Every Experience Serves a Purpose

You can find new meaning and purpose in every situation. Did you ever have one of those moments where you start throwing stuff away in your house and you just can’t stop?

What starts as cleaning out the junk drawer on the weekend suddenly turns into four closets, the garage, and maybe even the kitchen cabinets. Aside from the three full garbage cans now on the curb, you have seven huge bags of clothes to be dropped off for donation (and that’s after driving around with them in your trunk for 3-4 weeks, of course).

No? Just me?

Imagine having one of those moments, but instead of clearing out your closets and drawers, you decide to uproot all the landscaping in your front yard, in one day, with no real plan for what to replace it with.

It starts by removing a giant oak tree that is dying and potentially dangerous, and then you find yourself pointing to the old boring bushes that must go. Instead of bags of garbage and clothes, you now have a gaping hole in the flower beds of your front lawn, and Craig, the landscaper, is looking extremely confused, asking what you want to put there now.

Contrast breeds desire

I wasn’t exactly sure of the kind of shrubbery or flowers I wanted, but I certainly knew what I didn’t want. For example, I didn’t want dull and drab bushes with no life or magic to them. I had been looking at that for way too long and was done.

And in that moment, what I did want became so clear. I wanted COLOR!! Bright, beautiful, eye-catching pinks and blues and purples. Really anything other than what I had just experienced.

Doesn’t the same hold true for your relationships, your job, and even your health? Doesn’t the experience of something you don’t want launch rockets of desire for something you do? You don’t genuinely appreciate feeling good until you are holed up in bed with a cold for two days.

Just me again? Or did that resonate?

When you experience something unwanted, you crave the opposite.

Life lesson: Contrast breeds desire. Experiencing some of what you don’t want helps make clear what you do want. Everything serves its purpose and oftentimes that purpose is to bring you clarity and gratitude.

We get what we focus on

My desire (well, okay at this point, my need) for new landscaping sent me on a mission to get really clear on what kind of colorful bushes I did want. I started driving around my neighborhood to get ideas, and that is when I saw them. Beautiful blue, pink, and multi-colored hydrangea bushes, and they were everywhere. Some were smaller, and others gigantic. I loved them all.

After a solid decade of driving around my neighborhood on the same streets past the same houses, I never even noticed them.

Why? Because, up until this point, I wasn’t looking for them. Once I understood what I didn’t want and focused on finding what I did want, these beautiful hydrangea bushes popped up everywhere I looked.

Much like life, what we focus on grows. What we look for is what we will find. Think about red cars and take a drive. You will see more red cars than you ever thought possible.

Life lesson: When you get really clear on what you want and focus on it, it will appear. And sometimes you will realize it was there all along.

Need a mindset coach who can help you find purpose and focus on the things that bring you the most happiness? Send me a message today!