Purpose: A Journey of Self and Path Discovery

By Angah Cedric

Einstein once said, "If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask; for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes."

The problem with most of us is that we're in a hurry give the answer without even clearly understanding the question.

Life is like a powerful vehicle we are given. No matter how smooth we drive, how focused we are on the journey, how clean, designed or beautiful our vehicle is, all of this doesn't matter if we're heading towards a river. Focused driving in the wrong direction is a wasted focus.

Driving may be cool, but direction is crucial; enjoyment can give us a good time, but it is essence that gives us a good life, it's good to know "the how" but it's easier when you first identify "the why".

Fulfillment is an internal longing, self-esteem is a universal battle, productively is a fundamental personal and collective need, poor leadership is a global issue but what if I told you, there is one place where all this gets resolved, it's called the place of purpose.

This book is not just a self-help write-up that talks about Purpose and how you can improve your life with Purpose, this book is a profound foundational guide that not only describes but unveils fundamental realities. It uses fundamental and observable principles to unleash some profound fundamental realities of life.

There are three major things Purposefulness brings into our lives, I call them the three "tions" of Purpose

1) Direction: Orientation, Guidance & Focus; we begin to set priorities, we know our yes and no's.

2) Signification (meaning): Essence, Self identity (Self worth/Self confidence) & Value/Respect (for our lives and for others) ; we get an inherent sense of worth.

3) Motivation: Emotional connection, Productivity (seeking excellence) & Fulfillment; we strick our goals with passion (energy, endurance and excellence) because of that connection we have with our vision.

Purpose gives birth to vision, that picture of our ultimate pursuit. Vision then produces Passion, that internal energy or attachment towards our goal or vision. Passion brings forth three things energy, endurance and excellence.

The understanding and discovery of Purpose is therefore crucial for each and everyone.

 

This book doesn't only seek to provide a clear and direct understanding of Purpose but also to assist individuals in confidently identifying their life purpose and arm those on the path of purpose with life-changing insights including the three fundamental principles of achievement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Angah Cedric
• Release date: Apr 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224174393

Book preview

DEDICATION

To my savior and redeemer — Jesus Christ

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I’m profoundly grateful to all the persons or works that have been consulted, contributing directly or indirectly to the information and insights that shaped this piece of writing.

I am grateful to my family, my mom Mrs. UBUNGIJENG ESTELLA, my dad Mr. ANGAH DENIS, my brother ANGAH SANDY, my kid sister ANGAH DESQUEEN and my entire family for their support and patience during the period of writing.

I deeply appreciate all those who have stood by me in my journey, those who have always supported and encouraged me, my beloved brother NOEL SOUSEN, my dear friends DJOUFACK LEKE STEPHANE, KEMLOH DELMAS, GILLIAN ECHA, ATEFACK EMMANUEL, UMBETOH YUFENYUY, EMUTSCHEM CLAUDETTE, ELANGWE BASIL, CHE ROLAND, ONEKE AGBOR, BAH NICOLAS.

To those who have helped me identify and pursue purpose, my mentors and leaders, Mr. ANENG DONALD, Mr. ZUH HENRY, Mr. TICHA SAMUEL, Mrs. CARINE ZONISE, Mrs. TAH CHANTAL, Mr. TASIH EMMANUEL and many other persons I haven’t mentioned here.

A big thank you to beloved pastors and spiritual leaders who have been a great blessing, Rev. ENOW MICHAEL, Rev. MBAKWA JULIETTE, Rev. MASOK EMMANUEL, Rev. USO THERESA and Rev. NGOLE PETER EBOT

PREFACE

Do you know the problem you’re trying to solve?

Einstein once said, If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask; for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.

The problem with most of us is that we're in a hurry give the answer without even clearly understanding the question.

Life is like a powerful vehicle we are given. No matter how smooth we drive, how focused we are on the journey, how clean, designed or beautiful our vehicle is, all of this doesn't matter if we're heading towards a river. Focused driving in the wrong direction is a wasted focus.

Driving may be cool, but direction is crucial; enjoyment can give us a good time, but it is essence that gives us a good life, it's good to know the how but it's easier when you first identify the why.

Fulfillment is an internal longing, self-esteem is a universal battle, productively is a fundamental personal and collective need, poor leadership is a global issue but what if I told you, there is one place where all this gets resolved, it's called the place of purpose.

There are three major things Purposefulness brings to our lives. I call them the Es of purpose.

1) Edification /Election: We now know and set priorities, it guides/ directs.

2) Essence / Esteem: We find inherent worth.

3) Energy & Excellence: It harnesses an internal motivation due to that connection with our vision.

They can also be outlined as the three tions of Purpose:

1) Direction: Orientation, Guidance & Focus

2) Signification (meaning): Essence, identity (Self-worth/Self-confidence) & Value/Respect

3) Motivation: Emotional connection, Productivity & Fulfillment

Understanding Purpose gives birth to Vision, that picture of our ultimate pursuit. A clear Vision gives birth to Passion. Passion then produces energy, endurance and excellence.

Therefore, the importance of living a purpose driven life cannot be over emphasized.

This book is not just a self-help write-up that talks about Purpose and how you can improve your life with Purpose, this book is a profound foundational guide that not only describes but clearly unveils fundamental realities. It uses fundamental and observable principles to unleash some profound fundamental realities of life.

This book doesn't only seek to provide a clear and direct understanding of Purpose but also to assist individuals in confidently identifying their life purpose and to edify those walking in purpose with insightful directives for fulfilling their purpose including the three fundamental principles of achievement.

The missing puzzle piece in our society

Today's society has resources, talents, potentials and gifts but why aren’t we flourishing? There’s a missing piece; the problem with our society is not the absence of resources or abilities but the absence of the purpose driven mindset.

That mindset that pushes individuals to bring out the best in them; that mindset that pushes men to be builders and not just consumers, that mindset that pushes youths to be makers and not simply seekers, that mindset that pushes business men to be value givers and not just profit seekers, as the former commands the later, that mindset that creates impact making employees and not just boss pleasing employees. This only happens when there is a deeper sense of purpose.

Imagine a world where people do what they do with a purpose driven mindset. A world where people don't just know their how but understand their why. A world where people don't just work with their heads but their hearts, putting energy into and loving what they do because that's what they are born for, that's their contribution to the world, a society where people understand their talents and gifting’s are not just for them but meant to build others. Truly, this would be an awesome society to live in. Leaders will lead with the understanding that they were placed there purposefully for the people and not for themselves, employees will work for a better society and not just to please their superiors. Innovators and scientists will seek ways to use their Intelligent Quotient (IQ) to build and not to destroy. This will be more than wonderful. As Jim Rohn rightly said "when the Why is Powerful, the How is easy".

The Five main objectives

This book has five main objectives:

Firstly, it seeks to help people to know, understand and seek purposeful lives (Preface and Preliminary).

Secondly, it seeks to help people their purpose clearly understand their identity (Chapter 1).

Thirdly, it seeks to help people unveil their purpose clearly and confidently by understanding and exploring the Pointers to Purpose. In doing this, this book also helps people identify and understand their personality types and orientate them to suitable jobs for their personality types (Chapter 2).

Fourthly, it seeks give a clear understanding of purpose and its related concepts like vision, mission, occupation, vocation and ministry which are often confusing concepts that arise when talking about purpose. (Chapter 2).

Lastly, this book provides extra guidelines for fulfilling purpose by highlighting what it takes to fulfill purpose, challenges to fulfilling purpose and how to respond to them (including ignorance, procrastination, laziness, pleasure, disappointment and conformity), some inspiring success stories built from big failures and also highlighting the Kingdom concept, principle and guideline for Success. (Chapter 3).

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The problem with us is that we know the how but no one cares about the why. We got the vehicle and the driving skills but we don’t know where we’re are driving to. We got speed and strategy but we lack direction.

PRELIMINARY

(MUST READ)

According to oxford languages, Purpose is defined as the reason for which something exists. If there is a reason behind something then, there must be a will or mind behind that thing, so if we must talk about the purpose of something, then there must be a will or mind behind that thing, in other words, a manufacturer.

So, purpose basically is the will of the manufacturer hence Purpose is not found by asking at the product but by seeking the source or manufacturer.

Imagine your uncle is a mechanical engineer and on your birthday, he offers you a new device you have never seen as a gift, what would be your first question "what is it used for, right?

Do you say, well I don’t want his opinion and start manipulating it to know what it’s for. You might as well see how it works but the fact is you’ll surely use it lesser than what it can do or go out of its constraints. For instance, if the machine is designed not to be used while charging and you plug it on charge while using it because you didn’t get all the necessary information, you might end up destroying it.

It’s the same thing with our phones and televisions at home. They always came with a manual which instructs, guides and directs us on how to operate them and the features they contain. But, how many of us take time to look at the manual? How many of us read the guide before usage? Many of us don’t even check them and that’s why we don’t know how powerful they are and wrongly use them sometimes. From a recent study, 50% of people use less than 80% of the capacity or features in their phones primarily due to ignorance. I have seen many people struggling to explain their precise location because they don’t even know their phones have a simple way of sharing their precise location. Many phone features remain unknown because no one checks the manual, meanwhile resources are spent to incorporate these features.

This is the same with life today, many are living lives inappropriately and below their potentials because they have simply not consulted the manufacturer. The richest place in the world today is known as the graveyard, because it is full of unused potentials, gifts and talents.

The problem with us today is that we try to make meaning for our lives by ourselves, we try to define what it means to be successful by ourselves, what a meaningful life means, but we forget that there’s no meaning or purpose if there is no will, intention or mind behind Creation. We can’t design our purpose by ourselves because purpose by definition is the reason behind or the reason why things exist, not what we make of them. If there is no God, there is no purpose, there is no why to do things in a particular way, we are just here doing nothing, for nothing, just like the stones. So, in the agnostic or atheistic view, there's nothing like purpose.

How then can we identify the will of the manufacturer? Did God leave us with something to guide us like, a manual? If we are talking of purpose being a reason, an intention or will then the manufacturer must be intentional. And if God is intentional, he must have left us with a guide, a direction, a manual to guide his creation.

We have many historical documents claiming to be God’s word to us but an intentional manufacturer must have given the manual at the sprout of creation not later on in history.

The oldest historical revelation of an intentional God is the Tanakh which points us to the coming of the Messiah (Isaiah 9:6, 53:5-6, Isaiah 59:16) to solve man’s biggest problem sin that caused separation from God. This prophecy was fulfilled through Jesus who not only claimed to be the Messiah but fulfilled all the life prophecies of the coming messiah, over 350 of them. This revelation of the Tanakh becomes the Bible’s Old Testament and the fulfilling life of Jesus, his ministry and followers now make up the Bible’s