My friend, what is your singular message?
Is it STRESS? Is it BUSY? Is it SHOO?
Or is it FRIEND? HAPPY? JOY?

It’s amazing what kinds of messages we give out to people. It’s a joy as well what we can pick up from people, how we learn from different experiences. We can learn from a teacher, a seminar, a book. We can learn from our mother, our child, our friend. Or sometimes we can even learn from a stranger.

Have you learned something, a message so important from a stranger? So important that it could mean the difference between living a real life and living like a zombie?

I have. Just last night. And the stranger is across the globe.

He introduced me to this video. I was intrigued, drawn in, entertained. I laughed, I was ecstatic, and I almost cried all within 2 minutes. See for yourself if you can “stare down” this video.

How about a round of applause for the winner and for the creative minds behind the production! I’m sure you were entertained, engaged.

What’s the message?

What I like about the video is the insight I learned from a “stranger” from across the globe named Will Burns. He’s the maverick founder behind the think tank “Ideasicle” and contributor to Forbes Magazine.

Before I share MY take away from this story, allow me to share how Mr. Burns explains the brilliance of the video:

Quite an elaborate production to communicate one feature of the phone, right? But that’s exactly its power. And exactly why it’s so important for people in advertising to whittle a creative brief down to a single point.

That’s the marketing perspective.

What’s My key take away from this? How do we apply this to life?

Here’s my take away, are you ready? Be clear with your life’s singular message.

WHAT IS MY LIFE’S SINGULAR MESSAGE? Let’s dissect this question.

What is my life’s SINGULAR MESSAGE?

The singular message is what you live for. Your reason for being. Your purpose. And when that is clear to you, you are aligned with your singular message. Everything you do will be “an elaborate production” to communicate that one singular message.

And at the end of your life, people will ask of you: “What was his/her life about?”
What your loved ones will say about you when they give their eulogy — THAT is the singular message of your life.

It is the life you live, and it is how people will remember you by when you die.

WHAT IS my life’s singular message?

I’ve found different ways to define my life’s singular message, my purpose in life. Each day I live my purpose, I find that there is a deeper and deeper meaning behind it. (More on that later.)

Here are a two tools that helped me find my singular message, my purpose. The first is a simple tool from Bo Sanchez. The second is from Steve Pavlina, an even simpler tool and very powerful nonetheless.

5 Questions

I learned this at Bo Sanchez’s Bestselling Authors Bootcamp. It’s a simple set of 5 questions. When you answer these questions and find similarities in your answers, there’s a message for you there.

Your singular message is within your answers to these questions:

a.) What do you love to talk about?
b.) What do you love to do?
c.) What do you love to learn?
d.) What help do people ask from you?
e.) What do people praise you for?

It’s interesting how the first three questions are about how you perceive yourself. The questions help identify what you are passionate about.

The last two questions are even more interesting to me because your singular message, your purpose can actually be revealed to you by other people. Sometimes we’re too immersed in ourselves that we need other people to tell us what is great about us.

Take time to answer the 5 questions above.

1 Question

I learned this technique from Steve Pavlina through an article entitled: “How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes” . It’s such a powerful exercise if you put your mind and heart to it.

In essence, you ask yourself ONE specific question and *write* you answer. You keep asking yourself the question and you keep writing an answer. It doesn’t matter what kind of answers you write. Just keep answering. As long as you stay with it, keep going at it, at a certain point, you will be blown away by your answer.

I did it myself many years ago. And I was awestruck at how this technique worked for me. When my purpose was revealed to me, I just couldn’t contain all the emotions that engulfed my entire being. It was overwhelming. And I was at peace and very grateful for the revelation of my purpose.

If you haven’t yet discovered your life purpose, try the 5 Questions and/or try the 1 Question.
If you HAVE discovered your life purpose, try both anyway. This will help you determine if the way you live your life now is aligned with your true life purpose.

What is MY LIFE’s singular message?

I believe it is the clarity with SELF that matters the most. When your singular message is clear to you, your entire being resonates with your purpose. It matters less to you whether or not people know your life purpose. What matters more is that YOU KNOW YOUR LIFE PURPOSE, your singular message.

This is where it gets interesting. Just this morning, I was reflecting about my life purpose.

I’ve defined my life purpose this way and I write it in my email signature:

Purpose in Life:

“To help more, thus be more.”
As I help more, I become more of the person our God created me to be.
As I become more of that person, I help more of God’s people.

I reflected back on my life purpose. I’m a learner and I’m a teacher. I looked back at my life and found that the areas of my life that I felt most joyful was when I was learning or when I was teaching.

I am truly joyful when I’m learning from a book, from a movie, from a seminar, from talking to a friend. And I feel truly joyful when people learn from me.

And this is how I express my help for others, when I am able to nourish them by helping them learn something and grow in life.

I reflected further and I realized this. It still boils down to one singular message: Love.

I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.

By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].

John 13:34-35
Amplified Bible (AMP)

Love.

My singular message. The singular message that had been revealed to us by our Lord. The singular underlying message of my statement “To help more, thus be more” is LOVE.

It’s been “staring down” at me since forever.

How about you? Have you discovered your singular message? Don’t just stare. Share!
Please leave a comment and share.

Love,

EdWIN

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