Purpose and Identity to Confront 'New Year Pressures'
I took this photo in the final days of 2023 from a creek in Lake Tahoe. It's a great spot of peace for me during my frequent travels up this way.

Purpose and Identity to Confront 'New Year Pressures'

I’m not sure which date holds a more monumental shift in thinking — that “another-year-has-gone-by and what am I doing" feeling — the New Year or my birthday in the spring.

At 40 this year and now entering 2024, both seem to evoke a stronger sense of self identity.

I spent my 20s trying to prove myself. I spent my 30s again trying to prove myself, but I started to understand this world — be it professionally, personally or within the grand scheme of life — is not about me in isolation. My purpose and my passion is with people and being a servant. Trying to guess God’s will in my life and some grand plan never seems to work. What has always worked is putting a single step in front of the other with the aim to serve and help others. Easy things. Small moments. That’s when I feel in alignment with purpose in my life.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am still plenty selfish, motivated by money and proving my worth to others in those ways that we all do. But each year has shown me what fool’s gold that chase returns. It’s hard not to start feeling those cramps of depression and anxiety on New Year’s Day, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s true for many of us as we scroll social media with all these types of similar reflections or proclamations.

Today I am going to try to get outside of myself, and focus on each day with gratitude that I get to be a servant to others and our greater community.

There’s a great line I once read: “We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”

This is our opportunity to live out each day with small goals to serve in the smallest of ways. Moving the focus off me and onto that, funny enough, continues to be the greatest way to understand my identity within the greater calling of life.

Question for this community: What are the small ways in which you have or would like to serve others?

Colin Triplett

We empower adults 50+ to take control of their fitness and live the life they envisioned

10 个月

Love it! The line that resonated most with me was: "Trying to guess God’s will in my life and some grand plan never seems to work. What has always worked is putting a single step in front of the other with the aim to serve and help others." It's hard not to try and look for the big plan...but I've been feeling the same way. Just honoring the moment that is in front of me, serving as best I can, and letting things unfold as they are meant to without me trying to control it or fully understand it.

回复
Armando Botello

Spanish Language broadcaster with 50 years of work experience in TV, Radio, print and media relations.

10 个月

Jimmy, I want to let you know how much I enjoy your articles and how grateful I am to have known you all these years. Keep up the wonderful work.

回复
Paul Petrone

Marketing @ LinkedIn

10 个月

I'm also going to turn 40 this year and also have made the mistake of "trying to guess God’s will in my life." The grand plan truly only makes sense in retrospect. I agree, it's small steps. I want my life to move slower, not faster. I want to stop focusing on what everything means for me and where it's headed, and start enjoying each moment. And joy has become the "north star metric."

回复
T.K. Gore

Partnerships x Media x Tech I Head of Sports Business Development @ Kiswe I Media Advisor I Investor I Mentor + Teacher I #SportsBiz #SportsTech I Be Kind, Help Others, #PayItForward I 4x Marathoner

10 个月

Big fan of you and your inspirational to motivational posts Jimmy! This is exactly why I love the LinkedIn platform. There is real community here in and around the networking to job hunting to plugging current work projects, etc. To answer your question: I am here to serve + simply help others. I believe in "paying it forward." I try to offer genuine help to connect people to others so each can mutually benefit from knowing each other. It's not always about job hunting, but brokering warm intros does help with career development. I especially try to help those who post news that they recently are out of a job because of a reorg or other reasons. I try to instill confidence in those folks because losing one's job does not define one whatsoever. And those folks need positive vibes to confidence building in their lives. You keep being you! Thank you, dude. ?? I look forward to meeting you in real life this year. #PayItForward #BeKind #HelpOthers #MakeADifference

回复
Donald T. Robinson II

Web Developer/Designer, Multimedia Developer, Tech Instructor

10 个月

Keep pushing, keep doing what you're doing, Jimmy Spencer Happy New Year ?? ?? 2?? 0?? 2?? 4??

回复

要查看或添加评论,请登录

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了