In The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren highlights five negative things that often motivate a person’s life and the need to find positive purposes to replace those things. Naturally, these negative drivers can exacerbate anxiety and depression for many, myself included:
- Guilt – yea, that’s Todd
- Resentment or Anger
- Fear – yea, that’s Todd
- Materialism
- Need for Approval – yea, that’s Todd
Raise your hand if two or more of these apply to you? *Todd jumps up and down with his hand raised*
Guilt, fear and a need for approval (or being liked) are my weaknesses.
I can’t fully explain the guilt, but I have this tendency to blame myself even when I know – I know – that I shouldn’t. Perhaps I just have this sense that if I did something different, or better, then I could have prevented or averted some crisis.
As for the other two, I firmly believe that fear – of something or everything – is at the core of anxiety. If you aren’t afraid of something that might happen then what is there to be anxious about? Learn to deal with the fear and the anxiety will begin to take care of itself.
I have mixed feelings about a “need for approval” because I certainly go my own way and could care what people think about some areas of my life. For example, I have action figures and other odd toys and collectibles on display in my office. A little odd, but I don’t care. They bring me joy and keep me young. However, I do have this need to feel liked or respected and that goes along the same lines as a need for approval and it’s an area for me to work on.
Excerpts from Chapter 3
“Knowing your purpose simplifies your life. It defines what you do and what you don’t do. Your purpose becomes the standard you use to evaluate which activities are essential and which aren’t. You simply ask, “Does this activity help me fulfill one of God’s purposes for my life?”
Without a clear purpose you have no foundation on which you base decisions, allocate your time, and use your resources. You will tend to make choices based on circumstances, pressures, and your mood at the moment. People who don’t know their purpose try to do too much — and that causes stress, fatigue, and conflict …
Knowing your purpose focuses your life. It concentrates your efforts and energy on what’s important. You become effective by being selective … Without a clear purpose you will keep changing directions, jobs, relationships, churches, or other externals – hoping each change will settle the confusion or fill the emptiness in your heart. You think, Maybe this time it will be different, but it doesn’t solve your real problem – a lack of focus and purpose…
The men and women who have made the greatest difference in history were the most focused. For instance, the apostle Paul almost single-handedly spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. His secret was a focused life. He said, “I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.”
If you want your life to have impact, focus it! Stop dabbling. Stop trying to do it all. Do less. Prune away even good activities and do only that which matters most.”
Questions to Ponder
- What would your family and friends say is the driving force of your life?
- What would you say is the driving force?
- What should be the driving force in your life?
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