actions, and sometimes life just happens to us. As you've heard before: it's not what happens, it's how you respond that matters most. Look the pain in the face and smile back at it. Don't let it beat you. Let it teach you. Life is meant to be lived, not to be survived. And life is survival of the wisest. Get a lesson instead of stressing. 

Step 3: Turn the pain into purpose. If it happened to you it was so you could help someone else get through it next. As we live we should learn, and as we learn we should teach. Some of the greatest teachers are those who decided to teach from the hard lessons life taught them. Some of the greatest inventions were made from a struggle. Adversity should breed creativity. Your pain may birth your non-profit organization that will serve a group in need. Your pain may birth a book that will change lives. Your pain may breed creativity that could inspire a nation or change the world. Take it from me. I'm not writing you some fluff on a page. I'm writing from my pain and my purpose. I made choices and life made me pay for them every time. In that pain I learned lessons and I began to share them. Today I have a message that organically reaches up to 20,000,000 people a week. My pain birthed my purpose and my message has spread over 80 countries. It's taken me to South Africa to speak to crowds of 4,000-5,000 plus. It's allowed me to make a living while making a difference. 

Don't just let life happen to you. Do something about it!

Courtesy Tony Gaskins Jnr.

WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE?

Why are you working so hard and doing so much to get what you want? Do you know your purpose for being here?

Whatever your dreams may be and whatever you want to achieve, it is important to analyze the reasons for those things. The reasons for what you want to have and to achieve are your “WHY.” Your why is intimately tied to your purpose in life.

Everything has a purpose in life. The trees, birds, bees, ants and every living thing have a purpose for being. Each plays its own little part in the delicate architecture of life. Every good invention or good tool answers a question. Technology answers the why question – it’s an answer to someone’s problem.

YOU ARE NOT AN ANT BUT A HUMAN BEING and human beings, whatever you believe their origin to be, are the greatest of all of nature’s wonders. Why are most of them so purposeless in their existence? One philosopher Marcus Aurelius once asked: “Everything, a horse, a vine, is created for some duty……For what task, then, were you yourself created?”

A substantial number of us exist simply to exist. We live year in and year out as though living itself is our ultimate goal. If we make enough money and have enough things to gets us through to the next year we are satisfied. Surely, there is more to our lives than that? How can something so wonderfully made and endowed with potential as you are simply be here to just exist?

What is your purpose my dear friend?

What is your contribution to the world?

Is your being here making any difference to anyone?

What is your purpose here on earth? If I may ask again, look for it and fulfill it.