Thursday, May 6, 2010

Anybody can win a contest...but do you have a purpose?

Michael Jackson slept with a tape recorder beside his bed. One late, late night in the early 60’s Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones waddled his way toward an answering machine and mumbled the melody of Satisfaction into its memory banks. Deep into the darkness of night in 1877 Alexander Graham Bell poked through the thickness of communications and sent vocal vibes into the ear of another human several feet away. Bill Gates refused to sleep until the idea of developing an easy to use PC system came into our reality.



Nothing feels better than a great nights sleep but hindsight tells us…you could be missing out on some serious life changing success.



The compass was created at night. I bet the television remote control came from the chapters of night. The dude was way ahead of his time by realizing a person no longer had to climb out of bed to change channels. Now if we can only come up with a device that features sonar…I lose more TV remotes than I do socks. I’ve always believed Time Warner Cable hits a button that turns them invisible forcing us to haul tail into their store to rent another then another.



As a writer…words tend to flow better not at night but really, really early in the morning, which in a bar hoppers perfect world is still looked upon as being the day before the writing instrument touches a clean sheet of empowering paper.



At two this morning a thought leaped from me faster than a morning dove shoots from the floor of a forest the moment they take note of change: There must be a “reason” before “purpose” is born.



Let’s be honest…this modern state of Americana is blessed with too much of each—the average workday is blasted with every reason why the boss needs this, that and more of this and that without ever discussing what the possible purpose is…we do what we do because doing it keeps bosses away. It’s created an ocean wave of dreamers and wanna-be’s who have plenty of reason to believe they too can do but locating a purpose in life is the farthest gift on the quick fisted arrival of a horizon calling your name.



Do you hold a reason? Is it leading your feet toward a purpose? You don’t need me to tell you what happens when a purpose can’t be reached. I sit in the same traffic you do wondering where the same exact time went. A coworker asked me yesterday what year our paths first crossed...seconds after saying four years ago, his eyes picked up that wicked signal called disbelief.



I have no clue how to slow down time. My purpose tank light is starting to blink.



My Billings Senior High 30 year class reunion is this summer. Why did getting out of school feel like a lifetime yet as adults we’re nothing more than a pigeon soaring between overpasses. I take that back…as of late, I’ve not seen too many blue and gray birds zipping between manmade highways and the bridges created to get humans to places faster.



Pigeons tend to sit on telephone wires. Hot days, cold days, middle of the day or night…they coo and coo while I sit staring at their purpose of having nothing to do. I really became interested the day a red tail hawk sat next to a pigeon on the telephone line. How many of us would break bread with our enemy?



I eat a lot of apples, celery and carrots…but you’ll never catch me having breakfast, lunch or dinner with a farmer. Which is extremely odd because when writing and producing radio commercials I find tremendous value in sharing conversation with the companies to which I’m creating for—there’s something special about staring into the eyes of another dreamer and saying, “Yo…let’s create motion.”



There must be a reason for purpose to be born.



All too often and more times than one would like to face…having a reason, any reason is reason enough to quit and start someplace else. I’m a master of nothing; just call me a Jack of all trades. Don’t they give drugs to kids for that?



Rather than be a bank teller who takes money from hardworking everyday common America…think of your reason as being the link between a boring typical day and a better day tomorrow. Nobody truly relinquishes money to a bank—if that was the story, we’d stop worrying about our monthly balance. Build confidence in each and every person that stops by your counter by sharing an open, honest and approachable smile.



If you work at a grocery store, restaurant or gas station…stop asking if you can help, be a leader and just do it. Locate the reason then give birth to purpose.



Not the kind of purpose you’re searching for? Kinda wanna do that Mother Theresa thing? You love Dancing with the Stars and believe teaching people how to move will inspire inner city children to drop crime for better times? Wanna be a radio disc jockey that does more than play Michael Bolton twelve times every shift? Your reason is? Then give birth to purpose.



Through lessons learned and classes not yet taken, I’ve developed a mission statement that has me spending less time building the required energy to make the maps that may or may not lead you toward a purpose unless a reason has been developed first. Although it’s an extremely interesting subject, I won’t ask you about a purpose. Who you are and what you’ve become make up the materials that feed the soil. Asking someone about their purpose puts innocence on the defense. Once present, we become zombies walking in the middle of the night toward destinations that weren’t planned but oh well, accept life for what it is…right? Wrong!



My friend Melody just had double knee replacement surgery. She needs to be documenting the journey to share with other men and women requiring the same procedure. Her writing skills are being wasted at a time when being a writer is more important to a someone who is going to be just as lost as she was before the operation.



Reasons sit in front of us every second of every day…they lead to a purpose. Why do I write everyday? My reason is to affect one person I will probably never meet. The purpose: To showcase how willingness inspires change.



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

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