Make 2023 Your Year of Purpose

I love January.

It's always a chance to reflect, renourish and refine. A new year offers an opportunity for a fresh start, a new direction or refocusing on what matters most. Take this time to set goals, pursue meaningful endeavors and find purpose. In fact make 2023 your year purpose this year, I challenge you to find or maybe rediscover your purpose.

Your purpose is your “why”— your energy source for change, your rocket engines.

When the world tries to drag you down, when you're following your purpose, you can dream bigger, attract the best people and amplify your impact. 

To get started…

Do you know your purpose in life? Many people know areas they're passionate about, but nothing specific drives them each day. Others have a vague idea, but nothing they can specifically share with you. These folks often appreciate that a clear purpose is essential for success and a meaningful life, but they haven't taken the time to dig deeper and reflect with more detail. And finally, there's a small percentage of people who are crystal clear on their purpose and use it to filter and guide their decisions and actions. They're living a purpose driven life.

Next evaluate who you hang out with? Do they have a clearly defined purpose that's obvious to everyone they meet? Do they encourage you to live a purpose driven life? Do they make you better? One of the easiest ways to make 2023 your year of purpose is to find someone you know who's already living theirs.

What excites and fascinates you? What topics do you love talking about or learning? What problems do you fear most? What is something wrong that you feel needs to be fixed?

What do you want to do? What do you want to serve? Who do you want to serve and why do you want to help them? Take the time to contemplate these questions, finding your purpose.

It's not an exercise you can complete in 10 minutes. It requires deep focus and attention. I suggest setting a reminder each day for the next week and spending 5 to 10 minutes evaluating one aspect of your purpose for 2023. By the end of the week, you should be able to articulate your “why” into a concise sentence.

It may also be helpful to have both personal and professional purpose statements As time passes, it's okay to amend or adjust these purposes. My purpose statement 30 years ago was not exactly what it is today. For the past two decades, I've been guided by this goal to inspire and teach veterinary professionals to live a positive, meaningful, healthy, clinically relevant and financially successful life.

I'm Dr. Ernie Ward and on behalf of the entire Basepaws Veterinary team, we'd like to wish you happy 2023, your year of purpose.