Purpose, a seven-letter word that can determine everything. No matter what you do in life, it is critical that you do it with purpose. You might be asking yourself how you find purpose and why is it so imperative to success. While I don’t have all the answers, I can share my personal journey with finding purpose and landing on my dreams in hopes that it will inspire you to search our your own sense of purpose in all that you do.
The Difficult Journey
Finding my purpose has been a progressive journey for sure! My journey gets its start with the two significant adversities I faced at a young age. At the age of 21 and 23, my cancer diagnosis was the beginning of a challenging but beautiful journey to find what mattered most. Facing the possibility of dying was a wake-up call and helped me realize how blessed I was to be alive.
I believe finding my purpose all started with my attitude of gratitude. I began to purposefully search out opportunities that would allow me to serve others. Over the years, the “feeling” of helping others has continued to feed my soul deeply—to the point where my “sense of urgency to serve” has only intensified over the years.
The “feeling” of gratitude I get through completing acts of service has allowed for different missions to choose me. As I have surrendered to those, I have found a deep connection with the purpose of “elevating women,” which has ultimately become the purpose of my life.
The Search for Inspiration
I find inspiration in the smallest of things every day. I find inspiration in people, stories, connections, extemporaneous acts of kindness, breathing happiness, exercise, admiring nature, listening to music, writing and reading, and learning. Whenever I am aligned with JOY, I make an effort to search for new opportunities to increase my sense of purpose!
This is because trying new things helps me increase my awareness of self-purpose. In this sense, I like to live in constant curiosity like a child. I am always exploring new ways to look at things from a different perspective, interrupting patterns and behaviors that will awaken my presence. For example, eating with my eyes closed intensifies the flavors of the foods that I am eating. In an instance like this, taking a different path from what I am used to helps me activate my attention.
Another pathway that has helped me find and activate my passions has been learning and educational opportunities. Reading something new on a subject I am not familiar with allows me to expand my horizons. For example, when I learned how to fly planes in a 3D space, it helped me extend my wings.
Turn Your Passion Into Purpose
I am constantly catching and surrendering to “divine downloads” that have helped me shape the ecosystem of inspiration of my life. There is no better way to show what you have in your heart than with your actions.
This practice of “divine downloads” has served me well over the years. One such example of this includes the inspiration to elevate young women for my 31st birthday. This particular “divine download” led to the creation of The Fig Factor Foundation (thefigfactor.org) in 2014. Because of my desire to do more for young women, I have explored mentorship, and The Fig Factor Foundation has now mentored 189 Latinas ages 12-25.
It is essential to understand that “divine downloads” are not isolated occurrences. Once you open yourself up to purpose, the possibilities are endless. When I became one of the few Latina sports airplane pilots in the United States, unbeknownst to me, it would ultimately inspire me to create a global brand called Latinas in Aviation that has helped me share the stories of the rarest group of people in the aviation industry. Launching Latinas in Aviation helped us become the very first book of its kind, focusing on the contributions of Latinas. Latinas in Aviation has led to innumerable opportunities for growth. It has been picked up by three museums in the United States allowing us to showcase the stories of Latinas, we have raised funds to offer a $5000 scholarship for our #PILOTINA scholarship, launched the first edition of the Latinas in Aviation magazine with correspondents in Europe, Mexico, Central, and South America, and of course, the United States, and we will soon launch the first-ever Latinas in Aviation Global Festival!!!
Connect To Gratitude
Whenever I experience “resistance,” anything that produces an emotion that is not JOY, during a new journey to purpose, I immediately stop, think, auto analyze, and usually work to come up with a more strategic solution. When I zoom out of a situation, I am able to be honest with the real emotions driving my feelings underneath. I can be objective and take the hit head-on. The sooner I accept a situation as it is, the sooner that I am able to reset myself and find genuine JOY again.
It hasn’t always been easy to find motivation sources for my sense of purpose. I have discovered through trial and error that intensifying gratitude is what I always come back to during times of uncertainty. Doing something that I love helps me find clarity. When I focus on the good things, even if they are really tiny, I am able to start changing my attitude towards whatever might be causing me uncertainty.
No matter what you do it is important to remember that we all take the path to finding purpose, we just might do so a little differently. I hope that by sharing my own experiences, it helps you open yourself up to the possibilities the world has to offer. Because remember, “taking off is optional, landing on your dreams is mandatory!”
Jacqueline Camacho-Ruiz is the CEO of JJR Marketing (www.jjrmarketing.com) and Fig Factor Media LLC international book publishing company (www.figfactormedia.com), founder of The Fig Factor Foundation (www.thefigfactor.org), creator of Today’s Inspired Latina book series and international movement (http://www.todayslatina.com), author of thirteen books (www.jackiecamacho.com), international speaker, and pilot. Jacqueline speaks to hundreds of audiences about marketing, servant leadership, finding your passion, and achieving success in business. She has addressed the United States Army, BP International, United Airlines, Allstate, and Farmers Insurance among other corporations to share her inspiration.
If you or an organization you know needs as speaker, please get in touch with us at https://www.jackiecamacho.com/contact.