Driven By Purpose

Photo by Madhu Shesharam on Unsplash

Some years ago, I was hiking Dark Canyon in Southern Utah with a group of students. 

It was the final evening of a grueling weeklong backpacking trek in remote desert wilderness and my feet were in agony from wearing poorly fitted boots.

We set up our camp and cooked our final dinner and looked forward to resting before our morning hike out of the canyon.

Suddenly our guide came to the group and announced that he had received warning of an impending flash flood that was headed our way.

We had only minutes to break camp and begin a hurried ascent up the steep trail as the sun was setting.

I pulled on my too-narrow boots and packed my things and began the excruciating hike out of the canyon.

It was only after safely reaching the canyon rim, in the dark, that our guide informed us that the flash flood warning was a simulation.

One lesson that came through loud and clear from that simulation was how purpose can help us push through the pain to do what has to be done.

Each of us experiences times when the difficulty and pain of what we’re going through seems like more than we can handle.

When we are driven by purpose, it’s far easier to find the grit to push through the pain and to ignore the lesser distractions.

Finding that sense of purpose starts with identifying the things that matter most to us.