You are a single tree inside a city of very tall buildings...

We’ve all said it, “I know what I want to do with my life but it doesn’t agree with my purpose. Or…I can’t figure out what my purpose is?”



We push, kick, suddenly stop, start again, slide to the right, slide to the left, reinvent then scream at the innocent figure in the mirror, “Why can’t you play along?” And still walk back into the living room never knowing who, what, where, when and why we do what we do other than it beats getting bored.



I often wonder if we don’t mix up having dreams with searching for a purpose.



It took me nearly twenty years of on-air radio to realize my dream of reaching big markets like Los Angeles and Chicago had nothing to do with the purpose behind why I was doing it. The outer shell was completely different from the inner determination which meant the core of my efforts was fresh jelly.



How many people have you met that come across wishy washy? They have no clue as to which side of the fence to stand. Their chosen career doesn’t match who they really are. Laughingly I blame my inner core disaster on the day I openly admitted I wasn’t a Democrat or Republican…I’m from Montana therefore I can be both! Then someone said, “You are an artist…you can be different and through time we’ll learn to accept you.”



The school of hard knocks lesson learned? People tend to tolerate you not accept, so the master plan consistently changes due to one of the four daily human needs: To be or feel loved.



So, for the past eleven years I’ve set my dreams aside to make way for a purpose to sprout above the bright orange George clay and grow like Kudzu on a long and winding row of trees requiring a warm blanket for winter. The most interesting thing about a purpose is how invisible it truly is. Assumption puts us on fates playing field. Purpose is then confused with legacy.



Wouldn’t it be great if life began with an owner’s manual? The moment tears begin to stain Mom and Dad reach into the glove compartment of your itty bitty book of love and poof…all you needed was a new fuse.



Author and spiritualist Eckhart Tolle believes the outer purpose varies greatly from person to person. What I put into every radio commercial I write and produce cannot be compared to and or expected to be created by those I teach. Nobody is the same and yet bosses expect you to live like they dream.



Cranking up the heat is yet another human behavior: The outer purpose comes with no rules—it’s allowed to change and or be replaced at any time…which in part loosens up the dedication and loyalty you have toward an inner purpose. thus creating…an awakening.



You can ask me one thousand times why I elected to leave an earth shattering highly intensified boogie til you puke spin class at the gym to take up martial arts and I’ll give you a different answer every time. And with each answer I’ll shout out every reason why I need to break free of Tae Kwon Do and get back to living the path of dumbbells and dead lifts.



Having well rounded biceps and Hercules designed forearms and legs are the outer purpose demanding attention where studying martial arts pushes beyond the appearance of an ego and says, “Shut up! I have a backstage pass to your soul.”



Your inner purpose is easily intimidated by the outer decision maker. You’re convinced that nobody wants to see you as the person you really are. American culture and how we enact it is no different than walking up to the Clique counter at Belk’s and begging the woman in the white jacket to find you something new to paste to your eyelids.



There you stand all shiny and new…hundreds of dollars have been spent during a single weekend and poof…you still feel like boiled eggs that have been rotting in the sun for two weeks.



Awareness not thinking makes you complete.



People walk out of their jobs and marriages everyday because of a vibration they can’t explain—it’s too easy to think what we do is right. Becoming aware first takes too much time. We want to experience another daily human need: To feel incredible, without stress or a desire to become a professional wrestler inside a giant red white and blue ring.



Eckhart Tolle teaches us: Find out what’s not right first. Locate what doesn’t work. Put a face on the elements that make up the mood that shouts, “You’re not making me happy!” Be aware of where you stand and how you feel while folding your arms closely to your body and not being outwardly to the self you claim is on a mission yet you can’t seem to find the right fuel to remain loyal to it.



Thirty one years of radio and what’s my purpose? To inspire not a group, squad, herd or gaggle…but instead just one person to take a writing instrument and place it in their hand…once there…listen to the wind then write about it. Only in the beginning you feel everything might be written about you until an unknown passerby happens to cross your path describing something you wrote in chapters past and through you another sip of inspiration was passed like that of a messenger.



Try fitting that over a seven second intro of a Michael Buble song and you’ll quickly see why getting to Los Angeles and Chicago no longer carries an ounce of importance. I’d do anything to get those twenty years of my life back.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com