1 | Know Your Purpose
God has given to you unique experiences, convictions, passions, contributions, and skills. One thing every person should do is to know their purpose is to get to know yourself. Often your purpose is found within God's unique design of you so take a little time to reflect on how the combination of these things could make a powerful impact on the world around you? Most people never stop to reflect on this, yet others see it in us every day. Knowing God and knowing self is the beginning of discovering your purpose. For instance, I have a friend who for decades has mentored at-risk kids in the urban core. He spends a considerable amount of time challenging and helping these kids to move toward a life of purpose and realize their real potential. What I love about him is he has been doing this for years and loves investing his time in young men and women who are a loss for direction in the inner-city, primarily because he was one too. He merely took his experiences, convictions, passion, contributions, and skills and is using them to impact others. And he is a man living with purpose and on purpose, and of course subsequently giving purpose to others.

Try a spiritual gifts assessment to get you thinking: www.beresolute.org/sga

2 | Model Your Purpose
Not only should you know your purpose but you need to model it. For by modeling it, you are forced to consistently practice it, and therefore it weaves into the fabric of your everyday life. As a result, others will see what you're doing and ask questions particularly the why question and you will discover they will often ask you, "Why do you do what you do?" Since I daily live in and on purpose, I get asked this one question more than any other, and when they do, I have the opportunity to tell them why. #boom. This interchange is motivating in and of itself. This is because when you share the story you then by nature challenge others to find and live out their purpose or maybe even persuade them to join us in yours. Modeling your purpose challenges others to discover and live out theirs.

3 | Share Your Purpose
When sharing your purpose, you're not recounting your success, but rather the story of triumph through others. Stories of purpose in action in successful ways capture a vision of a better future. When it's working let's be honest, it's exciting, and you'll usually have a great story as well. So share it with others. Often there's one that captures your purpose more than any other, so tell it often and don't let up, and get better at telling it. I frequently tell the story of how my grandfather made a huge difference in my life as a mentor. Over the years I have become masterful at telling this story. As you do, others will catch a vision for what motivates you, and many will be inspired to find and pursue their purpose. Either way, you'll have a win.

4 | Refine Your Purpose
One of the challenges of living out your purpose will be figuring out a strategy for advancing it. This is where many give up often because they'll by nature face obstacles, and sometimes they are numerous. But don't quit, success might be right around the next bend. Be persistent. Every good purpose is going to have obstacles, challenges, and issues to overcome along the way. But when a purpose is less about you and something greater it motivates you to make sacrifices along the way. Sometimes you will be confronted with sacrifices that require you to relinquish time, finances, or even our pride. While these are humbling moments, they're only obstacles that need refinement along the way. A purpose driven person will take any action to overcome them to achieve the result - and this isn't motivated by selfishness but selflessness. The goal is to make the most substantial difference at the cost of unreasonable faith to ensure that others join the cause.

5 | Enable Your Purpose
Enlisting others who share a common purpose helps them to realize they too can make a difference and may help them find a unique expression of purpose similar to yours. I often enlist others to come alongside me, not just to advance my purpose but help them to find their own. I have mentored hundreds of men who have gone on to mentor others in their unique way. In doing this, you give others a vision for what they can contribute in their way, without you. And when you do this, you advance a purpose beyond self.

So listen to what these leaders have to say and start living with purpose.

“It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something.” Winston Churchill

“True happiness… is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.” Helen Keller

“The best way to lengthen out our days is to walk steadily and with a purpose.” Charles Dickens