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How Is Your Lifestyle Affecting Your Mission?

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Does the way you live your life enable or hinder your ability to engage in mission? If you know what your mission is—whether it be orphan care, working with the poor, mentoring young couples—does your lifestyle help you embrace that mission?

We all have resources at our disposal. We have time, money, talents, relationships. Trouble is we tend to use them on our own agenda.

What dictates how you spend your resources? Do you put thought into these things or do you just go with the flow?

Another way to pose the question is, “Do I adapt my lifestyle to my mission or purpose in life?”

Here are a few ways that I think will help us intentionally adapt our lifestyle to our mission. Do understand, I am not an expert on this. Not even close! I find that I have to continually re-calibrate my life to stay on mission.

  1. Know Your Mission or Purpose. I know, easier said than done. However, if you don’t know what your mission or purpose in life is, you surely can’t adapt your lifestyle to it. That’s why so many of us have the approach to life that says something like, “Just make it through life the best you can”. When life throws challenge after challenge your way, that’s exactly what it feels like. But please hear me on this…if you know your purpose in life, you find what you need to overcome those challenges. 
  2. Set Aside Time to Daydream. This might sound strange, but I have heard it said that some of the most successful people in the world are daydreamers. Yet many parents, teachers, bosses try to discipline daydreaming out of a person. They think it is a waste of time. How many times have you heard, “Stop daydreaming and pay attention!”? Granted, if all we did was daydream, we’d never get anything accomplished. But on the other hand, if we are always in task mode, we will miss invaluable insight and creativity.
  3. Begin Your Day with Meditation. As a Christian, I believe that meditation is focused on the Lordship and Majesty of God. Meditation can take the form of meditating on His Word, His creation, His attributes. Whatever form it takes, the end result should be my being reminded of my rightful place in His Universe. It is from Him that I receive wisdom. If I neglect time with Him, well, I fool myself into believing that I understand and know what is best for myself.
  4. Be a Steward of Your Resources. That word, steward, might sound strange to you. The idea of stewardship is  the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care (Webster). I believe that God entrusted each of us with resources and talents so that we can carry out the purpose we have on this earth. A key to fulfilling that purpose is learning to steward those resources and talents well. You might want to begin by recognizing what has been entrusted to your care.

These simple steps are meant to help you become aware of your mission and the resources you have to fulfill that mission. Once you have a clearer picture, I have found that aligning your lifestyle with your mission begins to happen.

What do you think about daydreaming? Waste of time or beneficial?

About the Author

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I am a longtime Austinite. Married my beautiful wife over 35 years ago. Adopted our son September 2012.
As a small business and nonprofit coach/consultant, I have found my sweet spot. I lean on my varied background of corporate, small business ownership, writing, and pastoring as I work to help small business owners and nonprofit founders build the business they want to have.


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