Do you wonder if your life will have a lasting life purpose?

A lasting life purpose is one of the great needs inside all of us.  We all want our life to have meaning.

Most of us equate a life purpose with achievements because achievements mean goals set and met.  It is implied that those goals were meaningful.

Perhaps you have some great achievements under your belt … perhaps you have run a marathon, perhaps you have made lots of money or fought for your country.

Maybe you have been recognised for some of those achievements … or perhaps you haven’t.

Of course, not all achievements equate with a lasting life purpose.  Many achievements may not even be intentionally achieved or aligned with a life purpose.  But assuming that they are, the missing ingredient is whether your achievements will last.  Will they stand the test of time?

It is only achievements that exist beyond your own life that will provide you with a lasting life purpose. – Guy Mullon

Let me illustrate with an example.

It Only Takes One To Open The Door

I never had much of an interest in running. In fact, I hate it – unless I’m chasing a ball around. But as a young man, I remember seeing the feats on TV of New Zealander John Walker. Unlike his name, Walker was a runner, and in 1975 he became the first man to run a mile in under 3:50 and the first to run 100 sub-4 minute miles. But the first sub-4-minute mile was in 1954, run by Englishman John Bannister.

Over the last 50 years, the record for the mile has been lowered over 20 times, and by 1999 it had been smashed by an amazing 17 seconds, or about 7%, since John Bannister.  A 4-minute mile is now the standard for any serious middle-distance runner.

You can watch John Walker’s race on Youtube.

What was impossible just 50 years ago, today a standard runner must reach just to be in the race.

What it took was one man to break the barrier … to push away the darkness of disbelief … and future generations rushed through the door he opened.

Past Darkness

As great as John Walker and John Bannister’s achievements were, it is the unsung achievements of men like Clive Field that really matter.

Running records come and go.  Yes, the ‘firsts’ like that of the two Johns will be remembered in running circles, but there are other firsts that matter even more.  Why? because they can change the course of human destiny.

Clive Field was one such man, and you can listen to his story in the Real Talk 4 Real Men podcast this week.

Listen here or subscribe at iTunes, Google Play Music or Podbean:

I won’t give the entire story away here, but the generations of the Field family were in darkness before Clive came along.  His family history was one of sadness and loneliness.  Things appeared to get worse when Clive’s eldest son died in tragic circumstances, and yet this was the unlikely catalyst for events that transformed Clive and catapulted him into the man who would change his family pathway forever.

Now The Light

Before Clive, his family was in darkness … after Clive, 2 further generations so far have walked a much different path.  Like the running Johns, Clive opened a door, and his descendants have had the benefit of taking up where he left off and they are now part of a legacy that will last.

It might not seem like very much, but to this point, he has 23 grandchildren and counting.  In a further 5 generations, this could easily grow to an extended family of over 70,000.  That is some lasting impact.

Clive might not have run a marathon, or broken a world record, or run a country … but he does have a lasting life purpose fulfilled.

He was the man that changed the course of a family’s history.

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References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmwYyBJOu6U

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Walker_(runner)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile

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Originally published on RealMen24/7. Image by Alexander Redl on Unsplash.