Living Your Best Life! Living on Purpose!

Are you living your best life?

We’ve all seen the posts and hashtags. On most days, they’re cute. Some days we respond with little heart and smiley emojis. Other days we squint our eyes to try and focus and see what about the cute filtered Instagram post represents “living your best life”.

I had one of my nieces comment on one of my Facebook posts “Love you, tia, keep living your best life.” The post was an image of me truly looking happy, doing something I love with the people I love.

My 19 year old son posted the above picture of him and I on Instagram with the caption “Me and momma living life.”

Of course, the fact that my 19-year-old would post this pic of us on his social media with that caption made me a little misty eyed. #momgoals

But what was it? What is it? The “live your best life” movement seems to have started with a certain age group. So out of curiosity, I researched the hashtags about living your best life to see what images would come up and if there were any notable trends.

I found countless travel images. Images of people with groups of friends at parties, events, baby showers. Some images were more simple. A picture of someone with their favorite meal or a starbucks frappe. I found the group that used this hashtag the most was Gen Y’s, I’s, Millennials….I haven’t yet figured out what they want to be called. Perhaps they don’t want to be categorized or defined. However, no matter which category you fall under, I happen to be a Gen X, don’t we all want to live our best life? I think they’re onto something.

What does “living your best life” mean to you?

Going back to the picture my son posted and captioned, and the moments when it was captured, what was it?

My son Antonio had asked for a very expensive camera and professional photography kit during his senior year in high school. It started as a hobby and he later enrolled in a college photography course. We needed a photographer for a business conference I was hosting and after seeing some of the senior pictures he took for his classmates, I decided to give him the opportunity. This event was a two-day live training conference and I had always hired a professional photographer. I was really taking a risk hiring my rowdy 19-year-old whom we nicknamed “Wreck it Ralph”. An athlete and happy go lucky kid, I had no idea how he would interact at this conference.

When he showed up, he had Vans, jeans, and a t-shirt on. Oh boy, we’re off to a rough start here. In no time, he was capturing moments from crazy angles, taking people outside and in areas of the building where the light was good to take professional headshots. I was too busy facilitating the event to micro manage him or knit pick his clothing choices. I just had to let him go do his thing.

What I noticed throughout the event was the attendees conversing with him, embracing him, and complimenting me about what a great kid he was. What I saw after the event were some of the best shots of people who normally aren’t comfortable in front of the camera, including myself. Somehow, he managed to make people feel at ease, smile, and look their best. Their joy shined through and was the focal point of their pictures. He literally captured their sparkle. Perhaps he knew from his very limited experience that he needed to dress comfortably so he could move freely.

He had so much fun. He was treated with kindness and gratitude by much older business professionals, and one of them even paid him to take extra shots. He was on cloud nine. And he enjoyed the social events. He wasn’t in the corner on his cell phone wanting to be somewhere else with people his own age. He was in the middle of the dance floor having fun with the rest of us after a long two-day training session. And he was with me. Perhaps the responsibility I bestowed upon him gave him a true sense of purpose. His role was important and he owned it. He took extreme ownership of it and it showed in the images.

So yes, at the very moment he and I were captured in that sweet mother and son pose, we were truly living our best life. On purpose!

I believe we all want a sense of purpose and we all want to be living our best life. I also believe living our best life isn’t always Instagram worthy pics of us on exotic vacations or jumping out of airplanes. Sometimes living our best life is simply doing the right things, helping others, with the people we like to do these things with. And unless you are independently wealthy, those people are often your co-workers.

How can we as employers and team leaders create a culture and environment where there are Instagram worthy moments when your employees can post them using the hashtag #livingmybestlife #bestcoworkersever #ilovewhatigettodo?

Simple. Give your teams clarity. What is the vision, purpose, and core value system in your company? What do you do? Who do you do it for? Why do you do it? How do you do it?

Once these are all defined and understood by your team, celebrate the work. The moments that they hit the target or gave it 100% and came close to it. Daily reminders of the who, what, why and how we do things helps keep things on track. It helps people stay focused, and it allows you as a leader, to live YOUR best life.

Rewarding and celebrating your team wins instead of constant reprimanding, course correcting and recruiting replacements for team members who, perhaps didn’t understand the who, what, why and how is how you live your best life.

When we have the who, what, why and how defined, we are actually living life on PURPOSE. We are creating a purpose driven culture.

If you do not take the time to define these things and operate within them every day with your teams, your people will move on to live their best life someplace else.

There used to be an old classic country song called “Living on Love”. Maybe it’s time someone wrote a new song called “Living on Purpose.”

About the author

Claudia Lovato is a self-titled Professional Problem Solver who is obsessed with helping people create a purpose driven work culture.

As an experienced Educator, Speaker, Career Coach, Key Opinion Leader, and Entrepreneur, Claudia knows what it means to bring service and solutions together.

In her 20+ years of serving the dental community, she has developed operational, team development and patient education initiatives for both live and online environments. She also founded Morado Dental Academy and Morado Allied Speakers & Consultants with the goal of establishing an inclusive and growth-focused organization for seasoned speakers and consultants as well as transitioning professionals.

Her personality is that of a restless spirit who cannot settle for the status quo. It is that personality along with her spirit of service that make Claudia an engaging and inspiring speaker, trainer and consultant.

Claudia believes that all things are possible when done with a furious passion and the drive to put in the work