Tag: purpose

Cherish the Angels in Your Life

Please understand, your purpose is being conducted daily whether you understand it or not. Just by your actions, people see and respond to who you are and what you’re about. Now the key is to know yourself.

Life Challenges

We are born into this world with a purpose but not much direction. That will come with life experiences and education. We are not alone yet always striving to find a way to make it in a world that is confusing and contains multiple paths to find our way. In many ways, we do not realize the potential and impact we can make on others and the world. There are so many challenges that make the road to achievement much more difficult. These challenges sit squarely in front of us, sometimes apparent but many times come out of nowhere. The decisions we make in the face of these challenges will determine which path our lives will take.

The context of our life is always evolving, and we choose which way we will go depending upon those decisions. How we approach various challenges very often depends on to whom we listen. Those people may be very close to us or be distant. They may be people we have grown up with or people we pass on the sidewalk. The people who affect our lives can never be described accurately because every event that happens in our lives has an effect. It is the ability to be open to every event that is an indication of a possible message.

  • The little 5-year-old girl you passed in the grocery store. Did she remind you of your youth?
  • The 10-year-old boy smiled and said hello. Did he make you happy?
  • The middle-aged man sitting on the cold concrete. Did he show you how hard life can be?

Three examples of chance events. The meaning of each is something different for everyone. What would be your response to each?

Seeking Discovery or Chance

Are you looking for an Angel or just waiting for one to appear? If something you see or hear draws a reaction, then it is an Angel communicating with you. Taking a moment to relax and to understand the world around you are key.

Our circumstances in life very often will determine whether we are willing to accept help or to ignore certain levels of support. Much of this has to do with what we think of angels and what they represent in our life. If you are a spiritual person, everything your Angel represents can be determined from that perspective. That means whatever perspective you’re coming from, and from the religious aspect, can determine whether that Angel is good or bad. Many can remember movies or shows that depicted angels on our shoulders. One whispering in one ear, the other one whispering in the other ear.

How you determine which one you’re going to listen to often reflects the values of life you have. If you are inherently a good person and have a positive attitude, then the angel giving you the most positive advice will be the one you listen to. But if you are a negative person and vacillate between questionable decisions, your response may be more negative. You need to decide which one is going to be the one you listen to.

From the perspective of a regular person, typically that person will do whatever is rewarded for their personal gain. From a spiritual aspect, the person will do whatever is right from a win-win perspective. Whichever one you decide you are going to be it must be consistent.

The Angels Around Us

The angels in your life will take on many forms and shapes. They may be things or people that you recognize or situations that you just happen to have to deal with. Again, your perspective will come into play as to how you react to the help your Angel is trying to give you. I mentioned earlier that help from angels does not always take physical or verbal form. Many times, it is what we observe, but unfortunately for many of us, we don’t take the time to view what’s going on around us.

We need to be better observers of the situations around us. We need to understand who our guardian angels are and what their actions are indicating to us. We need to observe all kinds of acts and try to reflect on those in the situations we are placed in. It is only in observation, reflection, and follow through that we utilize the wonderful aspects of what our angels are trying to get across to us.

Therefore, your challenge is to recognize what every situation or action is trying to tell you. To be aware of the hidden meaning of actions around you. Listen carefully to what people are saying. Not only to you but to those around you. And understand also, your conversations have far-reaching implications because you are an Angel in somebody’s life. That conversation or comment you are making to them or to someone in the vicinity is going to have an impact on any given situation they’re currently in. My hope is that you will take time after reading this and jot down the different angels that are interacting with you at any given time. That you take time to quietly go for a walk and just observe everything going on around you. Do this in nature and do this at the mall. Different voices are calling to you in different ways and you may be amazed at what you discover.

Who your Guardian Angel is and what they do: 10 things you should know

This guide, courtesy of Attitude Reality, aims to equip you with effective strategies to navigate the discovery of “you”. Visit the Fergusson Group for more resources and direction.

Determine That You Have the Want To!

After being in business for so many years, it has always struck me how people would like to do certain things. They even appear to have a passion and love for the event or task. Unfortunately, sometimes having these things is not enough. We get into the “head game” of knowing, for sure, that we would be great at something until it gets down to the want to.  I’m not talking about a “need to” but rather the inner voice and action that drives you to absolutely want to accomplish this or that.

I have, for example, had people tell me that they would like to become a manager. I know exactly where they are going with this and I can see it in their eyes whether they have a want to or they “need to.” Why would someone need to be a manager? Easy, more money, power, flexibility, benefits, development, etc. So, why don’t these people have the want to? Simply put, it is because they lack the critical qualities of motivation, focus, determination, effort and, probably most importantly, it does not fit into their “life purpose.”

Motivation, focus, determination and effort are all very recognizable terms in respect to the building blocks of success.  The last point, life purpose, is probably a bit head scratching for some people but is the most important of all these descriptors.  Why do we do the things we do and what keeps us going to accomplish everything that needs to be done?  As in many activities, there needs to be a foundation.  To determine if you will excel in an activity, you have to see how it fits into your life purpose.  If it doesn’t fit, there is very little likelihood, even with all the other factors in play, that success will be achieved.

Again, life purpose is the foundation of what we do.  Unfortunately, most people do not know, nor are they seeking, their purpose.  At this point, we need to find our life purpose and determine what we will do with the rest of our life. Or, do we first determine what is important in our life and then determine from there where we want to take our purpose.  For example, when I was growing up, I wanted to be a doctor.  I knew this was going to be my life purpose, but I lacked the focus and determination to achieve that result.  Aspects of being a doctor captured me and helped me to this day in my pursuit of my life passion.  In other words, I couldn’t be a medical doctor, but I deeply care about coaching and counseling people toward success in their own life.  This was the aspect that I saw in my father, who was a doctor, and now I have followed in those footsteps.

When you start thinking about your life purpose, think about:

  1. What is important to you?
  2. What you dreamt about growing up?
  3. Where you are now? 

These three questions are the starting points of determining life purpose.  Remember, although right now you may not see what your life purpose may be, you are living it. 

Once you have a foundation (life purpose) and you wake up with the drive, motivation, focus and determination, nothing can stop you.  Once you have these qualities, you have inside you the want to.  When you have the want to, everything else blurs into the background and you approach your life with the clarity that you never knew existed.

I hope you take these suggestions and spend some quiet time pondering the three questions.  Take some time no matter what your situation and know that if you’re at rock bottom, you will drive to the top quickly.  If you’re just going through the motions every day, take the steps mentioned and excel in the field of your choice. 

Taking the first step is always difficult, but find like-minded people and talk about the qualities of focus, determination, motivation and life purpose. I guarantee it will be an exhilarating conversation.

After being in business for so many years, it has always struck me how people would like to do certain things. They even appear to have a passion and love for the particular event or task. Unfortunately, sometimes having these things is not enough. We get into the “headgame” of knowing, for sure, that we would be great at something until it gets down to the “Want to”. Now, I’m not talking about a “need to” but rather the inner voice and action that drives you to absolutely “want to” accomplish this or that.

I have, for example, had people tell me that they would like to become a manager. I know exactly where they are going with this and I can see it in their eyes whether they have a “want to” or they “need to”. Why would someone need to be a manager. Easy, more money, power, flexibility, benefits, development, etc. So, why don’t these people have the “want to”? Simply put, it is because they lack the critical qualities of motivation, focus, determination, effort and, probably most important, it does not fit into their “life purpose”!

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Life’s Purpose – What Is Important to You?

Do you ever notice that life is cyclical?  It goes up and down and seems to do that all the time.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there could be some consistency in the way that our lives go?  The trouble with that idea is that with all the factors we are presented with in the course of living, it is very hard to control what we are faced with.  We encounter random events in our lives that shape who we are.  We know the path we are supposed to go down, but these events can sometimes derail those plans or veer us off into other paths. 

Consistency in life may be difficult, but we can, at least, find a path where we can make some ruts that will allow us to limit the “lows” and enjoy and maximize the “highs”.  So many books have been written about how all this can be done.  More importantly, the books have been written about how to find your life purpose.  In fact, that is what my business is all about.  How many people truly find their life purpose?  I would volunteer that most people are in the minority when it comes to this endeavor.  Still, finding life purpose is the key.  In other words, perhaps the definition of life purpose should be wrapped around the question: “What is important to you?”. 

When we begin to answer this question, the whole concept of life purpose can begin to take shape.  I compare seeking a life purpose to setting goals.  In setting goals, very often we set them lofty and very general.  Therefore, the goals become grandiose, out of scale, and, truth be told, impossible to attain.  It is when you break these goals down into bite-size pieces they become very attainable, yet on the path to that grand goal, we find some happiness and some sense of accomplishment.  It is this sense of accomplishment that encourages us to continue our journey toward that goal.  If we look at life purpose as the grand goal, we can see where frustration might come in.  We can see where the diverging paths send us to places we never intended to be.  If we take that grand goal of life purpose and break it down into the simple concept of “what is important to us,” we can then march toward our life purpose consistently, intentionally, and happily. 

The other benefit of looking at our life purpose as “what is important to us,” that it allows us to find constant reinforcement.  This allows us to ponder “importance” with every interaction, every conversation, every event and every breath we take.  For example, stop what you are doing right now.  Think about this: In the next hour “what is important to you?”  Really think about it!  Is what you doing now going to allow you to achieve what you deem most important?   Of course, I would say it is because we are learning how to move toward our life purpose and to embrace what we intend to do through doing what is most important to us. 

This blog is the first in a series talking about what life purpose means and the role that understanding what is important to you has in developing that purpose.  I would refer you to the following websites:  

www.fergussongroup.org  

www.achieveyourlifepurpose.com 

These web sites will help you continue the search but, in the meantime, take some time, quiet time, to ponder and write down what is important to you.  It doesn’t matter how big or small the issue may be, it is a starting place. 


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Keeping a Broad Perspective

We all go through life, most of us with the best intentions, of what we want to do, who we want to be and where we want to go. Many times, we are offered different roads to take in order  to achieve those ends. What we determine those roads to be will give us the result that leads us to the next path.

As a child, we have a certain aspiration as to what we want our vocation to be, whether it be a fireman, a doctor, a lawyer, etc.. Children have these ideas in their minds and somewhere along the line they either become a reality or a different path is chosen, and that initial goal is never realized. Just think if everything we were able to dream were to come true. What would that look like and how would that manifest itself?

What so often happens is we lose our way. That is, we take paths that are not in line with what we intended to do. Sometimes we do this by choice and sometimes it is just a function of life events, so we need to be aware and open to all possibilities; hence, keeping a broad perspective. By doing so, we don’t let things slip by. We keep our eyes open to the dangers of a certain path or a decision that may not be in alignment with our intentions.

It is often said that it is a difficult road to try to find one’s life purpose, but that is because the road to finding one’s life purpose has so many paths that may be followed and the danger of taking one particular path and focusing on that path is that you lose perspective. You lose the ability to be open to all the possibilities. What is boils down to at times is, are we actually seeing what is before us? So often we go through life in a very superficial manner and we don’t see the truth, the value or the reality around us that is telling us what road we should be taking.

It is so important to dig deep and be a student of seeing the truth. When you do this, a whole array of possibilities springs up and your choices become much broader. If you have developed the art of seeing behind the screen, behind the shadows, those possibilities guide you into alignment with your purpose or your intention.

A favorite topic in business is “active listening.” This is nothing more than not being a superficial listener, but being present in the conversation and determining not only what is being said but who is saying it and what they mean. You have these separate components that come together – active listening and “deep seeing.” It is a combination that takes considerable practice. There are not many great listeners in the world nor are there many great “deep see-ers.” It is not a fault of anybody.  It is not how we were taught to see a person or to listen to a person, but when you do become present in the conversation your perspective broadens. Your possibilities become endless and you find a whole new world opening up to you.

“Look for the depth of a person’s intention.  It is only then you will                                                                     truly see.”                                                    

Craig Fergusson –January 5, 2018

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