I had a high paying job and a big title, but I was miserable. I had the appearance of a perfect family, but we were imploding. I was living life the way I thought I was supposed to live it, but I just wanted to end it all. Thankfully, I never pulled the trigger, but I had been seconds away.
I remember being at my corporate desk thinking that I didn’t want to be where I was, so I thought there was only one place to go – up or out. Either I would be promoted, or I would look for something that looked like a promotion at another company. Since I didn’t love my job, I was basically a mercenary. I would take the next big offer that came along. Career advancement for me was all about the numbers associated with the offer. Sure, the title meant something, but the money was really what I craved most.
It was my job to fuel my family’s neverending financial hunger. I was getting pressure from home to earn more to fund material possessions and more vacations. Christmas at our home looked like a toy store had exploded, our boat would get used sparingly in the short Oregon summer, we would make sure it was November or December when we went on a tropical vacation so that we could show off our pictures on Facebook, and we had a growing bank account that was never enough. My wife Angie and I just thought we were living large.
But then it started to crumble
The wheels began falling off in August of 2014. Angie and I separated because of extreme chemical dependency, abuse, and infidelity. We hesitantly decided to reunite after being apart for about five weeks. I was home with our two girls for those five weeks, and when I returned to work, I was terminated. Five months later I landed another executive position – the first offer I received as a result of many different interviews – and we were back in business. Life resumed where it left off. We dove deeper into our chemical dependency, abuse, and infidelity. We just repeated the cycle where we left off. In fact, in the five months between positions, we did nothing to change our behavior but to slow spending in line with our severance.
I was at that final corporate executive position for 15 months before I was terminated again. The wheels had completely fallen off. It was time to make some kind of a move – I was either going to end my life or completely rebuild it from scratch. I didn’t end it that day – and now I get to serve as an executive coach to executives all over the country, speak to large audiences, and I just published my first book in October of 2019. Nothing about my life looks the same as it did back then.
What changed? Purpose. Passion. Real Power. Potential.
When I was after money and materials, I felt that my purpose in this life was to accumulate more and build up my financial health. Sure, those are fun, and as a human being, we get the opportunity to indulge in the finer things in life. But they are not the purpose of life.
When I began to shift my life, I first needed to take ownership of myself. I had lived everyone else’s dream for me for 43 years, and I put an abrupt stop to that. I began to put my interests first. In revisiting what I’d do for a career and to create income, one thing was certain – I would not sacrifice myself for others. I would find a way to live my life according to how I wanted to show up. For me, that meant fully stepping out of corporate America because I never fully loved being an employee and making others successful. I vowed to carry out my life to make myself successful. But there was another major change that I made: I promised myself that I would only do things I loved for the rest of my life. I would live on purpose.
I started living on purpose
I never truly analyzed my talents and gifts when I was on my corporate crash course. I just made decisions based on financial gain. When I began to understand that I could just do things I loved to create income, I looked deep inside myself and found that the only things I ever loved were building high-performing teams and high-performing people. I just dealt with and accepted that I needed to do a lot of other things I didn’t love to do the things I loved. We are taught this very early in life; we need to sacrifice to get what we want. But I found out that this is not true. We can live a life of intention and purpose and remain in alignment with our truest natural authenticity.
Living on purpose means working each day to understand yourself at the deepest levels, and showing up as that. Part of your deepest self-awareness is to connect with how your talents and gifts can serve society in a way that lights up your soul. To live a life on purpose means constant recalibration of your direction in life to remain true to yourself, your desires, and the impact you want to have on society before your last exhale. Living intentionally means living so that every breath, action, and decision you make is aligned with your purpose, increasing your capability and capacity to serve.
Living a purposeful and intentional life means that you constantly grow and develop yourself, and remain true to yourself so that you can create impact. We are here to be a steward of society and to leave the world a better place than we found it.
Life shifted from wealth creation to making an impact
Time and financial freedom will flow freely for us once we lean into our uniqueness and remain true to our desires and our purpose to create impact. We don’t need to try to create it, because the universe cannot help but reward you for your commitment to mastery and impact. This is much different than living a life focused on wealth creation. One leaves you grabbing for more of the same things that left you empty. The other leaves you wanting to create a bigger and bigger impact because of the joy it brings.
Life has shifted for me. This is available to anyone who dares to trust that purpose and passion are creative forces. I’ve witnessed it firsthand, but there was a time when I doubted the magical powers of showing up as my truest self. It’s easy for me now. It might be harder for you at this point, but I encourage you to trust me; I have enough in me for both of us to get you there.
Connect with me for a free e-Book
If you need further convincing or want to explore how to identify your deepest purpose, connect with me or check out my offerings. I’d love to offer you my free Life-Mastery e-Book as a gift for demonstrating a commitment to growing yourself. My team and I are ready to support you to your fullest purpose, passion, and potential.