Hashtags to Riches - Page 10 of 10 - Thoughts on Life, Spirituality, Business, and Marketing

September 22, 2012

Discovering Your Purpose

Tyler Brooks Uncategorized belief, Christianity, faith, purpose, reflections, rick warren 2 Comments

Perhaps the most dangerous thought that haunts young adults today is the fear of not discovering their purpose. In youth groups and small groups around the country, we constantly ask the question, “What is your purpose?”

And this seems on the surface to be a valid question. I mean no disrespect to Mr. Rick Warren (his book, The Purpose Driven Life, has sold I-have-no-idea-how-many-million copies), but I think discovering our purpose can sometimes be over-rated in our society. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I have not yet been able to get my hands on a copy of the book. Perhaps that may change my point of view.)

But before you tell me I’m wrong, just hear me out. First, I think we all exist for a purpose. I believe that we were created to live and do certain things. I believe in a God who acts with purpose. I believe that we can choose whether to live within our life purpose, or we can live outside of it. But I don’t think purpose should be such a big mystery. I think it really can be summed up quite simply: love God and love others.

Christ tells us these two commandments are really the most important. So if these are the most important, then our purpose should be to live out these commandments 100% of the time. We will fail, but we must try. To do anything else would be living outside our purpose.

So why do I think purpose is overrated? Well first, I’m not talking about the kind of purpose I just talked about above. I’m not talking about loving God and people. If anything, that is underrated. What I’m talking about are the vocational and task focused purposes. I’m talking about those of us (yes, I’m including myself) that fret and stress over where we should work, what non-profit we should donate to, or whether we’ve bought enough pairs of TOMS shoes to equip a small village with footwear.

You see, I don’t believe we discover our purpose like we discover a treasure. When you treasure hunt, you have a map with some vague directions, then you search until you find what you are looking for. But when you discover treasure, you don’t know where it is at one moment, and the next moment you discover it. It is only takes a moment. The whole time you were getting closer and gaining step by step toward the prize, but it’s the point where you actually discover the treasure that is the most important part of the adventure.

I don’t think this is how we should view the process of discovering our purpose. I think it’s more about the journey, not about the pot of gold. It doesn’t occur to you suddenly, but it’s more a moment-by-moment adventure.

On a practical level, this means we don’t stress about discovering our purpose. We simply choose to live. Not just exist, but live. It’s this process of living that brings us into contact with our purpose. I think we often find our purpose when we give up looking for it and instead start living toward it.

September 19, 2012

Failure to Create

Tyler Brooks Uncategorized 0 Comments

Perhaps one of the saddest things I see in my generation is a failure to create things. We don’t build things by ourselves anymore, we leave it up to companies. I don’t mean just physical things. I just mean using creativity to bring something to life. It is easier now than ever before to create digital content. Even your cell phone has a video camera! Yet so many people I know just choose to be spectators in life. They work for someone else, then they come home and watch or read things that other people created. This isn’t necessarily bad. It only becomes a problem when they choose to replace their own creativity with simple observation. There is a place for observation, but there is just as much a place for creativity.

There is almost nothing like losing yourself in the creative process. I love the moment when I’m so focused on what I’m doing the rest of life falls away just for a few minutes. The moment when I’m so involved in a project that I forget where I am.

Create something today. Put together a craft, sew a garment, write a song. I really don’t care what you do, but just create.

September 5, 2012

The First Scratch

Tyler Brooks Uncategorized 0 Comments

It’s a brand new blog. It’s kinda like that feeling you get when you drive a new car off the lot. It’s perfect until you get that first scratch on it. Then each succeeding scratch becomes slightly less nerve-wracking. Blogs are kinda like that. The first post always makes me the most nervous. In fact sometimes I want to do a fake post before I do the real post just so nobody will think the real post is the first post. Confused yet?

The first scratch is always the worst, but it’s that collection of scratches that makes for fun stories to tell. Contrary to the television commercials, it’s not the brand new car you fall in love with. It’s the car that you took to Florida on vacation, or the one that drove you away on your wedding day. That’s the car you love like a family member.

Right now this blog is like a new car. Maybe this is the first scratch. I hope not, but if it is, at least we got it out of the way early. I have another blog that some of you may have read, but it is slightly more focused on a particular topic. This will just be a general purpose blog. It’ll be that place where I share ideas, try to organize my thoughts, or otherwise make heads and tails of my life. It’s the place where I’ll share, complain, brag, discuss, and pray. It’s where I’ll occasionally discuss the intersection of my story with the much bigger story God is unfolding in the world. It won’t have a particular theme or topic. Some days I’ll talk politics, business, church, family, philosophy, ministry, purpose, or…..well you get the idea. So if you’re looking for a highly focused, professional blog, you won’t find it here. There are lots of blogs out there that cover those topics. They even have cool ads and the writers get paid when you visit their site. So go check them out. But here it’s just me. If you don’t really care, that’s fine, I certainly have no authority to make you read it. It’s gonna be a journey. I don’t know the ending, but from here you’ll be able to join me for part of the adventure.

Let’s talk again soon.

Tyler