The Power of Purpose

The Power of Purpose, By Thanos Papalexis

Every day as we compete in this never ending contest we wake and begin a day filled with tasks and actions, words and dialogues, interactions and daydreams. Every day we expend energies on behalf of ourselves, our employers, our families or friends in a monotonous and repetitive string of days. And then one day we wake to realize that one day has no differentiation to the last and the last ten years have passed without event or benefit and we are no closer to achieving our goal, no closer to success than we once were, when youth and exuberance drove us to seek our dreams.
Somewhere along the line, the youthful strength that mischievously allowed us to challenge normality as youths, has turned us into conforming soldiers of society, obeying the standards of society, marching every day to the tune of society’s dictates.

However, so few of us, tend to question our actions, ponder our activities or reflect upon the way in which we expend our energies or spend our hours for little is done to reflect upon the achievements of the day let alone the passing of a year or even a decade. Without such reflection, it is impossible to truly analyze, plan, coordinate or improve the way in which we live our lives. Moments of introspection are vital to anyone who wants to improve themselves, improve their lives and achieve the goals the game has set.
When do we have time to reflect? Well personally, I believe in the middle of the night, when all around us sleep, nothing moves, no phones, no meetings, no emails, when the world around us sleeps, we take the moments we have to ourselves to think of the last days events, to think of our plans and hopes and create an ever changing roadmap to success.
The most vital element however in any given day, is a realization that everything we do, should have a purpose, and if something has no purpose then it has no value in our lives. Purpose could be as diverse as “making money” all the way to ” it makes me happy”, but everything that involves any form of interaction in our lives be it an act or a relationship must have a purpose that is beneficial to our overall goal, and if that is not apparent then it has no place in our lives.

We resist change because it shatters our self-perceptions, but if we don’t change, our journey’s purpose is stunted and as we look back, we can see that change is a constant among our experiences but we often resist it until the pain is more than we can bear.

Most of us have struggled, perhaps for years, trying to see the best in ourselves but our less than stellar behavior has muddied our attempts to focus on our positive qualities. We have always had them; however, it might require a careful inventory to bring our positive qualities into focus. Why is it so much easier to remember the actions over which we feel shame?…… Many of us can’t see the good in ourselves until we can recognize what it looks like and it helps to start by identifying the good in other people; then we can learn to identify it in ourselves.

In a stunning chain of events, Thanos Papalexis- who wrote this article, was extradited form the US and was tried, convicted and jailed for life in the murder of Charles Christodoulides in London.