I’m full of differing messages this morning and that’s always a ‘dangerous’ place for me to be!  ‘Dangerous’ because I tend to ramble from one message to the next and leave members and visitors confused and most likely somewhat “dazed”.

I’ve been thinking about our lengthy conversations around passion, purpose and the place we hope to land - position.  We’ve covered a lot of ground with passion and purpose and today I want to make some meaningful connections (at least I hope they’re meaningful)!

First let me say that our community of women covers a broad age span - from 40ish to late 60’s or more!  The needs, desires, interests and dreams of women in their 40’s may be very different than those of us who are ‘pre-boom’!  It’s difficult to cover such a broad age range with relevance for our ‘now’ needs.

But discovery of passion(s) that lead to purpose is relevant for all of us - regardless of our chronological age!

There are, from my perspective, a number of pieces that are relevant for us all - at any age. 

First, our passions change over time.  But what motivates us remains the same.  The direction our passions take us will always connect in some way with what is our primary motivator. 

Passions change because times change!  An example: when I was a much younger mom, I had little or no passion for the safety of children.  Because it was rare, or at least I thought it rare, that our children were in precarious situations.  But now, it’s different.  And I’m passionate about keeping our children safe - whether it’s in their own homes or in society in general!  But that passion is not my ultimate destiny or purpose.  I can support organizations that do a much better job than I at raising awareness of the need to protect our children and answer the call of that particular passion for me.

And I believe purpose changes over time as well.  Some may not agree, but I believe that our purpose may be different with the changing seasons of our lives! 

If we are women of faith in the Christian tradition, our ultimate purpose is to share the Good News!  Share it in a way that others are attracted to what it is we have that they want or need!  From my perspective, that’s a universal ‘call’ on each of our lives.

But how we do that will differ from woman to woman!  And it will come out of our particular passion or passions we have at any given season of our lives.  

I also am convinced that when we discover our destiny-design, where we ‘land’ (position) will fulfill an overriding passion and meet our purpose ‘head on’!

And in that ‘place’, we will be provided opportunities to accomplish the ultimate purpose for which we are here!

I believe that some of us come to the ‘place’ vicariously - without knowing or understanding how we got here.  But now that we’re here, we feel fulfilled.  There is a sense of peace, joy, contentment - a feeling that we’ve ’succeeded’!

First, I think we must define “success” for ourselves.  What spells ’success’ for me won’t be the same as yours and yours won’t be the same as another.

Now we’ve added another ‘layer’ to our learning.  If it were put on a graph - it might look something like this:  (a) what motivates me is an innate desire to discover the truth (meaning, ultimate design, etc.) in whatever comes my way; (b) over the years that primary motivation has led me to work with others to help them achieve a new level of greatness that they didn’t know they had; (c) in the 2nd half of the journey, the passion for being a resource and catalyst for other’s growth and development turned to ‘women’; (d) I discovered that I had an equally strong skill-set to match the passion, the purpose and the ‘place’ where the purpose can be lived out in a way meaningful for me; (e) as the journey of discovery and learning progressed, I discovered that one position is in the virtual world (I say “one” because position need not be time and space limited as once it was); and (f) another piece of discovery and learning is that “success” for me is not only measured in financial terms, but in finding ‘my place‘ in the grand scheme of things.

But lest anyone think I’m ‘done’, I know that I’m not and that the passion(s), purpose(s), position(s), place(s) and successes will continue to evolve.  And it will do so because it’s a process through which we all must go if we are to get to our destiny-design.

I’ve used me as an example because that’s obviously easiest for me to do.  However, when you enter upon the discovery process, you will see similarities between my example and your own.  You can look at the layers of discovery and learning that I’ve evolved from and into and use them as the ‘underlay’ for your own.

In closing this conversation, I want to encourage each of you to ’scratch the inner itch’ if that’s where you’ve come in the 2nd half of the journey!  Remembering that chronological age is not an issue - never was and is not now!  Let me point to an analogy that just came to me. 

We all love those little ’scratch-off’ cards we get about this time of the year from McD’s or similar businesses!  What fun to take a coin and slowly scratch off the covering to reveal what we hope is a winning number or combination. 

The process for us as we continue the journey is much like that.  It’s ’scratching off’ the ‘covering’ to reveal the next layer of life with its combinations, directions or veiled revelations. 

I used to throw those little cards away without taking time to ’scratch off’ in order to see what lie beneath.  I no longer do that - just in case there’s a winning combination hidden in secret ‘just below the surface’.

If the ‘itch’ is there, do a little ’scratching’ today and see what’s just under the surface that is the next ‘clue’ to your path through the 2nd half of the journey!

Have an AWESOME AWP day with much love and many blessings!

  Linda