Day 4: Be on Your Purpose

It’s a Tuesday night and I had a fantastic day. I woke up this morning at 5:30 and went in early to work. I had energy at work and finalized plans to play on an after work volleyball league starting next month at Grand Sands. I was able to finish up at work early and make it to the Gracie gym for BJJ tonight. Every class we practice 2 techniques for a total of an hour, plus I get a typically quick workout in beforehand. Today I did a few fast circuits of pull ups, push ups, single leg bridges, and technical get ups. In class we trained pull guard and elbow escape from side mount. I’m really getting the hang of the techniques and building some muscle memory, and I’m pretty happy to have found something to train for. It typically takes about 2 and a half years to earn a blue belt, which is what I currently have my sights set on. After BJJ, I chatted up some of the guys, came home to walk Keino in downtown Loveland, and worked on my grad school apps.

I’m really happy that my life is so full without alcohol. Literally every minute of every day I have something to do that is important to me, and I have a lot of things that I look forward to making happen. Without a sense of Purpose, I would not have any kind of feeling of fulfillment in my life and would probably have already caved and picked up a 6-pack out of sheer boredom. I think it’s important for everyone to know exactly what their Purpose is, or at least be looking to find one. The things that I consider my Purpose that give my life meaning are:

1. Working toward my DPT, which currently means completing my applications, paying down the house, saving up money, preparing for grad school interviews, and doubling down at work.
2. Being a good family member. It is hard to visit family as often as I should with them being spread out (the closest ones are and hour and a half away). But that isn’t a good excuse. Family comes first.
3. Taking care of Keino. I don’t really like having roommates and feel like I’ve outgrown them anyhow (I’m 27), but I can’t imagine living alone happily without some kind of company. Keino is very good company and in the rare instance when I don’t have things to work on after work, I always have him to look after. I always get shit for saying so, but a dog is basically a child. You feed them, you exercise them, and eventually they learn where not to poop.
4. Training BJJ. I was very lucky to find the quality of gym nearby that I did. Whenever I have free time I find myself watching tutorials on different techniques and watching UFC fights, which used to look like complete chaos to me, but is extremely technical and amazing to watch when you know enough to appreciate the sport. I consider myself someone who appreciates a perfected art when I see it, whether or not it is something that I understand fully. On a certain level admiring a finely crafted watch is not so different than a finely crafted fighting style.
5. Supporting the community. I became a homeowner for the first time a year and a half ago and have a lot of pride in the beautiful Cincinnati suburb that I call my home. As such, I regularly support the local businesses, races, street festivals, bands, and volunteer my time at the fire department, and I can regularly be found on the bike trail running through downtown.
6. Being financially successful. I spend a decent amount of time researching stocks, putting my money to work, and picking up extra hours at work. I find it very rewarding to work and invest and watch my money grow, but I listed this last for a reason, and that is that each of the five items I mentioned earlier are more important to me than money, and warrant a higher Purpose than financial success does.

Obviously I did not include my social or dating life in my Purpose, although those are things that are important to me, I consider them more leisure time activities. And I have no problem with leisure but I prefer to spend the majority of my time working on those things that make me feel fulfilled. If I start to feel weak and am tempted to revert back to drinking, I can look back on my Purpose and be reminded of what is important to me and why I do what I do.