Three principles to discovering your lifes purpose

depression

nobody likes to feel depressed

helpless hopeless

meaningless but yet depression is

something that we’ve all

felt in fact the world health

organization estimates that more than

264

million people of all ages around the

world

suffer from depression

and every year according to the american

foundation for suicide prevention

depression causes an estimated 1.4

million americans to attempt to end

their own life

and the sad news is more than 48

000 per year succeed

and i was almost one of those people

i mean we’ve all heard the stories of

former pro athletes like

junior seau world beloved

robin williams marilyn monroe kurt

cobain

ernest hemingway vincent van gaal

and there’s so many other famous

entertainers athletes and politicians

and veterans

who had everything but still felt

so depressed and for the longest time i

couldn’t understand why some of the

most richest most famous most gifted

people in the world

would want to end their own life a life

that millions of other people across the

world

were aspiring to live it’s so hard to

understand how people with money

friends and seemingly everything could

feel so alone

and worthless and depressed

i mean we have more medical assistance

more information

more knowledge more wisdom and more

access to people who can help us than

we’ve

ever had before i mean for goodness sake

there’s a suicide prevention hotline

that’s available

24 hours a day seven days a week 365

days

a year and yet no matter what time of

day it is

you can still log on to social media and

there’s always someone online

who can be a listening ear and even a

friend

i mean think about it we’ve got facebook

twitter

instagram snapchat zoom facetime

tick tock microsoft teams slack

daily apps and i mean if you like we’ve

got online video game communities

i mean come on there’s so many ways for

us to connect

but yet we feel so disconnected

so discouraged so alone

that somehow we feel that dying

is better than living well i’m here to

say no more

i’m here to introduce a new concept

well it’s actually not really a new

concept it’s an old concept

that many don’t believe but i believe if

we believe this one thing

it can serve as one of the most

effective remedies

to depression and also one of the best

ways to live

a more fulfilled life it’s called

purpose

that’s right purpose purpose is the

driving force behind

everything you do it’s what makes you

get up in the morning enjoy the pursuit

of your dreams

it will it’s what brings more joy into

your life and the lives

of those around you i tell you that

there is nothing i mean

nothing more attractive than a man or a

woman who knows their purpose

i mean nice clothes money maturity are

attractive

but nothing is more enticing than

someone who knows who they are

so whether you’re a religious person or

not whether you’re struggling with

depression

right now or you’re just someone who

wants to live

more fulfilled i’m gonna share three

purpose principles with you

that will help you get clarity over your

life’s purpose

and that understanding will help you to

remedy to cope with

your depression and live more fulfilled

ready number one

your purpose is not what you do

it’s why you do it we make the mistake

of thinking that our purpose is what we

do

we think it’s our passion we say things

like my purpose in life

is to teach to speak to write to

entertain to build to heal to

administrate

but your purpose is not what you do it’s

why you do it

and if you make a list of all the things

that you like to do all the things that

you love to do and that you’re

passionate about i mean

everything and you ask yourself this

question

why they say when you ask yourself why

five times you get beyond the surface

level of your mind

and you get into the core of who you are

your purpose is not what you do

that’s why you do it number two

your purpose is unique to you

now this is just my personal opinion but

i am so tired

of people telling me that their purpose

is to help other people

discover their purpose or that their

purpose

is to leave a lasting legacy for their

family

honestly every time i hear i just want

to say you really think

sherlock like who doesn’t want to help

other people

who doesn’t want to help the next

generation avoid all the crap that

they’ve been through

i believe your purpose should be as

unique

as your fingerprint i believe we should

be able to read

a purpose statement about your life and

say that’s john that’s susie that’s

jeff that’s rita why

because you are unique and so is your

purpose

and this is one of the favorite things i

love helping my clients with

because it sounds like a good concept

doesn’t it that we can have this unique

purpose statement

but because we have so many insecurities

and we don’t believe that there’s

anything special about us

many of the people i work with have

doubts

and then we walk them through this

purpose discovery process and then they

have that light bulb moment

and they find out that they do indeed

have a unique purpose

like one of my clients is an actress and

i so

uh wish i could show you her face when

we walked her through this process

because we took her from a generic

purpose to a unique purpose

so she originally thought her purpose

was to inspire

to entertain and and to make the world a

better place

generic and we took her from

understanding that that was her purpose

to believing

that she had unique purpose she went

from my purpose is to

inspire and to entertain and to help the

world be a better place

to my purpose is to help women

who struggle to be happy to experience a

more fulfilling life through art and

conversation

so that they can experience a more

compassionate

empathetic and beautiful world

you see how different that is and i told

her this i said

i bet at your next audition you’re gonna

nail it because while everyone else is

there

auditioning because it’s their passion

you’ll be the only one there

auditioning from a place of purpose

you’ll know your highest purpose

and you’ll express that energy through

your audition

your purpose should be unique to you

number three you have

to be convinced that you have purpose

and that your life matters now here’s

the hardest challenge because we

struggle

to see our own value and uniqueness

because we

constantly compare our gifts

our talents and our abilities and

ourselves

to others and then we make the dangerous

conclusion that says

there’s nothing special about me

we say things like well i can sing but i

can’t sing better than her

we say i can draw but i can’t draw like

him

we look at speakers and say well i can

speak but i’m not that good

we look at administrators and say i’m

organized but i’m not that organized

and we make a dangerous conclusion that

just because we aren’t the best at

something

that means we’re not special

listen to me just because you’re not the

best at what you do

doesn’t mean that you’re not special

just because you’ve got some

issues doesn’t mean that your life is

meaningless

let me tell you something you may not be

the best coach

you may not be the best mother you may

not be the best friend

you might not even be the best spouse or

lover

but you matter i love what dr

seuss says he says to the world

you may just be someone but to someone

you may be the world and you do not

know what you’re fully capable of until

you are convinced

that you have purpose one of my favorite

quotes

is that our greatest fear is not that we

are inadequate but the

that we are powerful beyond measure

marielle williamson if you

stopped comparing yourself to other

people

who are smarter prettier more talented

than you are

and instead you just enjoyed who you are

you will never be convinced that you

have purpose until you

learn to love yourself

listen i used to hate that i was this

big guy

that had this huge gap in my teeth but

now i love

that my gap gives me a unique smile i

used to hate that i was some big black

tough guy

with this high pitched laugh but now i

enjoy hearing myself chuckle

i used to hate that i didn’t fit in with

anybody and i didn’t get invited to the

clubs and the parties and all that stuff

but now i’m glad that i stand out i’m

one of a kind i’m special

and so are you newton’s third law says

that for every action there’s an equal

and opposite reaction it sounds cliche

but

that means for every positive there’s a

negative

and if you don’t believe newton take it

from tupac

he said for every dark night there’s a

brighter day

it’s about perspective my friend

and listen

i know firsthand

how dangerous depression is

i battled it head-on after i lost my

dream of playing in the nfl

due to an unexpected back injury that

caused me to have emergency

back surgery and on top of that i had a

girl

who i dated for four and a half years

and was planning to marry

that left me and got engaged to another

man

and i didn’t think my life mattered i

didn’t think i had purpose

and i saw counselors i prayed

i meditated and nothing helped i took

medication and honestly it made it worse

so i tried numbing my pain with drugs

shoving pills down my throat but i

couldn’t get

high enough to drown out my pain

as soon as that high were off there is

that

depression again and then as a former

division one athlete who had all this

attention

i know what it’s like to be surrounded

by people

and yet still feel so alone i mean i

know what it’s like to have people say

that

you matter and that they care but it

feels like they don’t or

they’re just saying that because it’s

the polite thing to say

the real problem is that i didn’t

believe that i had purpose beyond sports

so one day i sat in my car

i got high i drank a whole fifth of

alcohol

and i said goodbye to everybody

in my suicide letter

i was convinced i didn’t have purpose

i was convinced that the pain of dying

was better than the pain

of living another day

and i know what it’s like to face that

depression

to feel so alone and insignificant and i

can’t say it any other way it just

sucks but i’m telling you

that my life radically changed

when i survived my suicide attempts

and was convinced that i had purpose

and i believe understanding your purpose

will help you like it helped me i mean i

am literally

living the life that i tried to end

so take it from someone who’s been there

that there’s life beyond your depression

and there’s hope

so my challenge to you in this moment

is one thing to believe

believe in yourself believe that you

have

purpose i mean what if

for the next 30 days instead of focusing

on your weaknesses

you chose to focus on your strengths

what if instead of being depressed about

who you are not

and where you are not you started

celebrating

who you are and how far you’ve come

you know i shared this speech with some

recovering addicts and

one of them said hey bro i love your

speech and all of that and it’s

inspiring but i’m not just gonna do

something just because you tell me to do

it he said that’s all good and stuff for

you man

i get it i can’t make anyone

do anything

but let me ask you this aren’t you

tired of living the same life

aren’t you tired of going into a new

year

with the same you i mean think about it

you’ve been depressed your entire life

isn’t it time to try something different

i mean you’re already depressed what do

you got to lose

i dare you to give yourself 30 days

start as soon as this talk ends take 30

days

and choose to be fully convinced that

you have purpose

and your life matters and if you’re

spiritual i dare you

instead of fasting food how about you

try fasting doubt

fear and negative thoughts

i believe that if you do this your life

will change

you’ll find better ways to cope with

your depression

and i honestly think you can start

helping others too

so i’ve shared my story i’ve been

vulnerable with

you i’ve given you

tips i’ve done my best

to send you my hope

the rest is up to you

you