Ranan Lachman's Blog

Blog #1

When you wake up each day, what immediately comes to mind?  Many often will say it is the plans they have for the day ahead.  And having a plan for the day is not a bad approach to have, but in context.  You see, God has already designed His plan for the day ahead and for His will to be realized.  But He invites us all to the adventure and to see Him in the day.  The question for us is, “are we going to approach our day by allowing God to live through us and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us?”.  I encourage us all to be grateful to even wake up each day and to find joy in the fact that God, in His awesome wonder, wants us to be a part of His plan.  He loves us so much as His adopted sons and daughters.  We do not know how long we have to live in God’s plan for our earthly lives, so I encourage us all to live this day as if it were our last.  See the opportunities that God lays out in your day.  Be Jesus to someone around you today.  I pray that we all choose to embrace this day with a heart that is pleasing to our Lord.

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Weekly Message Being God’s Light in the Darkness

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Psalm 23

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Being God’s Light in the Darkness appeared first on My Purpose -- Mooney Consulting.

Excited that my book has released today!

Excited that my book has released today! Thanks to everyone who supported it.

http://ow.ly/osSS302I2Ts

#lifepurpose http://ow.ly/i/lCvAN

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What Makes Us Happy?

We all want to be happy and we usually have things that we want to accomplish in our lives that we think will achieve that happiness.  But have you really stopped for a minute to define what truly makes you content?

Positive psychology encourages focusing on what is good in your life rather than on the negative.  It identifies twenty characteristics that help maintain that positive outlook, which in turn, keeps people content.  A few of those are the ability to love and be loved, spirituality, altruism and creativity.  Positive psychology is based in the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within them, and to enhance their experiences.

Happiness isn’t something you can hunt, capture and hang on your wall.  Chasing happiness and trying to constantly measure it has surprisingly, the opposite effect.  In contrast, working towards a meaningful life, by identifying  a cause that helps others has been proven by research to increase overall happiness and lead to finding a lasting satisfaction in life.

We want to believe that our lives have a built-in purpose.  We feel that our existence serves a greater purpose, and therefore our lives have an inherent meaning but that doesn’t really exist.  We need to proactively seek our own life’s meaning.

Instead of being proactive about seeking for a meaning for our life, we ignore or delay this task and fail to complete it.  The majority of us live a purposeless life without a direction and looking in so many different directions that it often leads to a feeling of despair.

Most people just try to do the best they can with whatever comes their way rather than finding their purpose and focusing their energy on achieving it.  Trying to be successful or powerful or wealthy doesn’t give your life a true meaning.  Focusing on these superficial goals will, most likely, result in being less content in the end.

We are taught from an early age that we should study hard, get good grades so we can go to college and get a good job.  Then we can buy a big house, get married, have kids and buy a nice car.  We should work until we are 65 so we can finally retire and then we will be happy.

The problem with that old adage is that it doesn’t make sense to spend all your life doing something you hate for the promise of a better life when you’re too old to enjoy life!. Unfortunately, 70% of people hate their job and it takes them too long to realize that they should be finding their purpose earlier in life so they can spend their life in a state of happiness instead of anticipation.  .  We find ourselves in a never-ending cycle of working harder to gain more material things that don’t fulfill the purpose that we so desperately desire.  Our programming as a child growing up, while meant with the best intentions, isn’t providing us with our most basic need and that is a purpose in our life.

Spending our life chasing the corporate meaning of success may give us the riches that we feel we need to feel content, but in reality it causes a lot of stress and guilt and for some can lead to anxiety disorders.

Do you really believe that when you’ll be lying on your deathbed you’ll be happier knowing that you achieved wealth? Probably not. Most people surveyed on their deathbed expressed regret that they haven’t prioritized their time for the  important things in life such as spending time with family and friends.

Achieving “things” in our life give us a brief “high”.  But just like with drugs that “high” doesn’t last long and you’ll soon be looking for the next “fix”.  This means we are constantly chasing after something that doesn’t really fulfill us, so we keep seeking after bigger “things” to get a higher  “high”. It’s a vicious cycle that never ends but leaves you exhausted and unhappy.   

What we want to do is find something that can sustain us – and that “something” is finding a purpose.  Usually it will be in the form of a cause that we can work towards. It doesn’t have to be something large, it can be something small that only helps one person maybe, but the feeling that we did something that benefits another living being gives us the sustainable feeling of happiness because we made a difference.

We should be enjoying the process of choosing what we can do and not focus solely on the outcome.  Learning to love and enjoy the day to day work of getting to a goal makes our everyday life a joy takes us out of the vicious cycle.

What will you do to give yourself a sustainable feeling of happiness?

Ranan Lachman

 

Purchase the book Purpose – How Little Things Can Create A Meaningful Life

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Happiness, Life Purpose, Meaning, Motivation, Personal Growth, Recovery, Transformation

Starting With The End In Mind

Let’s talk about starting with the end in mind.

What do I mean when I say that?

Have you ever thought about how you would be remembered?  What would people say at your funeral?  How would your spouse, children or co-workers speak about you during your eulogy?  If you could be there to listen to what they said, would it be what you wanted your legacy to be?

Most people are too afraid to think about death or they think it is so far in the future that they have plenty of time to get all the things done in life that they want.  The reality is that we don’t know how long we have on this earth.  

If you are reading this post I can pretty much ascertain that you are thinking about these things in some fashion.  We all have had the thought “it can’t be that life is just working, eating, sleeping and watching TV – there most be something bigger than that!”

That “bigger” thing, is your living purpose –  one that is driven by your interests, leaves a positive footprint on society, while contributing to your genuine happiness.  You may be thinking now how your living purpose can be a positive influence on someone (in your family or a friend perhaps).  Maybe you are thinking you want to help reduce hunger in the world or maybe you just want to find a way to be at peace within yourself so that you can reflect that to those you interact with on a daily basis.  Whatever the reason is, you have taken the first step in finding your life purpose.  Determining what your exact purpose in life is, is a process, a journey.  It’s not something that you can come up with in a matter of minutes.  It’s something that you need to take time to reflect on and look deep within yourself to find your passion.

In my book, Purpose – How Little Things Can Create A Meaningful Life,  I take you through that process to help you find that passion and ultimately find your purpose.  I walk you through each step to narrow down what really matters to you.  This isn’t something that someone can answer for you, it can only come from within.

If you are truly looking for a purpose and want to do something about it then you should be aware that it is a lifelong commitment as your living purpose evolves over time.   But I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed.  Defining your living purpose is something that everyone can and should do. Don’t be afraid to tackle it and you shouldn’t try to do it in one day.  You add a little bit of  insight each day to make your journey to a purposeful life a reality.  

The goal is to bring meaning to your life and it doesn’t have to be a huge task or goal, so don’t try to aim at solving world hunger.  My approach to finding purpose is actually aimed at the small things in life which we can all do,  things that create a meaningful life in whatever capacity you choose.  By taking those little things that you do each day and combining them together, over time you can accomplish a goal that leaves a positive footprint on society. .  

There are 12 case studies in the book about people just like you and me who have done that exact thing.  They all started with something small.  A social need that they recognized around them that also existed within themselves.  Following their passion, and recognizing that need, they created something impactful – but it all started with keeping the end in mind –  what can i do with my time on earth that is worthwhile doing?

Ranan Lachman

Purchase the book Purpose – How Little Things Can Create A Meaningful Life

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Happiness, Life Purpose, Meaning, Motivation, Personal Growth, Recovery, Transformation

Welcome

I want to welcome you to my blog.  The aim of this blog is to provide people a channel  to identify, explore and refine  their living purpose.  Unfortunately, 82% of us are living without knowing our purpose in life!

As defined in my book Purpose, a living purpose is one that is driven by your interests, leaves a positive footprint on society, while contributing to your genuine happiness.

In this blog I want to give people a forum to talk about their own journey, their fears and their triumphs.  To discuss this with others who are interested in finding their purpose in life and also to give others who have possibly found their living purpose the opportunity to help guide others in their own journey.

The book Purpose – How Little Things Can Create A Meaningful Life provides a framework and a process to help readers discover their purpose in life. It guides you to find your passion and how you can focus your energy to do things that add meaning.  In the book we discuss a lot of different ways that this can be accomplished and in my blog I want to touch on each of those activities that can make a difference in someone’s life. This should also start a conversation among people who share a similar purpose or working towards similar causes.. I do hope that you’ll take the time to get involved and if you’ve already found your purpose in life, I hope you will use your experiences to help others find theirs.

Again, I welcome you and look forward to getting to know each and every one of you as you start your journey to find your purpose and develop it as your life evolves.

Ranan Lachman

Purchase the book Purpose – How Little Things Can Create A Meaningful Life

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Happiness, Life Purpose, Meaning, Motivation, Personal Growth, Recovery, Transformation