Tag: Mission

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What’s Your “Why”? 

What gets you up in the morning? What motivates you through your day? When things get tough (and they often do), what keeps you going? 

Although I’m sure he was not the first to explore the topic, Simon Sinek made our “Why” popular in 2009 with his book, Start with Why.

Since then, he’s created an entire body of work related to the subject. He makes the following distinction:

  • “What” – the jobs (tasks) we perform
  • “How” – the things that make us different or standout 
  • “Why” – our purpose, cause, or belief

Although the “what” and the “how” are important, our “why” drives everything. For individuals and organizations, it’s the “why” that matters. It gets us up in the morning. It’s how people persevere. “Why” is what excites people. It’s the reason people are willing to engage, including buying goods and services.  

What is your “why”. To follow Simon’s process, it’s based on past experiences in your life that create themes, that you then narrow down to the foundational elements of your “why”. Last week, we talked about your lifeline. Reference that for this. You’ll see certain occurrences as brighter, bigger, and more important. In reflecting you’ll think, “that’s me…that’s who I am”. 

You’re “why” statement is relevant in your personal and professional lives. As per Simon, it is to be:

  • Simple and clear
  • Actionable
  • Focused on the effect you have on others
  • Expressed in affirmative language that resonates with you

The format is: To ________________________ so that ________________________. 

In reading my blogs, you know my story. When I understood and internalized the penetrating and unconditional love of Jesus Christ, it rocked my world. It changed my life forever. It gave me my “why”, which I’d state as follows: 

 

Mark’s “Why” – To share the gifts of God’s love and the lessons He’s taught me with as many people as possible, so that they can live lives of true peace, joy, and fulfillment. 

 

You’ve seen me write about it previously. God made each of us for greatness, giving us special gifts and talents, in His image and likeness, putting us on this earth for a specific purpose, each of us individually. That purpose (or cause or belief, as per Simon) is our “why”. What’s yours’? Figure that out and you’ll be on your way to peace, joy, and fulfillment, which is what God wants for all of us. 

Simon Sinek did a TED Talk that speaks to our “why”. It is the 3rd most listened to in history. You can watch it here.

As always, please contact me at [email protected] with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests. 

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God Made You for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

 

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Weekly Blog

You are Where You Are…Now What?

 

The age-old question is “how an all-loving God allows evil in this world”, including the tragedy that all of us experience at some point in our lives. An inferred aspect of that question is “why do these things happen to me, good or bad, and what am I to make of them?”

As you know, I work at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where there and previously, I’ve had the opportunity to lead teams through strategic planning processes. Over the years, I’ve always begun the process with having all the team members present their lifelines, so as to get to know each other more personally. Simply stated, one’s lifeline is the identification and description of critical or pivotal events in one’s life. Having prepared, in 10 minutes, each person describes their most impactful experiences, starting from their youth. For many, this will often include aspects of their faith journeys.

I’ve also incorporated the idea of our “Why” into this process, both individually and for the organization. We’ll talk more about this, as introduced by Simon Sinek in his 2009 book, Start with Why, in next week’s blog.

Related to our “why”, which is our purpose, cause, or belief, according to Simon, it is important to understand our lifeline…all those things that have occurred in our lives. Why did they take place? What lessons are we to learn? What are we to do going forward?

Here’s the reality…every single, individual thing (occurrence) in your life is CRITICAL to who you are today. My wife and I often joke that it would be so nice to eliminate this tragedy or that wound. That’s not the way it works…thank God. You wouldn’t be who you are today without experiencing every single thing…the good, the great, the wonderful, as well as the bad, the terrible, and the ugly. Part of my prayer of gratitude every morning is the line above, in addition to the line below.

We are were we are because it’s where we’re supposed to be. We are who we are because it’s who God is making us to be. Every single occurrence, again…good or bad, goes into who we are.  We all have God-given gifts, talents, and passions. How we use those and maximize our God given purpose are a result of our experiences. God gives us the opportunity to make a ministry out of our mistakes, our messes.

So, given the above, pray through your lifeline. Write it down, maybe in a prayer journal…start one if you don’t have one. Share your lifeline with someone else. Remember it for next week, as we do a deeper dive into our “why”. And take to prayer what God is calling you to do.

As always, please contact me at [email protected] with questions, comments, concerns, challenges, or prayer requests.

God Bless you on your Path to Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Remember…God Made You for Greatness!!!

Mark Joseph

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Weekly Blog

Joy in the Midst of Overwhelming Challenges

Have you ever encountered people who are dealing with things that appear to be incredibly challenging and instead of being overwhelmed, they are joyful? It might be a disaster that they’re facing or the everyday drudgery of life. Regardless they always have smiles on their faces and in their hearts. You look at them and think to yourself, “I want some of that”.

I’ve certainly seen people like this in the U.S., but not nearly to the degree that I did during a recent experience I had in Haiti. I had the privilege of being on a mission trip with Life Teen, the largest Catholic youth ministry organization in the world. For a week, 16 of us from the U.S. lived on Life Teen’s Mission Base, in the Diocese of Anse-a- Veau et Miragoane.

Culture Shock

Having never gone camping in my life, the living conditions were tougher than anything that I had ever endured. Ten men slept in one room, with a concrete floor, and the occasional critter visiting. We slept with nets over us to protect us from mosquitos. We walked to another building to use the restroom, which was more like an outhouse. With no hot water, showers were very cold and very quick. We had electricity from 5-10PM daily, only because the base was fortunate enough to have a generator.

Here’s the thing, compared to how most Haitians live, we/I had nothing to complain about. Typical houses are incredibly small, maybe 2-3 rooms, with no plumbing (so no water supply, no showers, no toilets), no electricity, and no gas.

In Haiti, there is a total lack of infrastructure, the most glaring example of which is that there is no garbage collection. Something we take for granted in the U.S., no one picks up the trash and there’s nowhere to dispose of it, so it’s just everywhere. And I mean everywhere.

Then given that there’s no electricity or gas, everything is cooked using open flame, the fuel of which is Haitian made charcoal. That charcoal creates a smell in the country that you encounter immediately upon exiting the airport and doesn’t depart from you until you leave the country. The odor was so strong that it overpowered any smell of garbage.

The poverty is so dramatic that it is overwhelming. I was literally in shock the first three days I was in Haiti, pondering how we possibly allow our fellow man to live like this. I saw things that I had never seen before, things that I just can’t erase from my eyes.

Simple but Joyfull

So with all that as a backdrop, I’ve never encountered more joy filled people in my life. Everyone, and I mean everyone, had big smiles on their faces and were super, super friendly. In addition, you ought to see how the Haitians worship our Lord.

As most of us have experienced, Churches in the U.S. are rather lethargic, with very few singing. In contrast, not only do the Haitians sing at the top of their lungs, but also dance to worship music. They are both exuberant and very reverent. It is incredible to experience.

In the midst of the extreme, awful poverty that they live in, why do you think the above is the way it is? My guess is twofold:

  • The Haitians don’t have near the distractions that we do. Life is simple and to many of them life is good, even in the midst of what they face daily.
  • The Haitians know the love of the Lord, the peace of Christ, in a way that many of us in the U.S. don’t. As such, they know what’s really important. They have peace and they have joy.

We live in a culture in the U.S. that loves things and uses people. I think we could learn a lesson from the Haitians in that we are called to use things and love people. Maybe then we could experience their joy.

My God Bless you on your journey of Peace, Joy, and Fulfillment!!!

Mark Joseph

 

What do you think? Please share your comments with me at
[email protected].

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