How to Tell if You’re Living Your Mission

Joan of Arc. Which reminds me to tell you: your mission will often get you killed. At a minimum, it will kill your old life.

I believe that mission is at the center of a purposeful life. I also believe that every human has a specific mission. As we say in our BrandLabs and Root Sessions, “Your mission is the thing you are here to do that only you can do.” When you find it (or it finds you), it becomes an organizing principle of your life — and contributes in some significant way to the advancement of humanity.

“You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.” — Martha Graham

Missions are mysterious things. They aren’t discovered or assigned because of our credentials. As such, our missions are often starkly mis-aligned with our world view, our perceptions of self and our technical/learned skill set. They cause massive disruptions in life. They require a break from the survival-to-comfortable continuum that permeates American society.

My mission came to me at Pacha Coffee on Sunday morning in Austin about 4 years ago.

My mission: to elevate the self-worth of everyone I meet.

In hindsight, this mission began dawning in my earliest memories but didn’t began to rise above the horizon of my life until around 2011. It took me another 3+ years to see that this was not just some insight or philosophy for me — that I had to organize my life around it and share it.