We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the next ten blog posts. I invite you now to reflect on the ninth aspect in the model of purposeful living– inspiring (the dark blue colour circle in the model). While this is the ninth and final circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine circles, it’s not necessarily chronological. There could be also other circles that are yet to be discovered. Once we gather momentum in living purposefully, we start inspiring others to live purposefully as well.

This blog-post deals with our responsibility to inspire others to live a purposeful life. We can inspire others by design or by accident. On one hand, others can get inspired when they see the improvement of our quality of life as we attempt to live a purposeful life.  Living a purposeful life includes; living with a set of positive values, engaging in spiritual activities, looking after our health, building quality relationships, building financial stability, developing intellect and allocating time for purposeful activities. On the other hand, we could use our roles in life to inspire others. These roles include being a parent, sibling, relative, teacher, leader, colleague, author, speaker, and social figure such as a sportsman, entertainer, business leader, religious leader and social leader etc.

After I had discovered the notion of ‘purpose’ and formulated the first version of my purpose, I choose the profession of a catalyst (a combination of consultant, trainer, coach, author) to help organisations and people transform to enable them to live to their real potential. The core of this work involves helping others to understand the notion of purpose, discover their purpose and live a purposeful life. I was inspired to choose this purpose and change the course of my life by Omar Khan during the Mastery of Self Playshop  conducted for senior leaders of John Keells Holdings. I was inspired when Omar showed simple methods such as using positive posture, words and questions, improving performance by making mental depictions of success, articulating a purpose statement, taking baby steps to improve spiritual, mental, emotional and physical aspects of life, erasing bad memories, giving up bad habits etc. His style of speaking and methods of teaching were very interesting and engaging. All this resulted in my getting inspired to live a purposeful life.

Based on the feedback I receive from those who go through my learning experiences, specially those whom I meet many years after such learning experiences, I believe I have been able to inspire many people to live a purposeful life as well. I don’t want to take credit for this as I believe I am responding to a calling, using God-given talent. I believe my purpose is to sow the seed of purposeful living in the minds and hearts of those I meet during the journey of my life. The credit for any success goes to those who choose to help the seeds of purpose grow within themselves and improve the quality of life.

In addition to teaching others, living purposefully has also inspired others. When others see my family and myself happier because of our regular meditation, yoga, & exercise practices, reading habits, food habit, embarking on higher education, attempting to practice what we teach, improving our relationships and improving our financial status also inspires others to use us as role models or mentors. When some people inquire about how I maintain such quality of life, I tell my story and suggest they start working on discovering their purpose and living a purposeful life as well. Those who get inspired and take it to the next step, attempting to live as per some of the recommendations, go on to learn more of these concepts by attending my workshops, reading my books or visiting my blog. Many participants of my learning processes, who practice purposeful living, inspire their teams and their families to live a purposeful living.

I believe that each living being, human and other than human, has a purpose to fulfil and it is our responsibility, not only to attempt to live a purposeful life, but also to inspire others to do the same.

In case you have not established your purpose statement, I suggest you visit the 14th blog postin this series that suggests a process to articulate your purpose statement. Keep building yourself and be fit for purpose so that you can say ‘yes’ to opportunities presented to you to live a purposeful life and to inspire others to do the same.

While this concludes the content related aspects of this series, I will reflect on the various practical realities of purposeful living in the blog posts to follow.

Meanwhile I wish you purposeful living!