Getting Started

Listen to “Getting Started” on CD1 – Track 1 or download the MP3 here

Thank you for giving yourself the gift of planning your purpose so that you can live that purpose and be a blessing to other people. As we begin this journey together, let me start by saying that I am certainly no guru and nothing in this interactive application is new. I have not dreamed up some new success formula. I learned a long time ago that King Solomon was right when he said:

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”  –  Ecclesiastes 1:9

Though I am not a guru, I AM a student of history and a student of success. I love to read the biographies of world changers and discover the ingredients of their success formula.  What I have found is that there are certain skills and strategies that are virtually universal with successful people and almost always missing in people who, in the words of Thoreau, “live lives of quiet desperation.”

Those strategies and skills are taught well by many success coaches today. My goal is not to create a new system, but simply pass along to you what I found to be, for me at least, the most effective strategies. Throughout the pages and audio of this interactive application, I will share with you the “golden nuggets” I learned from amazing success coaches like Zig Ziglar, Krish Dhanam, Dr. John Demartini, Tony Robbins, Jack Canfield, John Maxwell, Paul Tsika, my own father, and so many others. Each of these coaches has their own powerfully effective programs for helping you to accomplish your goals and I urge you to check out each and every one of them.

Living with Purpose is simply going to be an opportunity for me to walk you through the process that has worked best for me. My prayer is that you will find some things during this process that will help you to live your passion and purpose. There will be some parts of this that make no sense for you personally…no problem, the beauty of this interactive application is that you can skip any part you do not care to use and then focus on the areas that are helping you live your purpose.

This course is designed to make it easy for you to go through this process at home on your computer or on the iPad or even on your phone while waiting in line somewhere. Every chance you get, you should spend a few minutes reading through a few pages and simply thinking through that part or tweaking it or writing an entirely new section.

The best way to use this program is to daily read through, edit, answer questions, and work through issues so that you get through the entire process about once every two weeks. You want to constantly be updated and editing and adding to your plan. Also, by consistently reviewing, you will stay on track and be less likely to be distracted by things that are not truly aligned with your purpose.

Here is how best to use this program:

1. When you see a line for “LISTEN” with the name of an audio file, such as “Listen to “Getting Started,” then click on the link and it will open in a new browser tab with the audio file (or listen on the CD’s)
2. Read through the section, answering the questions.
3. Review, edit, rewrite, meditate, review, edit, read for fun, etc., etc. This is an ongoing process. I encourage you to spend at least 15 to 20 minutes each day on your Life Planning Process and try to work through the entire course at least once every couple of weeks.

WHY MAKE PLANS FOR YOUR LIFE?

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Col 3:23

“LORD WILLING”

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.

 For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.  Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.    

James 4:13-17

A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps. 

Proverbs 16:9

Man is here represented to us, 1. As a reasonable creature, that has the faculty of contriving for himself: His heart devises his way, designs an end, and projects ways and means leading to that end, which the inferior creatures, who are governed by sense and natural instinct, cannot do. The more shame for him if he do not devise the way how to please God and provide for his everlasting state. 2. But as a depending creature, that is subject to the direction and dominion of his Maker. If men devise their way, so as to make God’s glory their end and his will their rule, they may expect that he will direct their steps by his Spirit and grace, so that they shall not miss their way nor come short of their end. But let men devise their worldly affairs ever so politely, and with ever so great a probability of success, yet God has the ordering of the event, and sometimes directs their steps to that which they least intended. The design of this is to teach us to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that (Jam. 4:14, 15), and to have our eye to God, not only in the great turns of our lives, but in every step we take. Lord, direct my way, 1 Th. 3:11.

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible

Notice the balance represented by the commentary above. We are to take responsibility for planning and executing our purpose, while always operating with the understanding and flexibility that God is Sovereign and we must work to make that purpose and those plans within His Will.

Because I have used this life planning process for the last ten years, the lines have blurred between what were my own original thoughts and what came from all those life coaches I mentioned above. So I’m just playing it safe and saying that NOTHING in here is my own original thought. Every bit of it came from these amazing leaders. As you listen to the audio, you’ll notice that I do my best to credit all actual quotes or any specific process that came from one or the other, but I’m asking all of them and you to forgive me if I miss one.

Just know for certain that as we begin this journey together, we are standing on the shoulders of giants and we owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude for paving a clear path for us to Discover our Passion, Plan our Purpose, and Execute that Plan effectively! So enough of setting things up, let’s get started with living our purpose!

Rick Green