Purpose

Thanksgiving can be a wonderful time with family and friends. But Thanksgiving can also be a somber time where we mourn those no longer with us, and perhaps mourn relationships that are not what they once were. Thanksgiving can also be a lonely time where we don’t have family and friends that we feel comfortable being with. How do we navigate Thanksgiving with these mixed emotions, some good and some not so good?

Sometimes after a crucible — a devastating setback or failure that fundamentally alters the course of our lives — we struggle to find a way forward. We find it challenging to find a vision worthwhile to devote our lives to. Even if we do find such a vision, there is often a tendency to think that our vision is pretty small. How much difference can our vision make in the world? There are so many problems that exist, and what we are planning on doing we might think may not make a lot of difference to those problems. Besides, we know people or we have heard of people making huge differences in the world. We are so not them. So why bother? What difference is it all going to make?Those are big numbers. Meaningful numbers. But not unanimous numbers. They raise the very real possibility that at least a few of you reading these words might be among that 28 percent who would answer “no” to the survey question mentioned above. Which makes me think, in our mission to share with those who engage with us that their worst day doesn’t have to define them, how can you know if you’ve had a crucible? Three thoughts come to mind…

Earlier this month we wrapped up our special 10-part summer series, CRUCIBLE HACKS. Over its nine episodes we offered listeners “hacks” to help them identify the building blocks of their lives of significance. Then, in the tenth and final episode, we helped them get the most out of the hacks we discussed so they could get themselves on, and keep themselves on, the path to their own unique life of significance.
Those are big numbers. Meaningful numbers. But not unanimous numbers. They raise the very real possibility that at least a few of you reading these words might be among that 28 percent who would answer “no” to the survey question mentioned above. Which makes me think, in our mission to share with those who engage with us that their worst day doesn’t have to define them, how can you know if you’ve had a crucible? Three thoughts come to mind…

We have even commissioned a statistically valid study that tells us that 72 percent of more than 11,000 people surveyed so far say they have “experienced an event so traumatic or painful that it fundamentally altered the course” of their lives.

Those are big numbers. Meaningful numbers. But not unanimous numbers. They raise the very real possibility that at least a few of you reading these words might be among that 28 percent who would answer “no” to the survey question mentioned above. Which makes me think, in our mission to share with those who engage with us that their worst day doesn’t have to define them, how can you know if you’ve had a crucible? Three thoughts come to mind…

We are in the midst of our special summer podcast series, Crucible Hacks, in which we’re taking nine weeks to unpack ways to make bouncing back from a crucible simpler (there’s a 10th episode that’s not about hacks but about giving you insight into how to apply the hacks). We’re spotlighting the best practices listeners can undertake at each step of the journey from tragedy to triumph, guiding them along the path of what we call the Beyond the Crucible Refining Process.

We spoke in January about making a life resolution rather than a New Year’s resolution. That we should make a resolution to live in light of our true purpose. Now, we are six months through the year which is a great time to think about recalibrating our mission and vision.