The past week has been eye opening to say the least and an opportunity for serious self reflection. I have the spent the past several days soul searching, heart evaluating and refocusing on my purpose and perspective. So, as I re-enter this blogging space, I thought it would be a perfect time to define Joyful with Purpose and explain what it is all about. Simply put, Joyful with Purpose is about creating meaningful lives with daily intention.
I’m going to begin by quoting from my About Page:
I believe that living joyful serves a purpose, not just for our own lives but those around us as well. Joyful living involves our families, our friends, our communities, even our future generations. Merriam-webster defines joyful as experiencing, causing or showing joy. Let’s be honest. Life can make it tricky to live out of that place of joy, right? It’s messy, unpredictable and sometimes completely disappointing. And at the exact same time it is awe-inspiring, beautiful and joyful.
Living out a joyful life means that at times in this journey I will be happy and delightful “experiencing and showing joy”. Other times that “feeling of well-being or contentment” summed up as happiness will be a distant memory. These are the moments that we must tap into that reserve of joy deep beyond the surface to propel us through the hard times. And even beyond that, there are days that are possibly the most important of all and living a joyful life will simply be about “causing joy” in others.
Joyful with Purpose is about choosing to be intentional with each day, to find the joy in the every day moments and as a result live a life that we are excited to live. I truly believe that living a joyful life with meaning and purpose is possible every single day.
It won’t always come easy and it won’t always look the same but with a little grit and daily intention I know we can experience the life we internally know is possible.
I also mentioned this in my post, How to Live an Intentional Life but I want my life to be lived on purpose. I don’t want to just float through it. Instead, I want to direct it. You too? Living joyfully may at times come naturally but in order to comprehensively live Joyful with Purpose, we must be intentional about it. I think it would be safe to say that most of us truly want our lives to be about more than the betterment of ourselves and our own desires. The nice house, the shiny car, the perfect family pictures, the coveted career. Whether we realize it or not we are striving to make our lives impactful over impressive, meaningful over beautiful and joyful over happy.
To satisfy my love and need (yes NEED) for lists, I’m simply going to share some of my ideas about what it means to live a life Joyful with Purpose and essentially my hopes for this community.
To do list for living a life Joyful with Purpose:
- Practicing and developing a posture of gratitude
- Choosing vulnerability over comfortable
- Looking for reasons to be empathetic rather than reasons to be right
- Choosing to understand rather than be understood
- Creating Passion and Purpose instead of looking for it (Check out this book to understand what I mean)
- Making decisions out of pre-determined intention rather than impulsively out of fear
- Being present minded – All we have is now, right?
- Personal Growth
- Living with a community mindset over the individualistic mindset
- Understanding and learning joy versus happiness
- Striving for optimal health (physical, spiritual, mental, emotional)
- Choosing to be inclusive
- Practicing Self Care
- Setting goals…reaching them…setting more
- No regrets just lessons
- Simplicity over unnecessary busyness
- Laugh…Smile…Enjoy…Savor – Let yourself.
I’m confident there is more to add to this list and I’m more confident that living a life joyful with purpose is worth it. It is worth any moments of uncomfortable self-discovery, difficult growth, intimidating vulnerability or fear of the unknown, all of which will likely be required on the journey.
I’ve not always been open to this journey but I’m determined to be now. What about you? What is the first step you can take? Take inventory of your life, emotions, routines, habits, dreams, fears, insecurities and ambition. I challenge you to stretch and strive with me to create a meaningful life with daily intention.
Much much love to you ALL!!
Jess
Emily says
I am grateful for you putting into words many of the feelings of Joy I have felt. I have done some and not some. Now I will concentrate on those I need to do to continue a life of Joy! I thank God for giving us the capacity of sharing our Joy with others!
Jessica Winkler says
Me too! I haven’t always been intentional about creating a life of Joy but I’m thankful to be on that journey now!