A client lost his job but found his purpose in the process

A person bitten by a shark in Australia became a shark rescuer.

A friend of mine hired the wrong person but said ‘’he’’ taught me a valuable lesson.

It’s not what it seems to be. Reality, our life experiences, the meaning we give to it.

Meaning has a very strong influence on us in life and leadership. But without the right context, it can haunt us.

How do you know whether your life experiences are good or bad? How do you know that what you are going through right now is your biggest pain or your biggest gift? It all depends on the context of the bigger picture of your life journey.

The question is whether you stay in your experience or you can see the context.

Most people cannot see the context.

For myself, I lost my job as an expat in China, in the financial crisis in 2008. I lost half my savings in my first business. I got divorced. I had to struggle with 7 years of fatigue.

In the moment of struggle, I could not see the context. It was and all has been preparation for personal growth, self-healing, self-mastery, whereas all these experiences became a part of my life´s purpose. Helping other leaders through this journey. I could not see it when I was in the turmoil.

Only months or years later we really understand why we had to go through our painful life and leadership experiences. If we are lucky, we have or had someone teach us, tell us, or make us become aware of giving meaning and context to our life experiences. How many have that privilege to reflect on it? How many are stuck in their journey and don´t know how to move forward right now?

The answer? Many.

Crisis such as the war in Ukraine, COVID-19 dramas, lost jobs, broken relationships, are all opportunities to start thinking if we need to start doing things differently. When does that point of context come, that we need to start looking inside of ourselves first as a father, mother, leader, employee?

What is missing in life and business right now is context. What is the purpose of your life? How can you even begin to try to build a career, have a family without understanding the context of why you are here. And so you build a career (Suit) in the external world, without your internal world (Monk) aligned. That gap between your internal and external creates suffering.

No wonder so many of us are lost.

The good thing is, that there is the journey back home. The question of context to answer is, ‘’where is home?’’. The one who is able to answer that question will have aligned his internal and external worlds and can live happily internally and successful externally.

Raf Adams

If today you feel a lack of mental, emotional, or spiritual balance, you can take this 2-minute questionnaire designed by Prof. Dr. Mike Thomson from CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) that will help you identify the Gap between your internal and external worlds. Take your free check-up here now.