{"id":1231,"date":"2015-10-01T10:29:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T10:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2015-10-01T10:29:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T10:29:08","slug":"the-power-of-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/2015\/10\/01\/the-power-of-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

I have had the best week. This week has reminded me why I love my life. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t love my life other weeks, but you know how it is\u2014one load of laundry too many and I\u2019m feeling all Cinderella-like (but with a sucky attitude). This week felt great because I felt I was making a difference.<\/p>\n

People live happier and longer lives when they believe their contribution matters (and of course eat organic and are blessed with good genes). Anyway that was my take-away from a National Geographic article<\/a> that profiled people from the three places on earth where people live the longest.<\/p>\n

There was Tonino, 75, a still hard-working sheep farmer from Sardinia, Italy whose daughter believes it would dishonor the family to ever put her dad into a nursing home. There was Ushin from Okinawa, Japan who at 103 has a new boyfriend. And, Marge, 101, from Loma Linda, California who drives herself to her weekly hair appointments, and delivers magazines to seniors (many who are decades younger than her).<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t live in Loma Linda, my work is rather sedentary, and I\u2019m not sure what my sons\u2019 plans are for me if I live to be 103. But still, last week I felt happy because I felt that I was making a difference in some small way.<\/p>\n

Humans are social animals. We need each other, and want to feel wanted. And when one is spending an inordinate amount of time as I do holed up in an attic office, tapping away on a keyboard listening to crickets, you can\u2019t help but wonder (from time to time), \u201cAm I making any kind of a difference?\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, I received some much-needed encouragement. One person kindly wrote that receiving my weekly posts was like \u201ca little gift every time it lands in my inbox.\u201d Another emailed, \u201c Love every syllable you write in your blogs. Thank you for brightening my week every Thursday morning.\u201d And I received a direct message on FB, \u201cYour style, heart and authenticity speaks to the individual. Thank you for sharing your gift – it’s precious and touches me in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I received some less-than-positive feedback too with more than one person slamming me for my moronic views. And that was ok too. In fact, better than ok.<\/p>\n

Of course positive comments make me smile, and stroke my ego. Feeling I am adding a little bit of entertainment to someone\u2019s day, or providing some small inspiration to improve his or her relationship makes me happy. But those negative jabs also make me think my work matters. If I\u2019ve stirred the pot, perhaps I have caused someone to think more deeply, or question his or her assumptions.<\/p>\n

Whether the feedback is flattering or the opposite of flattering, someone is noticing my work and cares enough to reach out. And that is all good. It\u2019s even better than good. I\u2019d say it\u2019s pretty great.<\/p>\n

Photo credit:Flickr\/allispossible.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have had the best week. This week has reminded me why I love my life. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t love my life other weeks, but you know how it is\u2014one load of laundry too many and I\u2019m feeling all Cinderella-like (but with a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,63],"tags":[216,215,177],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-friends","tag-contribution","tag-purpose","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3B2G4-jR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1236,"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therelationshipdeal.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}