Finding Why

Hi, guys. My name is Donnie Rouse, and you are listening to the podcast One Life Finding. Why? What if I told you that finding your purpose was as simple as choosing your outfit for the day? You'd probably be very excited, wouldn't you? The truth is, is that it is that simple. See, there's this flawed notion that finding your purpose has to be this complex process and that you only have one purpose for your entire life when this couldn't be further from the truth. The truth is that an area of your life could have multiple purposes. The goals within that area have their own purpose, and every action you take has its own purpose. The reason that I'm putting this podcast out here today is because I want to dispel this myth that it has to be this complex process, but also to break it down so small, to realize that if it was like the smallest purpose, such as making money to send your kid to school, just by you pursuing that purpose, you're serving the greater good and making a difference in the world. Earlier today, my friend Jerry called me up and she. There was a little bit of frustration in her voice. So Jerry had a granola company that she had sold and was now doing photography. So Jerry was telling me, she's like, you know, I feel like if I just knew what my why was, if I just knew my purpose, it would be so much easier for me to move forward and take action. And I called her bullshit on that. I said, well, first of all, why are you making it so much complex than it needs to be? And secondly, who says you only have one purpose? I went on to say, well, you know, your purpose could be to send your daughter to school, and that's why you're doing photography, right? It doesn't sound sexy if that's the purpose, but it doesn't degrade the purpose at all. Because by providing that service of the photography that she's doing, she's benefiting other people. She's making a difference in her small world, but also in the greater world, giving my own experiences, because I went down that rabbit hole as well. I read the book by Simon Sinek that said, start with why. And all sudden, I abandoned everything that I habitually knew about my why in search of something greater, only to come back to the simple whys that I started with. And when I started my. I'll give you the entire process this way. You can see kind of how I came up with the whys, but also that there was this compounding effect. Like when I decided on what my whys were. For the coffee company, it wasn't something that I came up with in the beginning. It was something that developed literally over the course of 40 years from the time I was a kid. Well, maybe not 40 years. Maybe like 33 years. When I was younger, I remember watching my grandmother make espresso for my father and his siblings. And when my, you know, I would sit at the. At the stove watching the espresso come out, and she would pour it for everybody. And I made the. The distinguishment that coffee brought people together. Now Fast forward to 2003, when I got my job at Starbucks, my first, like, cafe job. I developed a whole different purpose behind coffee. My manager at the time, Cecidio, said, listen, you are the first person the person is gonna interact with today. So through that interaction, you could turn their day for the better. Or if you could turn it for the worse, the power is with you. So then all of a sudden, I'll get right. Wow. I have the ability to turn people's day for the better. That became my purpose. Fast forward until about, I'd say, 2015, that changed again from my travels around the world. Coffee had always been this mechanism for me to stop, be and enjoy the moment. And so the purpose was born that, you know, to enjoy the moment, because this is the only time we have. So the compound effect was, you know, to bring people together, to impact everyone through the interactions I had with them, but also to realize that now is all they have and to enjoy the moment. So if you had erased all of three of those, you know, all three of those epiphanies that I had over, you know, the 30 something years, and you just went with the one thing like, I like making coffee, and it makes me happy. I would still be making a difference in the world because people would find the value in the coffee. I mean, they could see the joy it brings me and that. That becomes a purpose in and of itself. So the point I'm trying to make here is that it doesn't have to be complex, doesn't have to be this save the world, this, like, you know, this all developing, like, save, save the world purpose. And then just by fulfilling a purpose, you're actually still doing a greater good. I believe Mother Teresa said something. She says, it's doing the little things with great love. And that's how I like to look at, you know, at the coffee. There's been many times where, to be quite honest with you, I get tired of, you know, like, maybe bagging coffee and doing all this stuff. I'm like, oh my gosh, like I am tired. I do not feel like doing this. But then I go back to that purpose of making people, reminding people to take the time to enjoy the moment, to enjoy their day, because now is all they have. And all of a sudden my focus shifts and I'm back on track and I'm doing the task that just a few seconds ago I was dreading. If you ever get coffee from me online, I hand write every, single, you know, every single order that comes in, I hand write a message on that and I try to put some thought provoking thing to get people to realize that, you know, the importance of the coffee ritual and that it's their time and to bring that present moment into it. So to kind of wrap this up and put a big pretty bow on it. What is your purpose? You may decide to answer this as, you know, for your, for your career, you may want to do this for. You might want to listen this over this very. This end piece over and apply to every aspect of your life. You can look at your career, your spirituality, your family, your health. What is your purpose? What is it that you want and why do you want? Could be that simple. Your purpose for wanting to get in better shape could be you want to look good in a swimsuit or you don't want to look bad in a swimsuit, right? Two different push and a pull. Or maybe you want to improve your health because you want to be there when your kids grow up and they get married. You want to be able to walk your daughter down the aisle. I don't know. What is it for your business? Maybe it's to give you the money to save up so this way you can start your own business. Maybe it's just to do a job where you don't have to think about anything after you leave. You can leave all the stresses, all the worries at work and come home to your family and not have to do anything else. That's a purpose as well. What is it for you? If you were to take away one thing from this episode, I want it to be that your why doesn't have to be something that's so complex, but rather it could be simple. And that your why is something that evolves over time. Because you're evolving over time. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider sharing on your social media and inviting your friends to listen to the One Life podcast with Donny Rouse. If you'd like to send me a message, you can do so via Instagram. Word. And that is it for today. Have a blessed week. God bless, and I'll see you soon.