What is purpose? What is my purpose? What is your purpose? All great questions... My guess is these are questions you have: A) thought a lot about, B) a little about, or C) not at all. The real question is, can you answer them? Depending on which group you associate with will determine how easy or difficult it will be for you to answer the real question. Let's explore...

I love fruit, especially low hanging fruit so why don't we start by answering the first question, What is purpose? As Lao Tzu states in the Chinese proverb, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." In case you are wondering, What is purpose is the low hanging fruit. What is purpose is an easy question to answer because you can Google it and find an answer. Purpose, as defined by Oxford Dictionaries, is the reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists.

Pretty straight forward, but let's think about that for a minute. Purpose is the reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists. By itself and knowing nothing else about it, purpose sounds important. It sounds like something we should put some thought into. It also sounds a little intimidating so I can understand if you haven't put much thought into it. Lord knows I spent the first 30-some years of my life not thinking much about it, but that all changed a few years ago and my vision is much clearer today.

Several years ago... Who am I kidding? On September 20, 2010 I found myself thinking about purpose - specifically, my purpose for the first time. At that time in my life I was looking for answers. I often spent time thinking about and answering questions like, What am I doing? Is this what I should be doing? Is this what I want to be doing? How long am I going to do this? What am I here to do? And not just on a professional level. I was thinking about all of this at a very high, macro level - both personally and professionally. My mind was racing.

It became real for me when I asked myself, What is the meaning of life? What a powerful  question to have bouncing around your mind and one that I knew was important and needed some consideration. So I sat down on the couch, turned off the television, pulled out the little moleskin notebook I kept in my back pocket and wrote, What is the meaning of life? on the top of the page. And then I stared at that question. And stared. And stared for what felt like an eternity as I racked my brain for the answer.  I have no idea how long it took me to find my answer, but I can assure you it didn't come easy.

Ah ha! And then it hit me. I found my answer and I wrote it down as fast as I could so I wouldn't lose it. Once I wrote it down I found myself staring again - this time at what I had just written, To determine your purpose then exhaust every effort to fulfill it. On one hand, I felt very proud because I had just answered a question many before me have pondered. Yet on the other hand, I felt incomplete because answering that question led me to another question. This time, What is MY purpose? If the meaning of life is to determine your purpose then exhaust every effort to fulfill it, then I had to figure out what MY purpose is.

As I sat there, I kept thinking to myself, what am I good at? What gifts have God given me? And then I realized it. I realized that my purpose was to identify my talents or my God-given gifts then use them to improve the lives of those around me. But wait! That led me to another question. What are my God-given gifts? The journey continued... Two days later I arrived at my answer and completed my journey. My God-given gifts or talents, if you will, are public speaking and influencing people, which led me to my purpose. The next day I signed up for my first Toastmaster's class to sharpen the skills I was blessed with.

You see, after all that time spent thinking, I finally found my purpose. Today I remind myself that everything I do has to be aligned with my purpose, otherwise, I'm wasting time and I'm wasting my talent's.

My purpose is to educate and inspire. And my hope is that I have done a little of both by writing and sharing this post.

What is your purpose?

Only you can answer that question, and hopefully you will because life moving forward with the answer in your back pocket makes the journey of a thousand miles seem less daunting.

Google "secrets to success" and you will find page after page of advice on passion and work and persistence and positive thoughts and so on and so forth - all related to the secrets of success. Unfortunately, your Google search does not reveal the secret you're looking for. It does, however, reveal what it takes to achieve the success you're after. Yes, you need passion. Yes, you need to work harder than everyone around you. And yes, you need persistence and a positive attitude to get you to where you want to be. But unfortunately, none of these are secrets and they all miss one critical mark - where to begin your journey. 

While all of these are important, none of them are the starting point to find success. The starting point is the secret. Knowing where to begin is the critical first step. Without taking the first step, you cannot reach your destination. You see, there is no universal definition of success. Success is as unique as everyone who seeks it. Success means one thing to one person and something completely different to the next. The secret to success, is first defining it.

A few days ago, I was inspired while driving into the office.  Door to door, my commute is only 13 minutes so, unlike many of my fellow Southern Californian’s, I don’t spend a lot time in the car getting to and from work. I consider THAT a blessing. For the most part, Tuesday’s commute was no different than any other; I found my favorite morning talk show on SiriusXM Radio, jockeyed for position entering and exiting the freeway, and before I knew it I was parked in one of the coveted 6134 spaces in front of my office. What was different about this commute was that I was inspired. I was inspired to find my passion. The man who inspired me was none other than America’s original “shock jock”, the “King of All Media”, Howard Stern.

For those of you, who may not be a fan of Howard Stern, bear with me. What inspired me was Howard’s response to a call-in guest who asked him, “If it wasn't for radio, would you have been as successful as you are?” Oh, I like where this caller’s head is at! Those are the kinds of questions that get my attention. After a little playful banter Howard answered, “Yes. I would have been successful, but I would not have been as successful as I have been with radio.” The reason Howard believes he would have been successful without radio is because he has given 100% of his energy to those he has worked for. Coupled with a commitment to hard work, Howard was on a path destined for success.

However, the reason Howard does not believe he would have reached the levels of success he has experienced in radio is because he wasn't passionate about anything else. Radio is Howard’s passion. He found it at an early age and went “all-in” on pursuing a career in it. His career in radio has afforded him many luxuries most of us will never experience, but that doesn't mean we are not successful. Radio has also afforded Howard the ability to pursue additional passions that came up later in life: photography, pet adoption, and others.

Many of us have already achieved high levels of success, but we don’t always recognize it because we too often relate success to material possessions rather than happiness. Success is defined as the accomplishment of an aim or purpose and happiness is simply the state of being happy. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

To answer that question, you must first define YOUR success. Your definition of success is different than mine and mine is different than my wife’s, but that doesn't mean one of us is right and the other is wrong. For too long I defined success as the position I held at work and the numbers before the decimal point on my bi-weekly paycheck. Sound familiar? I’m sure some of you can probably relate to that. But what I have realized over the years is that my definition of success is not based on my position at work, the dollars in my bank account, or even the zip code I reside in. I define success today by my level of happiness. The happier I am, the more successful I will be. This is what I took from Howard Tuesday morning.

You see, Howard found his passion: radio, and committed 100% of himself to it. He made sacrifices when needed. He worked as hard as he could to hone the skills necessary for a radio personality to excel. He knew what he wanted (his purpose) – to become the “King of All Media” – and would do whatever necessary to accomplish it. Becoming the “King of All Media” isn't what makes Howard successful or happy. What I believe makes Howard successful and happy is that he found his passion and lives with purpose.

Have you ever seen Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford University commencement speech? There was a quote Steve Jobs paraphrased during his speech that went something like, “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” When Steve Jobs read that quote at 17, it made such an impression on him that for the rest of his days he looked in the mirror every morning and asked himself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?” Whenever his answer had been “No” for too many days in a row, he knew it was time for a change.

Our source of happiness generally stems from two areas: work and family. In 2012, a study was conducted by Gallup that surveyed more than 151,000 full and part-time workers 18 and older. When they released the report titled, State of the American Workplace in 2013 they reported 70% of Americans don’t like their jobs. If you believe, like I do, that what you do for work plays a major impact on your level of happiness, one could venture to say that 70% of Americans are unhappy. Sure, one’s happiness could increase if the other sources of happiness are satisfying, but all too often the general dissatisfaction or unhappiness caused by the work environment spills over to the family life – lowering the overall level of happiness.

As we all know, there are 24 hours in each day. Assuming we work for eight hours each day, one third of your adult life will be spent working. So why would you do anything other than what you love and what makes you happy? Don’t you owe it to yourself to ask the question, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?” If the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, you know it’s time to make a change.

Steve Jobs went on to say in his commencement speech at Stanford, “Your time is limited. So don’t waste it living someone else’s life. You've got to find what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all measures of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. So keep looking. Don’t settle.”

If you are not measuring your success by your level of happiness in life, I challenge you to give it some thought. If you are not happy with where you are at work or in life, I would also challenge you to give that some thought as well. Find your passion! If you don’t know where to begin, start by revisiting your childhood or your more playful side. What did you love to do when you were a child? What do you love to do for fun? Rob Levit, an Annapolis, MD-based creativity expert, speaker and business consultant says, “Research shows that there is much to be discovered in play, even as adults.”

Make a passion board. Start with a poster board, write the words “My Passions” in the center and create a collage of images, quotes, articles and anything else that captures your attention. Before long, your board will speak to you. “The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of your intention – who you want to become or what you want to create – your awareness and passion will grow,” says Michael Michalko, a creativity expert and author based in Rochester, N.Y., and Naples, FL.

And finally, make a list of people who inspire you and why you are inspired by them. There’s no need to recreate the wheel, just find a way to make the wheel more effective or efficient. Study the people on your list, model their inspirational behaviors and work hard to emulate them.

You’ll know when you find your passion… It won’t feel like work and you’ll be the happiest, most successful person on the block. How do I know? Because I just spent three hours writing this post and it was the best three hours of my day - so far...