Making things happen -  with integrity. encouraging a new generation of business, academic and social leaders A weekly CyberMemo designed to keep you on task. Monday July 21, 2003 Volume V Number 34

FOCUS - Ambient Noise

Is it just us… aging, or just plain over-heated?  These are the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.  Yawns and the burning desire for a good long nap seem to hit the top of the list of things we want to do on a warm afternoon.  Is it just us - or you, too?

Coast to coast – hot.  So says the weatherman.  Some relief along the shoreline. Or maybe in the mountains above a mile high.  But mostly hot.  And muggy.

Not that the calendar is any less crowded.  Or that the demands lighten up.  Or that the weeds don’t need chopping.  The flowers bloom in full color, but wilt in the steamy summer melt.  The grass dries up in spite of regular irrigation.  And in our part of the country, the decomposing granite turns to concrete, resisting even the most exuberant swing of a pick-ax.

Barney’s just about full grown now, and revels in our early morning walks.  Chasing a rabbit over here, sniffing a trail over there, and when we hit that familiar ravine on the back side of the ridge.  And after a sweaty steep climb, he heads down the road, running, straight for the mud-hole - and plops down in the coolness of the slime.  He sits there until we pass, then up and out and runs to catch up.  His shiny golden-red coat now matted with a fresh glaze of wet adobe, he’s been in puppy heaven.  He trots back on the trail, dripping, and grinning as the Best-In-Show, on parade, winning the Grand Prize.  “Down Barney, Down!” we shout as he celebrates all over us.

The news this week once again was dominated by scandal.  It’s as though summer-time requires a mandatory soap opera for its headlines.  We got one.  The world stops as a champion athlete calls a press conference for a heartfelt confession and a corresponding declaration of innocence and the pundits speculate over the destiny of endorsements and the oh-so-critical public reaction and give lip service to a presumption of innocence as though the real jury will be composed of twelve unbiased peers.  We all know that in high profile cases like this one, the real jury will make their judgment in the opinion polls and in the marketing board room where contracts are signed.  America will stay tuned, hungry for every tidbit of new information.

But real life goes on.   

* * * * * * *

Maybe it’s time to think about purpose.  Looks like the rest of the nation is doing just that… Rick Warren’s book – The Purpose Driven Life – is a national best seller.

Rick suggests that most of us want a purposeful life.  Some of us look for meaning in the wrong places.  It doesn’t take long to figure it out - many of those roads turn up as dead ends.  Others never make the connection.

Maybe you, like me, have been challenged to write a mission statement.  A vision statement.  We’re reminded that if we fail to aim at a target, we’ll likely miss it.  Without a clear vision of where we want to go, most of us will flounder.  We’ll be vulnerable to the latest fad, the current mood or the most recent “co-incidence” in setting the course of our life.

Many are driven.  But what is the fuel?  What are the hopes and dreams that energize activity?

The mission statement can be tough work.  It forces you to stop and analyze, and ask perhaps the toughest question you ever will ask – what do I really want from my life?  What about my “career?”  Where is it going?  Does it matter?

Motivational leaders are quick to remind us that many never get around to identifying the answers to these tough questions.  It’s easier to let it go, get through today, do what’s expected and then get on with some kind of escape or distraction.  We settle for the unexamined life.  It doesn’t really bother us that Socrates a couple millennia ago warned us that such a life is not worth living.

The hard work of the examined life we leave for some other time.

So other purposes kick in.  Like making money. Or winning the promotion. Or launching a career of upward mobility. Or accumulating status.  Or proving our superior skills, or outwitting the odds, or creating a network, or developing a résumé that establishes our pedigree, or sets the stage for corporate advancement.

Not that any of these are necessarily harmful.

But Warren peals back the layers, and points out that some of us are driven by more sinister, harmful instincts.

Some are driven by guilt.  We learn this one early on – we are shamed into good behavior.  We don’t want to feel bad, so we do the good.  We’ll only do it if we feel guilty enough.  And we teach others (like our children) to do likewise.  Some of us are driven by resentment and anger.   Our life is one long string of retaliations.  Others are driven by fear.  The fear of failure is more powerful than our desire to succeed – so we go to work and win the paycheck because we fear the consequences of not having one.  Materialism is a driving force for many Americans.  And so is the need for approval.

Most of these drives work – for the pragmatist.  They can get us through the work week or a job interview and they can assist us in landing a paycheck.

But they are not satisfying.  In many cases, they are harmful.

These faulty purposes that drive many of us contribute to everything from stress, to obsessive behaviors, to relational dysfunction, and general unhappiness.

* * * * * * 

So, Rick, what is the alternative?  Is there a purpose that’s wholesome and healthy and wise?

Yes, he answers.

That purpose begins where it should.  If you really think about purpose, you’ve got to ask this question: Was my birth a random accident of nature – or was I designed by a Master Designer?

If the latter, does that Master Designer know who I am?   Does he care?  What was his purpose?

Rick Warren challenges you and me to jettison the notion of the random accident theory, and embrace the purpose of our Creator – the Master Planner.

Makes a whole lot of sense to me... and a whole lot of other readers who have made Warren’s book a record-breaking best seller.

Real purpose that matters – well, it comes from an understanding of the Designer’s design.

* * * * * * *

It’s a warm Monday morning.  You are a leader.

Maybe motivation is hard to come by as the Dog Day Afternoons approach.  Maybe the purpose got lost somewhere in the steamy haze of long hot summer days.

Maybe the purpose that got hold of you way back when just isn’t sustaining you for the long term.  You’re weary of its demands.  Tired of its broken promise.  It’s a purpose alright.  But a faulty purpose.

Maybe you need to take a long nap – a quiet, easy snooze.  No guilt.  No background news as ambient noise.  No apologies.  Uninterrupted. Time to doze. And to think.

This week – we get on an airplane for a long journey.  We’ll be together in a faraway place with people we love to celebrate a wedding.  Two of our favorite young people will be joined together in an ancient, historic chapel, full of lovely tradition.  (I’ll tell you more about it next week.)  Something happens to a young man and a young woman when they make a promise in a public place with a crowd of eager people all dressed up and listening in.  They are focused.  Energized.  Giddy with delight.  Purpose driven.

They believe the truth that for some is too hard to believe.  Try to talk them out of it.  When the preacher says, “God in his rich mercy and abundant grace, before the beginning of time, knew and anticipated this sacred union by his own good design… and blessed it then as he does on this very day.”  Well, they believe it with a whole heart.   And so it should be.

We have something to learn from young couples at the altar.

On this Monday morning – ask this:  Is there a purpose I can embrace that is bigger than me?  One that will outlast me? One that will bring out the very best of who I am and what I do? One that’s in harmony with the Master Designer’s purpose?

Answer that, and you’ll have a new pair of eyes.  You’ll have a new heart.  You’ll have a new sense of direction.

A new purpose.

Posted in Valley Center, California

© Copyright Kenneth E. Kemp 2003

Special Thanks to my good friend David Belcher, owner of Rhino Media Group and creator of WisdomGram

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