Purpose, what is yours today?
Why do you do what you do? Have you ever taken a moment and just thought about that? We love animals, we need to make money and the two just meet in the middle with the career of a professional pet stylist.
But what is the Purpose behind your passion? Do you even know? Have you been in this business so long that it has become mundane and there is no fire in your heart for your chosen profession? Do you know your passion but are unsure how and where to direct it?
Your purpose doesn’t have to be earth shattering, it can be quiet and humble. It may be simple and peaceful or you can have huge take over the world goals. What is in your heart about your purpose is yours to discover. It is a process, not a destination. Why do we need to know? Because a life with out a purpose is lesser lived life. Find your purpose and you unleash your gift to the world. You find that happiness in your soul, the reason you open your eyes every morning and put on that smock.
Ask yourself these questions and jot down your answers:
Why am I in this business. What first attracted me to even entertain the thought of being a groomer. (I love to ask groomers this question, you get to see that dormant fire in their eyes when they were new to grooming and filled with purpose.)
What do you set out to accomplish each day? Do you start your day with goal in mind? Goals can be simple or complex. They can change mid-day, they are your daily road map to the life you want to create.
Do you have long and short-term goals, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or even a 5-year plan goals. If you do what are they and why are these your goals?
Do you journal at all? Whether you jot down ideas on little slips of sticky notes for your bulletin board or you have beautiful spiral bound leather books to write in, it is all the same, it’s journaling. If you aren’t doing some form of this, you should be.
When can you take some time out to journal?
Take a look at the answers to your questions. This is the beginning of your purpose journal.
People always say they don’t have time. I am too busy for that. I have a family to get ready in the morning or get off to bed at night. Let me just remind you, that if you do not take a small amount of time for yourself each day, you will not be able to be there for those family members, clients and friends. You will eventually burn out. You can only go so long with out taking care of you.
Finding your purpose is very fulfilling. It can take a life and business of chaos and turn it into a thing of focus and beauty. Writing down your thoughts, dreams, aspirations or goals, extends into every part of your life. Journaling is actually a form of meditation or prayer. I use those words interchangeably, because they are the same thing. When meditating we are hyper focused on leaving everything behind us for a time and centering our mind on the meditation, prayer is the same thing, we are hyper focused on our higher power and taking time to reconnect with that pure energy. Everyone needs to recharge, that is what journaling is, a way to review, recharge and refocus.
By taking the time to journal we give ourselves permission to look back at our day. To review the entire day, moment by moment, but we also can interject things that we didn’t think to do or say when we were in the moment. It is sort of like being a sportscaster or commentator to your own life. Reviewing is a necessary thing. We can not correct, change or even praise ourselves if we don’t go back and look at how we are handling our life. We lament, or I have bad luck, or nothing good ever happens to me. Have you ever projected (written down, prayed about or meditated on) positive things to happen in your life? That is not to say that everything we wish for comes true. A dream not written down is just a wish. Don’t just wish for things. When you wake up with a purpose in your heart everything you do has a meaning. It has a beginning, middle and end. It has a purpose. In the broadest sense, every step you take and word you speak is part of that grand scheme. I always start my day with the purpose to not be negative and say something complementary to everyone I meet. This is harder than it sounds some days! But that is one of my purposes for my day and it makes me think before I speak and it helps me to interact better with others. I write this every day in in my morning journal along with all the other goals I set for myself daily. I use my journal to help me focus on myself, my business and my friends and family. In short it is a story of my life, that I change constantly sometimes by choice and sometime by chance.
To quote my mother “You hold the paintbrush, the pictures you paint in your life are up to you. Life can paint black and bleak, but you have the ability to paint over it with any colors you want, it’s all up to you”
Journaling is cathartic. It is a way to purge all the negative things. It is a way to project all the positive things. It is an on-going conversation with your true best friend, yourself. Finding your fire, gaining your momentum, and living your dreams starts simply with a pen and paper. Write your purpose daily, no matter how often it changes, it is yours to shape and mold there is no rule to follow, just let the ink flow and your heart will reveal itself.
