Are You On Purpose?

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." -M. Scott Peck

I remember the feeling, arriving to work at my high paying job for a major technology corporation, getting a cup of coffee and sitting at my desk staring out the window wondering..."What am I doing?" "Where am I going?" "What's my purpose here?" "Am I going to look back 20-30 years from now and ask myself, did I make a difference or just collect a paycheck?" I remember the frustration of thinking of ideas that would improve processes, improve quality, save the company money and maintain or improve their reputation for quality. I would put together a plan, solicit others to team up and move the plan forward. I would gather data, and recommend systems to collect the needed data to identify where to focus our efforts. Ultimately implementing projects like this and seeing them to successful completion met with many roadblocks and dead ends because of complex circumstances such as a new order fulfillment system being rolled out, off-shoring of the manufacturing processes and downsizing.

At one point during the mid-nineties I realized that the company was planning to downsize the workforce in the future. This coupled with my being unhappy and unfulfilled put a fear in me that made me wonder what my future would hold. The combination of being unhappy and unfulfilled, along with the fear of being downsized forced me to take action. I decided that I needed to find a way to take control of my future. Although I was uncomfortable and had to get out of my comfort zone, I am thankful that I was willing to have the vision to step out and do what was necessary to create a better future for myself and my family.

If you are feeling the same way I encourage you to just do it today. You will never regret the decision. The only regret you will have is that if you don't, you'll look back at the end of your life and wonder...what if? You don't want to be one of these people saying...If only I'da, I should'a, would'a, could'a!