's motd Friday May 7, 2010

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PURPOSE

Friday, 07 May 2010

A distraught lady E-mailed me a couple of days ago. I read her E-mail a few times before responding. I was just so haunted by the last line she'd written. She wrote to me, ", I don't want to live anymore. I just have no purpose in life."

Isn't that a horrible thing to say? And what really got me was her saying that she felt she had no purpose in life here on this earth. Well, I just have to disagree. I believe that our Creator gave all of us a purpose. But that purpose is often buried deep within our souls. And our lives are all about searching for that purpose.

Now I certainly didn't know what my purpose in life was when I was a kid...or when I was a teenager. There were a lot of things I liked to do but nothing that ever really made me passionate.

I was 27 years old when I finally found my purpose in life. I discovered that my purpose was and still is to be kind to people, to make them laugh and to help them live happier and healthier lives. That's when I found my own joy in life, when I was helping others feel better and take better good of themselves.

Now sure of my purpose, my big dream was to open a combination salad bar/exercise studio. I'd been to many exercise studios in Los Angeles and the only thing they all sold to eat was actually a selection of fruit juices. I also went to a lot of restaurants in the city and, back then, none of them featured big salad bars. So when I opened Roughage, my salad bar restaurant and exercise studio, I felt that all of the pieces had fallen into place for me.

I would get to the Roughage at 5 in the morning to start chopping and preparing my vegetables for the salad bar. And by 6:30AM, I was ready to teach my first aerobics class. And oh, my days were long. I didn't leave Roughage until 9PM each evening. But after finishing my day and heading home, I felt so good about myself and what I'd accomplished. As I drove home, I thought about all of the people I'd met and given advice to. And I couldn't wait to get up the next morning to go back and do it all over again.

Over the years, I've tried to help people learn about their portions and the food groups with my Deal-A-Meal and FoodMover. I've written a lot of cookbooks that took thousands of hours of creating and testing recipes. I've danced more steps than Fred Astaire and Gene combined. I've been teaching aerobics for nearly 38 years. And I don't know how many thousands of lectures I've given about living a healthy lifestyle. And do you know, to this day, I still get excited about helping people lose weight and get in better shape. Know what else? This will be my purpose in life...for the rest of my life.

Do you know your purpose in life? If your answer is yes, when did you discover it? And maybe, just maybe...you have not yet discovered your purpose. You may not discover it until next month or even next year. But I promise...you will find it. Please, don't ever give up on discovering your purpose...it's there!

Life is not just about getting up, going to work, coming home and going to bed. It's about living your dreams on this earth. Dreams that have...purpose.

Love,