A Word Please

Do you live your life with purpose? For many people, the answer to this question is sometimes. It’s often easy to let work and family obligations lead us along and, before we know it, years have passed us by.

I’m excited to have a special guest today. Lillian Brummet is an extraordinary woman who is going to share valuable tips for living our lives with purpose.

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Lillian Brummet has been professionally involved in the realm of writing since 1999. She has fond memories of an early childhood in California and Nevada (USA) and grew up in the south-central region of BC, Canada. Dave was born and raised in Kelowna (BC) where he met up with Lillian in 1990 and they have been together ever since. Dave and Lillian Brummet have collaborated their talents and have authored of 5 books (to date, 2012). Dave has also created of a drum lesson CD series, due for release in 2013. The Brummets host the Conscious Discussions Talk Radio show and manage the Brummet’s Conscious Blog. Their favorite activities involve gardening, photography, and modifying their home. Whenever the mood strikes them the pair can be found enjoying low-impact outdoor activities (hiking, biking, canoeing, camping, snowshoeing) or playing with and training their two dogs.

 

Learn more about Lillian and Dave in the following places:

www.brummet.ca
http://consciousdiscussions.blogspot.com

***Can you tell us briefly what living one’s purpose means to you?

Living a life filled with purpose is what I call Conscious Living – it is realizing that we all have an impact with each action we make, and it is up to us to decide what that impact will be. Conscious living comes a sense of responsibility to be that hero that we seek, and each of us have the potential to be a hero. As such, living consciously can include taking a variety of proactive steps from zero waste efforts (recycling, reusing, repurposing, rot, etc.) to using our shopping and investing dollars to act as our vote as to the direction of where we want the future of society to be. We can share, donate, volunteer, make eco-friendly improvements to our yards and residences, and take responsibility for our own finances and health so that we are less of a burden on society.

My own personal path for living consciously and with purpose goes beyond this through utilizing my career as an author, writer, radio host, blogger… these tools allow me to highlight activities, individuals, events and organizations that are creating positive change and encourage my audience to stand up and be proactive in life.

In designing my life with this passion for living consciously, I have grown to see my life as having value – giving me the positive energy I crave, connecting me with amazing people and having stimulating conversations. I want to get up in the morning, I want to live longer and therefore strive to take care of myself to make this possible. These are all sensations and emotions that I hadn’t experienced prior to taking this path.

Please give us your top five suggestions for getting started on a purposeful path.

First, I would recommend starting by appreciating everything you do have, gaining a sense of gratitude for the positive aspects, experiences, people and possessions that you enjoy in your life. This starts a person on the road to being aware. So start with creating a pattern of expressing appreciation to at least one person a day and creating a personal list of at least 5 different things every day that you are grateful for.

Second: Take some time once a week to really think about things that matter to you – in the world, in the community – the things you really value in other people and things you strive for in yourself. I would suggest that our readers take the time to write these things down in a notebook so they can refer to them later on.

Third: While you are making these lists ask yourself similar questions to what you would find in career and personality assessment quizzes and evaluation tools, or go to sites where you can find these tools. Be sure to keep copies of these in your files. These are very helpful for understanding who you are, adjectives that describe you, what you like to do, your personal thinking patterns, and more.

Fourth: connect with others that have similar passions and interests. You can find forums, chat rooms, live online radio shows, blogs and message boards online – or drop into the local events calendar listing or chamber of commerce to find local groups that you may want to join or drop in on. Having these social support systems are very helpful in building motivation, skills and connections for reaching our passions in life.

Fifth, and this is probably the most important of all – realize that you do indeed have the power to create positive change. Believe in your own capacity and the abundance of opportunities available out there for you to choose from. Have the courage to face those inner fears – and do it anyway.

You may not yet know what your purpose is, you may be just now discovering your passions – but these 5 activities will help you reach what you are yearning to understand.

Consistency is often a challenge, even for people with the best intentions. We have busy lives and tired bodies. What advice can you give to people who’d like to live with more purpose, but find they often give in to the easier path?

You are so right in that there are a lot of distractions; people who want something from us, the house needs work, cleaning and other chores crop up, groceries and meal planning, social obligations and before we know it we are overwhelmed with chores but are not living life. So it means that we have to make priorities. What is a priority to us right now? Can we let go of some of the obligations, slow down in one area or another to start on our path to purpose? We don’t have to leave our jobs or wait to retirement in order to start living – especially since there is no guarantee that we’ll live long enough to retire. We have today, so start with that – and be disciplined about it. Schedule in that half hour or one hour a day and make the changes in your schedule to accommodate that investment in your own happiness. It can also mean disciplining the people around us – they too have to realize that this is our time and not theirs.

I am a master at making to-do lists, and an epic failure at following through in a timeframe I’m comfortable with. Do you have advice for those of us who tend to take on more than we can manage?

Keep adding to the list and celebrate the things you are able to mark of that list every day. Refer to the list and schedule at least one item in per day. Don’t worry that you aren’t getting every single thing done. Some things are more important today, others can be put off for a day or week or longer. You just have to prioritize what is important. Perhaps you can set the alarm for an hour earlier than usual. One of the easiest things to utilize are the commercial time – when watching TV there are 10 minutes of commercials for every 10 min of show time, so use those 10 minutes for other things. Or refrain from watching TV 2 or 3 nights a week, so that you can do the things you are passionate about. I like to use my PVR machine to prerecord any movies or shows I like to watch and then when I do watch TV I’m not wasting time on commercials. It also allows me the freedom of knowing I don’t have to catch any live show, I can watch it when I have some free time or down time.

Please tell us about your talk radio program Conscious Discussions.

Conscious Discussions Talk Radio is an hour-long show that airs every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday – always at the same time: 10-11 AM (Pacific), inspiring listeners to become more proactive in their daily lives. With the varied topics and guests on the show listeners will realize their value as individuals and become more aware of the fact that they can make a real and visible difference.

We focus on celebrating individuals and organizations from all over the globe that are working to make the planet a better place. We make a point to refrain from pointing fingers; it’s about saluting people that are stepping up and doing the right things in life.

The radio show offers several different segments: Positive News (offering positive, inspiring inventions, projects, and innovations); Sunday Gardening (where discussions range from biodynamic sustainable organic gardening to composting and watering techniques); Interviews (featuring special guests); World of Writing (discussions with publishers, publicists, agents, book reviewers, literacy organizations, etc.), and Best of Conscious Discussions (highlighting some of the best of our archived episodes).

Is there anything more you’d like to share with readers to help guide them to their life’s purpose?

Well of course I’d love to encourage your readers to drop by our blog and radio show which they can access for free from the links on our main site: http://brummet.ca. On that site, they’ll find the Brummet Store where they can view our various books on the topics we discussed today. All of these resources are there to help people live a more conscious, proactive, positive lifestyle.

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Thank you, Lillian, for sharing with us today!

Lillian has a fascinating collection of titles available on Amazon:

Amazon.com Widgets

Also on Amazon UK and Barnes and Noble.

I hope you’ll take the time to connect with Lillian and Dave, and live each day with a bit more purpose.

What are your thoughts on living with purpose?

Thanks for reading.

literature blog

Tags: Conscious Discussions, Conscious Living, Dave Brummet, Lillian Brummet, Living Life With Purpose, Living One's Purpose, Purposeful Living, Talk Radio Shows